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    • Does Your Workout Need a Makeover?

      These four moms got a fitness and food makeover thanks to Equinox trainer Lashaun Dale and dietitian Keri Glassman. Whether you're looking to drop 10 pounds, tighten your tummy, or lay off the diet soda, these experts have a plan to suit you. By Jane Bianchi, REDBOOK.

      The Health Nut
      
Name: Lorre Youngblood

      Age: 39 

      Location: Newalla, OK

      Family: Married with two kids (Lacy, 12; Lane, 11)
      
Work: Full-time land associate at an energy company

      "My dad had a heart attack at 45, and I don't want to be in the same boat," says Lorre.

      Goal: To do more endurance exercises to boost her cardiovascular health.

      Current weekly routine: Walks/jogs on a treadmill or uses fitness apps on her iPad to do full-body strengthening moves at home for 20 to 45 minutes at a time, four times a week. "I'd like to be more consistent - sometimes I have to help my kids with homework and I end up skipping my workout," says Lorre.

      Fitness fix: Amping up aerobic exercise in spurts is key to strengthening Lorre's

      Read More »from Does Your Workout Need a Makeover?
    • Does your family's snooze-button habit have you down? No one ever plans on chaotic mornings, sleeping late, rushing the kids out the door, or missing breakfast, yet for many moms, this is a daily reality. If your family's morning routine leaves you stressed and ready for a change, consider these five tips for re-gaining control of your mornings and stopping your family's snooze-button habit:

      1. Move alarms
      - Hitting the snooze button two, three or four times every morning is easy to do when your alarm is next to your bed. To ensure your family gets moving at first ring, move all alarms far away from the beds. Place clocks or phones on the opposite side of each bedroom, requiring every family member to get up out of bed to turn their alarms off. If needed, set alarms in the hallway or somewhere else out of easy reach.

      2. Reward getting up on time - Encourage your kids to rise and shine on time by offering an incentive or reward that works for your family, at least until good habits are

      Read More »from Stop Your Family's Snooze-Button Habit
    • When is it okay to disagree with your kid's doctor?When is it okay to disagree with your kid's doctor?With internet searches at our fingertips, we mamas have a lot more information at the ready than mothers of generations past. When I make a decision about my baby's healthcare, I often do an internet search before talking to her doctor. Nothing, however, can take the place of a good pediatrician, and in Elvie's case, a good medical team, to take charge of her care. But with all this additional information in front of me, sometimes my opinions can differ quite a bit not only from other parents, but from our doctors' opinions. The key is to sort out what is truly best for my baby. There needs to be a balance between just doing what the doctor says to do and bringing my own concerns to the table. There are three things I've done to find that balance.

      1. I chose a pediatrician that I could trust and disagree with
      Those may sound like opposing goals, but what I've discovered is that my children get the best care when my pediatrician is not threatened by me disagreeing with her on some

      Read More »from 3 Tips for Maintaining a Healthy Doctor-parent Relationship
    • Photo: ThinkstockBy Julie Morgenstern

      Stop us if this sounds familiar: You've got your pad of paper and you're merrily scribbling down your to-dos. And when you get to about item number ten, panic sets in. How will you ever get everything done? You know as well as we do: You won't. Not until you devise a realistic plan. "A manageable list will fuel your sense of accomplishment and allow you to get more done," says Julie Morgenstern, author of Never Check E-mail in the Morning. We put together a list (office duties not included) that resembles the one buried at the bottom of your purse--then asked Morgenstern to edit it. Follow her sensibly ruthless strategy, and your goals for any given day should fit on a scrap of paper no bigger than a Post-it.

      RELATED: 3 Ways to Master Your Universe


      What Your Current List Probably Looks Like:

      • Upload vacation pics from camera

      Cut It: Unless it's going to bring you joy to sift through tons of blurry, off-center images to find the gems, ask another family member

      Read More »from 5 Items that Should Never Be on Your To-Do List
    • New Year's resolutions sound terribly daunting don't they? I haven't participated in them for years and for good reason, I'm TERRIBLE at them. However I like the idea of self improvement and setting goals, so this year I fell into a completely different pattern of goal setting and improving myself. Here's the truth: there are a lot of things I will never be really, really good at. Either I don't have the time, the natural ability or the money to dedicate to such endeavors. New month's resolutionsNew month's resolutions


      I would love to be really good at skydiving, but my life insurance policy and pocketbook have other plans. I really want to be good at sewing, but I'm learning that's going to take a lot longer to learn with a toddler and busy house to run. Cooking? I'm already pretty good at cooking, but I could manage to do it more often. A lot of women think they have to be good, or at least decent, at everything. I on the other hand realize there are some things that are never, ever going to be my thing
      and that's okay.

      Read More »from (30) Days of Self-Improvement: Why Resolutions Are Better One Month at a Time
    • Entertain your kids without a screenThese days, it can be hard to entertain your kids without a screen. Yvonne Chavez-Lombardi, director of education at Kidspace Children's Museum, joins Easy Does It Host Ereka Vetrini with fun activities you can do with items found around the house.

      Related: Don't touch that dial: Tips for limiting screen time

      Chavez-Lombardi notes that screen time often undermines children's play. "It really affects their healthy development. It makes it harder for children to build relationships with people, with nature. And it really affects them academically in the long run," she says.

      Related: 10 ways to add exercise to your kids' routine

      First, Chavez-Lombardi offers an activity that is fun and that uses items easily found in your bathroom and your kitchen.

      Supplies: Shaving cream, food coloring, plastic knife, paper, foil tray.

      Put food coloring into the foil tray. Then place a layer of shaving cream in the tray over the food coloring. Use the plastic knife to swirl the two together. Next,

      Read More »from Entertain Your Kids Without a Screen
    • Check out Ereka Vetrini on Chow Ciao!Easy Does It's own Ereka Vetrini shares her culinary prowess with Fabio Viviani on Chow Ciao on Yahoo! Check them out as they take on an Italian version of that literary classic, Green Eggs and Ham.

      On Twitter, you can follow Ereka at @ErekaV, Fabio at @FabioViviani, and Chow Ciao at @WatchChowCiao.

      And don't forget to catch new episodes of Easy Does It every Thursday!

      Watch more Easy Does It videos

      What's better: Fresh or frozen?

      Winter skin care tips to help you look radiant

      Kitchen shortcuts with Susan Feniger

      Read More »from Easy Does it Host Ereka Vetrini Guesting on Chow Ciao
    • Never Lose Anything Again!

      By ArLearn how to store and find easy-to-misplace- things like keys, cell phones and morericca Elin SanSone

      You're trying to get out the door in the morning. You do one last check for everything you need when you realize your keys are missing. Several coat-pocket pat-downs later, you're running late - and are incredibly frustrated. "Most of the time, we lose things because we don't put them back where we found them," says professional organizer Stacey Platt, owner of DwellWell in New York City and author of What's a Disorganized Person to do? "Everything needs a home. You can always find a fork because you always put them back in the same spot." Here are 10 commonly misplaced items and where to store each one. Photo by iStock.

      1. Keys

      Keep house and car keys together on a single ring. When you come home, hold your keys (don't tuck them in a pocket or set them down) until you place them on a hook by the door or in a bowl in the fridge. "It sounds crazy, but you'll remember to grab them in the morning when you get orange juice or cream for your coffee," says Geralin

      Read More »from Never Lose Anything Again!
    • 5 tips for raising a toddler5 tips for raising a toddlerOur sweet little babies grow before our very eyes. Before we know it, we have a little toddler on our hands! It seems to happen in a blink of an eye. And although we've all heard stories about the "terrible twos" and infamous toddler tantrums, raising a toddler really doesn't have to be that bad!

      A dear friend of mine (and fellow toddler-wrangler!) gave me some great little tips that work really great with the toddler age. Of course, when it comes to advice, you should take everything with a grain of salt -- the best thing is to figure out what works for you and your family and your little one! But in case the toddler years have you worried, here are 5 tried-and-true tips for easy sailing with your toddler!

      1. One-on-one time
      Try to give your toddler 5-10 minutes of just one on one time with you each day. This is so tough when you have lots of little ones but if you snag five minutes to read a book just you and one of them, it will mean so much.

      Related: 14 ways to date your baby

      2.

      Read More »from Two Doesn't Have to Be Terrible! 5 Tips for Raising a Toddler
    • How to start a book club with your baby!How to start a book club with your baby!I love my local library's storytime, but maybe you live far away from the library. Maybe the time of day doesn't fit you or your child's schedule. Maybe it's just too busy and loud and overwhelming for your child.

      If so, you might enjoy starting your own baby book club.

      Every few weeks, I'll share a new theme for a baby book club, complete with four to five books to read, a few wiggle songs/rhymes, a craft that little toddlers can complete with help, and a snack that goes along with the theme.

      In the meantime, here are 10 tips for starting your own mommy-and-me book club:

      1. PIck the right size for your group
      Four to six babies (with their parents) is the ideal number in my mind. You have enough to make it feel like an event, but not so many that you can't sit around a table or that it's a madhouse.

      Related: 6 award-winning books to share at your next baby book club

      2. You're NOT providing free babysitting
      Make sure parents understand that they need to stay and be involved

      Read More »from On the Same Page: 8 Tips for Starting a Mommy-and-Me Book Club

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