Good morning!

A bit of news to share — the Little is on track for delivery ON (or close to) my due date. That gives us about one month to get ready for the little Mister

D-day: February 18

Last week I shared my workout plan for post-pregnancy. This week, I’ve compiled a few fitness articles that I’m finding especially interesting – I think you’ll agree!

The first study, titled, Mother’s Milk Improves Physical Condition of Future Adolescents, finds that breast feeding new born babies has lots of advantages in the short and in the long-term for babies. While we often talk about the short-term, we don’t hear too much about long-term benefits for adolescents and adults. According to the new study, adolescents who were breast fed at birth have stronger leg muscles than those who received artificial milk. Moreover, muscular leg strength was greater in those who had been breastfed for a longer period of time

Enrique García Artero, the principal author of the study and researcher at the University of Granada pointed out that, “Our objective was to analyse the relationship between the duration of breastfeeding babies and their physical condition in adolescence.” “The results suggest further beneficial effects and provide support to breast feeding as superior to any other type of feeding.”

Adolescents who were breastfed from three to five months, or for more than six months had half the risk of low performance in the jump exercise when compared with those who had never been breastfed.

“If all children were exclusively breastfed from birth, it would be possible to save approximately 1.5 million lives.” This was stated by the UNICEF, which pointed out that breast feeding is the “perfect feed” exclusively during the first six months of life and additionally over two years.

As regards the newborn, the advantages in the first years of life include immunological protection against allergies, skin diseases, obesity and diabetes, as well as a guarantee of the growth, development and intelligence of the baby.

The benefits also substantially involve the woman: reduction of post-birth haemorrhage, anaemia, maternity mortality, and the risk of breast and ovarian cancer, and it strengthens the affective link between mother and child. “Let’s forget about the money saved by not buying other types of milk and baby bottles,” says García Artero.

I personally plan on breast feeding (if my body cooperates), so naturally I find this quite interesting!

Keeping up with the NOTHERHOOD theme, I came across another study that shows Parents Are Key To Getting Children To Turn Off Television. Kinda obvious, no? 

Well according to a study published this month in Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise®, parents who employ a physical activity and/or dietary intervention can reduce their overweight child’s screen time by nearly one hour per day.

In addition to monitoring the children’s body mass index, diet, exercise and skill proficiency during the study, researchers also tracked the children’s screen behaviors, which comprise time spent watching television or DVD programs, playing electronic games and using the computer or Internet for fun.

At the end of the study period, children in all three intervention groups reduced their daily screen time by, on average, 55 minutes after six months and 39 minutes after one year. However, children in the dietary modification program were the only ones unable to maintain their screen time reduction after six months. Although this group reduced their daily screen time by 65 minutes after six months, they gained back more than half of this time after one year. One possible explanation for this, researchers suggest, could be a lack of targeted parental support related to screen time in the dietary modification group.

“In the physical activity skill development program (which was also included in the combination group), we targeted screen behaviors directly through a single behavior-change session with parents and follow-up telephone calls during the six month program,” said Dylan Cliff, Ph.D., the lead author of the study. “The findings suggest that parental support could be the missing piece to help overweight children change their screen time behaviors.”

“It’s a logical connection – the more time a child spends each day in sedentary behaviors, like in front of the computer or television, the less time they have to be active,” said Cliff. “The results of our study indicate that with appropriate parental support, a physical activity and/or dietary intervention program can successfully help overweight children turn off the television, be more active and achieve a healthier weight. The ultimate goal for all of us is a healthier generation of children.”

The Mister and I have briefly talked about issues like this and how we plan to keep our little family active — if you have a family, what are some of the healthy activities you do together? (love this Daddy’s approach!) Here is another great blog post in regards to the benefits of child play – he has great perspective!

My near-furtue

P.S. still looking for guest posts! Email me if interested