I declared my New Year’s Resolution a little early this year. I said that I want more time. More time to enjoy my family, more time to move my body, more time to do things other than work. This has meant taking stock of my life, of my relationships, and my various jobs. Obviously there are some activities that have rewards (love, pleasure, health benefits, emotional/spiritual growth, learning or even money) and others that just don’t do anything for me…or don’t do anything for me anymore.

One of those things that isn’t doing anything for me anymore is the Healthy & Fit Family blog carnival. When I started the carnival, I was hoping to attract ten submissions each week from bloggers who care about leading a healthy lifestyle and encouraging the entire family to move more, to make better eating choices and to be more conscious of how we take care of ourselves and each other. Very quickly, I started getting dozens of submissions each month that were either advocating unhealthy diets or just completely off-topic. I read each submission (or split that chore if there was another host), but often I had to go looking among blogging friends for posts that were both family-oriented and health-oriented.

I am very proud of the work the other hosts and I did during the lifespan of the Healthy & Fit Family. Here are the links to all the editions I hosted or announcements to the wonderful hosts who helped out: The 18th, the 17th, the 16th, the 15th, the 14th, the 13th, the 12th, the 11th, the 10th, the 9th, the 8th, the 7th, the 6th, the 5th, the 4th, the 3rd, the 2nd, the first.

I afraid, though, that I have to accept that not enough participants were linking back to the carnival, it wasn’t generating any extra traffic, it didn’t inspire people to comment and I have started to resent the time suck it has become.

Sure, I planned to do one last edition to inspire everyone for 2007, but I realized that good health doesn’t start in the new year. For me, it starts every morning when I wake up, every time I open the fridge door, every time I decide to do a yoga pose just because there are no toys on that part of the floor. Right now, the healthiest thing for me is to discontinue the Healthy & Fit Family and open the door for someone else to start something wonderful, community-oriented and fresh on their own terms.

Any idea what it might look like?

Post from: Babylune

There was a time in my life when Friday meant a few drinks with friends and an evening out on the town. It was fun while it lasted, lots of fun, but now that I have children the weekend means something different.

It is only noon here in Germany, but I am already excited about Friday night with my family. I’m not excited just because the Christmas Market in the town where we live starts tonight.

No, but Christmas Markets are fun too.

We have a new Friday night routine. After a quick dinner of fish sticks, mashed potatoes and steamed broccoli, we go swimming in nearby Dreieich.

I am not sure if I am more excited about swimming on “warm water day” or the fact that we’re now doing something the way my family did (although not every week) when I was a child.

I can already taste the delicious fish sticks!

Post from: Babylune

Summer is over for my family here in Germany, for my relatives in Canada and the rest of the Northern Hemisphere. Make no mistake, I am not melancholy about the return to school, to routine, to grey skies. No. This time of year is full of opportunities to start fresh, to think anew, to harvest what we’ve planted.

There’s a seed of hope and inspiration in each of the carnival posts this month. As usual, the ten best of all submissions received are full if thought-provoking, practical tips for staying fit and getting healthy as a family. And, as an added bonus, the health of the planet comes into everything.

The Thoughts We Think

How to manage family, work, stress, stress and more stress. Really, is attitude everything? It probably is, say some bloggers.

Dancers have a culture of weight and control issues, Ballet Shoes and Pointe Shoes wants the rest of us to learn from it.

Terri talks about seashells and the secret to giving your child a long and healthy life.

The Food We Eat

Inside Fatherhood is watching out for the expecting father condition couvade syndrome.

Want to save oil stores, protect global food supplies and save the environment? Then be a 21st Century Citizen and eat locally grown food.

You know, I’ve never been able to figure out why buying in bulk is considered thrifty if you’re buying more than you need. Wenchy has also thought of a few reasons why Buying in Bulk is Unhealthy.

Nature Mom is packing a healthy lunch box.

The mom of My Two Boys is making applesauce.

The Things We Do

There is no healthy or fit family whose lives don’t include exercise, fresh air, and fun.

The blogger at Fish Creek House tells us how to be happy campers.

And Tree Hugging Family has launched to tell us how to get more of all three while living in harmony with nature.

Ten bloggers told me how they spent some time together getting all three on their family vacations.

The Sixteenth Healthy & Fit Family will run on October 2 at the Health & Life Mixing Bowl. Submissions are now open.

Post from: Babylune

July and it’s already time for the thirteenth Healthy & Fit Family. There are plenty of people who still believe that 13 is unlucky, but I am feeling pretty confident about this edition. As usual, the carnival is limited to the ten submissions I thought were most family-oriented, health-oriented and fitness-oriented.

I know, I know, most carnivals publish everything bloggers send them. And, if it weren’t for that kind of democratic spirit, none of my submissions would ever be featured in a blog carnival. That said, when was the last time you read a carnival post with 50 or 60 links?

Ten posts is a manageable number to read, and since so many people have their kids home on vacation, even 10 might sound like a stretch of stolen time.

If you’re tempted to let the kids watch as much TV as they like, the Midnight Raider has a lesson for you. If you’re thinking video games, the Grrl Scientist has a warning for you.

Speaking of vacations, a number of us have carefully planned and expensive trips to take. The closer we get to our departure dates, the more we need to follow Ruby’s advice about how to prevent illness.

Meanwhile, Nature Mom’s care never takes a holiday. She has learned a lot about packing her son’s lunch to take to kindergarten.

Therapy Doc’s classroom doesn’t close for the summer either. She has already started teaching her little grandson about asking permission.

I ended another term of the English classes I teach by learning a lesson about how to include other people’s children with allergies in a cookie-oriented class.

One of the most positive things about taking up exercise is the opportunity it presents to strengthen our awareness and do good in our communities. Most races support charities and other runners launch their own campaigns. Richard ran to save a local river.

A Crazy Wisdom Grandma (her words) is eating to save herself, her family and the planet.

Mama is ranting again, but this time she’s been talking to a healthy eating expert.

Crazy Grandma, Ranting Mama and everyone else, you can’t always bend kids’ eating habits to your will and knowledge. Hueina wants to teach us how NOT to take it personally.

The Fourteenth Healthy & Fit Family will be held on 7 August at Sports Girls Play. Submissions are now open on our Blog Carnival page.

Post from: Babylune

The First of May is Labour/Labor day in Europe. It’s a chance for unions to parade, families to relax and outdoor swimming pools to open. Not that I am going near the cold, cold water in our local park. No, I have other ideas for how our family is going to splash around in warm water this afternoon. Have I become a temperature wimp? Probably, but it’s a great way to introduce the Eleventh Healthy & Fit Family.

It seems to me that the old adage “no pain, no gain” is especially destructive when you want to be active as a family. Nothing is going to turn independent thinking kids off exercise more than parents who behave like the phys. ed. teachers of old. Families need to support each other’s efforts with love and warmth. When I read through the 22 submissions to the carnival this month, I was looking for that support. These are the ten best posts representing health & fitness information combined with the love and compassion that drive family interaction (or that should drive family interaction) from the first days of infancy to the last years of our lives.

We all know that “breast is best” when it comes to feeding babies, but Angela at Breastfeeding 1-2-3 has also found convincing evidence that its also best for protecting mothers’ mental health.

I know that my mental health is threatened more by the little illnesses my pre-schooler brings home. Project Paradox has some ideas about how I, and parents like me, can cope. It’s not all about pre-school. The Mad Kane’s husband brings home colds too. I wonder if Be A Good Dad’s post about how to give kids medicine can be used on spouses too?

Did you know that April was Autism Awareness Month? I had no idea until My Name is Mommy brought it up.

The Expatriate’s Kitchen (her symbolic spelling) has a series of very informative articles about children’s nutrition.

Zen Habits is all about avoiding extremes and being gentle as you try new things in this post about gradual vegetarianism.

Dr. Hal reminds of the phrases we need to use in order to have successful relationships and accomplish any goal together.

Hueina reinforces the priorities behind those phrases through life balance lessons.

And finally, when any life comes to an end, there is grief to deal with in healthy ways. Anna has one idea of how both children and adults can do that work.

The Twelfth Healthy & Fit Family will be hosted by Wisdom of Healing on June 5. Submissions are now open.

Post from: Babylune

I do worry about the decision to limit the carnival to 10 spots sometimes, but I want it to be completely readable. Parents who want to head healthier families are often overwhelmed with blame guilt information and it can often seem impossible to counteract the billions of dollars in advertising budgets that create experiences designed to make our kids crave food and drinks that don’t nurture their growing bodies (it’s actually just food in disguise says Al Nye) and even leads to high-colesterol in teens. I wish the best marketing minds in the world would try selling nine superfoods in one bowl to kids.

Even a step in the right direction toward a healthier, fitter family life can have its drawbacks.

In an effort to make my family a little healthier and a little fitter, we joined the YMCA in my hometown for the month of our visit. They have excellent programs for 3 to 6 year-olds and last week my four year-old learned all about the difference between healthy & not so healthy food choices for a few days last week. As soon as I picked my son up, he showed me his “healthy foods” artwork and said, “I like chocolate donuts and milk.”

Lifestyle changes are hard to implement for everyone, says John Peter. Especially if we aren’t motivated for the right reasons. That’s certainly something Arun learned through personal experience. If you are motivated, getting or staying fit doesn’t have to cost a cent. Hiking is free.

The Eleventh Healthy & Fit Family will run on May 1st here at Babylune. Submissions can be made via the blog carnival submission form. There are only 10 spots in the carnival. To control the number & quality of submissions, only one per blog may be submitted for consideration.

Post from: Babylune

In my quest to bring you the 10 most practical, most family-oriented tips for health and fitness, I have been inundated with submissions from people who want to make the team. Naturally, there are obvious and less obvious ways to choose which ones to post.

With only ten spots available, I have to make sure everyone gets a turn at bat which means not every blogger can be featured every week.

And, staying on topic is important. Only a few of the posts that get sent in are actually practical and family-oriented. Still, a little meandering can be tolerated and sent into player development anyway.

Being very off-topic, though, was just one reason for not using a submission. And, it’s the only one I’ve had a twinge of regret about.

Many of the others were just poorly written, badly-researched, or blatantly plagarized. That’s not even farm team play, it’s poor sportsmanship.

Here’s how to play fair in the sport of blogging: If you quote an article in your blog, reference it. Tell your readers who wrote it, where the original appears and give them your analysis. Does that mean I set high standards for blogging?

Yes.

Here, finally, are the sites that passed the carnival fitness test this week.

Nutrition

Thrifty Mommy wants us to reduce our sodium intake.

On the opposite side of the flavour spectrum, Under the Moon lets us know about Fructose Malabsorbtion.

Refrigerator Raid tells us about how to spot junk food in disguise as health food (hint: sweet and salty).

Lively Women tells us about the benefits of Oatmeal. I eat it myself when winter sets in and feel healthier every day that I do.

Speaking of disguises, Mama-Feminista has a great post on how food packaging has become more and more manipulative. It’s definitely worth a read.

Meanwhile, Inside Motherhood reminds us that cooking and taking an interest in how we eat is comething parents can do with their children.

And, if you need help getting kids involved in cooking and eating a healthy diet, then look to Eating Fabulous for her post on getting healthy eating started early.

Exercise

Looking for ways to get fit for the whole family? Competitive leaf raking? Snow shovelling? As long as you’re moving, it counts. For more suggestions check out 5 Exercises for Everyone.

Relaxation

Stress and The Mad Kane is a madly funny situation as usual, but laughter always relaxes me after I’ve been reading submissions from self-described “doctors” who can’t write a simple sentence.

Zen Chill relaxed by getting away from it all with the family. I think a weekend away would do all of us some good too, especially if someone broke in and cleaned the house while we were gone…

In any case, Babylune will be taking a break from the carnival next week while Thrifty Mommy hosts on Tuesday. Submissions are now open.

If your blog would like to host, just comment below to let me know.

Post from: Babylune

Inspired by My Name is Mommy and her well-communicated efforts to lead a healthier life, I am pleased to present the Healthy & Fit Family, a blog carnival.

Healthy and Fit Family is a weekly update from bloggers who are working to improve the health and fitness of their entire families. Are you a father who has managed to cut half the fat from spaghetti bolonaise? A mother who taught her kids ten skipping rhymes the old-fashioned way (by jumping along)? A kid who inspired Gramps to get up with everyone else and do the electric slide at a wedding? If so, this is the carnival to share your posts about the experience of leading (or starting to lead) an active life as a family.

Here are a few ground rules:

Since my own health goals have to do with stress and time management, only ten submissions will be posted in each edition of the carnival.

The emphasis of posts should be on living healthier lives as a family. Naturally, we’re interested in weight loss, but not eating disorders. If you’ve been losing weight through dehydration, self-starvation, or self-hatred, or if you’ve been brow-beating your kid into losing weight, you should read the carnival to learn about being healthy and having a healthy attitude, but your submissions won’t be considered.

The deadline for submissions is every Sunday at midnight starting on the 29th of October. Click here to submit.

EDIT: Today is October 30th and you can read the first edition of the carnival here.

Post from: Babylune