A Healthy New Year Starts Now

A new year means new beginnings and fresh starts.  Be ready for the new year with a plan for making healthier choices for you and your family.  Join our 2016 Healthy Challenge today!

The 2016 Healthy Challenge is all about moving towards a healthy lifestyle.  Everyone has different goals for making healthier choices.  Choose goals that are realistic and that you can carry out all year long.  Let's look at some simple goals to include in your 2016 Healthy Challenge.

Eat the rainbow.
Eating a variety of fruits and vegetable provides many health benefits.  Fruits and vegetables protect against certain diseases and cancer, and are high in fiber.  Eating colorful fruits and vegetables ensures that you are getting the vitamins and minerals your body needs.  Find ways to add a rainbow of colors into your meals.

• Buy in season fruits and veggies.  Fruits and veggies taste best when they are in season.
• Have a color challenge.  See how many different colors of fruits & veggies that you can include in your meals.
• Fruits and veggies are among the healthiest foods we eat.  Choose canned, frozen, fresh, and dried fruits and veggies when planning your meals.
• Have a "try a new food" day.  Encourage kids to try new foods.  Each week let your child try a new food.  If they don't like it, it's okay - offer it again at a later time.  Make an "I Tried It" chart and see what new fruits and veggies that your family liked the most.
• Plan ahead for meals.  Planning meals for the week can help ensure that you have healthy meals for your family.  When you plan out your meals, you can also plan to use leftovers another night.

Be active.
Being active is another way to move towards a healthy lifestyle.  Regular physical activity helps to keep the extra weight off, gives you energy, and makes you feel better.  Plan to be active this year with some of these ideas:

• Include the entire family.  Enjoy spending time being active with your family.  Set aside time 3-4 times a week to be active by walking around the neighborhood, playing ball, or enjoy inside activities like scavenger hunts, dance parties, or set up an obstacle course.
• Find an activity to do together.  Many families enjoy doing activities together like taking a hike or playing a sport.  Look for an activity that all members of the family would enjoy doing and make time to do this activity.  
• Have fun!  Being active also means having fun.  Many activities that you can do are also a lot of fun for kids. Look for ways to make physical activity fun for the whole family.

We wish you a very Happy, Healthy New Year!