Salty Sam’s Fun Blog for Children
Number 516
Nutrition
Hello Everyone
So, is it a case of New Year new you?
Do you plan to do new things this year?
Do you plan to become healthier, more focussed and more capable?
Having the strength to get lots done comes from being strong, fit and healthy – and that partly come from your diet. You are what you eat. Your body is literally constructed from the foods you eat.
Scientists say that the best foods for you are the ones that are the least processed.
Some people actually eat nothing but raw plant foods.
This is the way food is produced by nature. Some people call them living foods because they have been nourished by the soil and the sunshine.
They contain minerals and nutrients that are the building blocks of proteins that build and heal the body.
This is not just fruit and vegetables, but nuts and seeds too.
Have you tried these seeds?
Linseed
Pumpkin seeds
Sunflower seeds
Chia seeds
Flax seeds
Hemp seeds
Sesame seeds
They can be ground up in a blender to make them more digestible and then mixed into fruit salads, sandwiches, porridge, smoothies or freshly blended juices.
You can buy sesame seed paste and add it to salad dressings – it tastes a bit like peanut butter. lt is called tahini.
lf you want to blend spinach or kale into your juice make sure you counter-balance it with bananas and maybe apples to make it nice to drink. lf you want to add a few berries, you can keep a supply in a bag in the freezer.
Try adding sea vegetables like spirulina, nori, kelp, chlorella and wakame to your diet. They are so powerful your only need half a teaspoon to get good nutrition from them into your body.
Put herbs into your salads to give them a strong taste instead of lots of salt.
You only need to eat a few nuts to get the benefit of the nutrients they contain raw nuts are better than salted ones. You can grow your own sprouts or microgreens even if you don’t have a garden, and they are packed with goodness.
When you eat nutrient-dense foods, only little amounts can do your body a lot of good.
And not all healthy foods are expensive like: root vegetables and pulses (like lentils and butterbeans).
Try fruits or vegetables that you have not eaten before. Different types give you a different variety of nutrients. Try eating red peppers if you don’t like green. There are a huge variety of healthy grains easily available that you can mix into your salads. Don’t forget that coconut is a good food to eat.
There are many healthy food options in the supermarkets nowadays; you don’t always have to seek these foods out in a health food shop.
Salty and sugary food can be very addictive, but they are not always going to give a lot of nourishment. ln fact, some obese people who eat a lot of food may still be malnourished!
lf you create healthy habits when you are young, they can take you into a healthy, old age!
When people incorporate more nutritional foods into their diet, they can release weight and find more energy to take exercise and burn off more calories.
Just a small shift in the direction of eating more healthily can make a difference.
Taking a little more exercise each week can make you feel less sluggish.
Eating a good diet and taking exercise can help you think more clearly, feel better emotions and fight illness.
lf you are trying to release weight, there are some little tips that can help you.
Releasing weight slowly is better than fast, so don’t be disappointed if progress is slow.
Don’t plunge into a strict diet where you are going to deny yourself lots of things that you like in January when the weather is cold and miserable and the evenings are dark and you have to go back to school or work after being on holiday and having fun at Christmas.
The world looks bleaker without the decorations, the weather is horrible and on top of everything else, you are going hungry. lt is a bit much!
Do fun exercise like swimming, dancing and jumping on a trampoline inside on dark evenings. Do these things with other people because it is more fun like that. Walking is really good exercise and does not need special equipment.
Don’t completely deny yourself all the foods you really love altogether. Everyone needs a treat now and again.
Put your meals on smaller plates when you have smaller portions. Your tummy will get used to smaller portions.
Stop eating before you feel full; your tummy takes a little time to realize it is full.
Do straight swaps like toast instead of fried bread; water, coconut water or milk instead of fizzy drinks; honey instead of white sugar.
Remember that although you want to reduce fatty, fried foods in your diet, you still need to eat healthy fats to help your body function properly. These are oils like avocado and olive – but you don’t have to have them every day.
Make your own juices, cereals and dehydrated snacks instead of eating shop-bought ones.
Make ice creams out of bananas.
Don’t have all your fruit as juice because it is a good idea to have the fruit’s flesh with the juice to make the fructose, or natural fruit sugars, less fattening.
Eat vegetable sticks with dips instead of crisps while you are watching the television, or better still take up a handicraft to keep your hands busy if you are used to eating in front of the television and focus on following a pattern rather than feeding food into your face!
You could buy clothes that are too small for you as an incentive; or promise yourself a treat when you hit a certain weight target.
Record all the television programmes that you especially want to watch. Don’t just sit there all evening and watch whatever comes up – then you can set aside some time to do some exercise. Even twenty minutes of vigorous exercise every other day can make a big difference.
Small differences over time can make a big difference in the way you look and the way you feel. Becoming healthier does not have to be painful!
lf you like my blog, please support it by telling all your friends and followers about it.
Thank you!
And see you again next Fun Friday!
Love and kisses
Salty Sam
www.christina-sinclair.com
Bill and Bob’s Joke of the Week
Bill: What is an upside-down cake called in Australia?
Bob: Cake?
Salty Sam © Christina Sinclair 2015
Unauthorized use and/or duplication of material from this blog without express and written permission from this blog’s author and owner is strictly prohibited.
Links may be used to www.christina-sinclair.com
Picture Gallery
A brown diet
A colourful diet
Sprouts are not just for garnishing
They offer a lot of nutrition
Grow alfalfa separate from other sprouts
Microgreens
We are your friends
THE SALTY SAM NEWS DESK
This week, the Mayor of Rocky Bay made an announcement.
He had put his thinking cap on over the holidays and had a think about what he could add to the calendar of events we have at Rocky Bay over the year to entice tourists, holiday-makers and day trippers into town.
He decided to start a new event called the Rocky Bay Fun Run.
The competitors would run through the streets of Rocky Bay starting at the dockside at the harbour and finish in the park at the back of town where a crowd of onlookers could gather and cheer them over the finishing line.
Some competitors would probably get sponsorship to donate to a charity of their choice. Captain Jack said that he was not interested, he said that he needed to do a lot of work on his boat before the springtime, but I decided to step up to the challenge.
I will see if I can get some sponsorship, and if I complete the course, I will donate the money to the Village Hall because it is an important place for the whole community; young and old alike.
In the cold weather especially, when people don’t see each other on the street to have a chat too often, it is a place where people can meet up in the warm – and there is plenty of space for lots of people to sit comfortably.
More about my progress next week…
Are you writing notes in your diary for this year?
Can you work out what these special days are?
- H _ _ _ _ _ _ _ n
- E _ _ _ _ r S _ _ _ _ y
- N _ w Y _ _ r’s D _ y
- A _ _ _ l F _ _ _ s D _ y
- B _ _ _ _ g D _ y
- M _ y D _ y
- St V _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ ’s D _ y
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TO ADVERTISE ON THIS BLOG
PLEASE CONTACT:
christina.sinclair.ads@aol.co.uk
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Quick Quiz
What do these phrases mean?
- to cut the mustard
- to be in the soup
- worth his salt
- he is not as green as he is cabbage-looking
- to know one’s onions
- fine words butter no parsnips
- variety is the spice of life
lt’s the Weekend!
HOW TO MAKE A PRETTY HAT
This is a really pretty hat for you to make.
There is plenty of winter left for you to make it and then wear it.
(Moss stitch is slip 1, (knit 1, purl 1) repeat the last 2 stitches to the end of the row)
WOMAN/TEENAGER/LARGE CHILD
HAT (KNIT TWO)
Using 3¾mm knitting needles and white yarn cast on 54 stitches
Slip 1, (knit 2, purl 2) repeat the last 4 stitches until the last stitch, purl 1
Repeat the last row 7 times
Change to 4mm knitting needles
Knit 4 rows of stocking stitch
Change to brown yarn
Increase 1 stitch at the beginning of the next row
Knit 6 rows of moss stitch
Knit 2 rows of garter stitch
Knit 2 rows of stocking stitch
Repeat the last 10 rows once
Change to white yarn
Knit 30 rows of stocking stitch
Don’t cast off – leave your stitches on about 40cm of yarn as you cut it off
SMALL CHILD
HAT (KNIT TWO)
Using 3¾mm knitting needles and white yarn cast on 42 stitches
Slip 1, (knit 2, purl 2) repeat the last 4 stitches until the last stitch, purl 1
Repeat the last row 5 times
Change to 4mm knitting needles
Knit 4 rows of stocking stitch
Change to brown yarn
Increase 1 stitch at the beginning of the next row
Knit 6 rows of moss stitch
Knit 2 rows of garter stitch
Knit 2 rows of stocking stitch
Repeat the last 10 rows once
Change to white yarn
Knit 22 rows of stocking stitch
Don’t cast off – leave your stitches on about 40cm of yarn as you cut it off
LARGE BABY
HAT (KNIT TWO)
Using 3¾mm knitting needles and white yarn cast on 26 stitches
Slip 1, (knit 2, purl 2) repeat the last 4 stitches until the last stitch, purl 1
Repeat the last row 3 times
Change to 4mm knitting needles
Knit 4 rows of stocking stitch
Change to brown yarn
Increase 1 stitch at the beginning of the next row
Knit 6 rows of moss stitch
Knit 2 rows of garter stitch
Knit 2 rows of stocking stitch
Change to white yarn
Knit 22 rows of stocking stitch
Don’t cast off – leave your stitches on about 40cm of yarn as you cut it off
TO MAKE UP
Pull the stitches in at the top and sew up the side seams using over-sew stitching in appropriate colours and right sides together
Please note that the material on this blog is for personal use and for use in classrooms only.
It is a copyright infringement and, therefore, illegal under international law to sell items made with these patterns.
Use of the toys and projects is at your own risk.
©Christina Sinclair Designs 2015
Answers to the News Desk Quiz
- Halloween
- Easter Sunday
- New Year’s Day
- April Fools Day
- Boxing Day
- May Day
- St Valentine’s Day
Quick Quiz Answers
- to cut the mustard – to be effective enough to achieve something
- to be in the soup – to be in trouble
- worth his salt – he is competent and worth what he is earning
- he is not as green as he is cabbage-looking – he is not as gullible as he looks
- to know one’s onions – to know a lot about a particular subject
- fine words butter no parsnips – words don’t mean as much as actions
- variety is the spice of life – seeing and doing a lot of things makes life more enjoyable
