Tag Archive for: Riley

The Look of Success

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With this being a holiday weekend, the Memo comes a day early. We hope that your holiday weekend is filled with safe travels and good times with family and friends, plus at least one chocolate bunny, whatever your beliefs.

As motivation to get up every time you stumble and fall, here’s the look you make when you fail at something a couple hundred times and finally nail it, courtesy of our grandson Riley who just turned nine; here’s a link to the whole 11-second video of Riley’s first successful frontflip.

See you after Spring Break.

What are you prepared to do today?

        Dr. Chet

Toddler Health Tip: No More

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“No more!” Those are the words Riley says when he doesn’t want any more milk, food, or anything else we feed him. When he says “no more,” that’s really it—he’s done. At dinner last week, Paula said, “That pasta was great and I could eat more, but I think I’ll be like Riley: no more.”

Wouldn’t it be great if we would just use those words when our brains tell us we’ve had enough and our eyes tell us it still looks really good? No more. Say it out loud and really make a commitment. It doesn’t mean that seconds aren’t available. It doesn’t mean that a sweet dessert isn’t there. It just means you’re not having any more. You can say that any time during the meal or after you’ve cleaned your plate, but that lets you and everyone else know that you’re done eating. Period.

“Just one more bite.” I’ll bet you’ve done that a time or two or a thousand. I have. But you’ll take no more even when you’re putting away leftovers or getting the take-home box from the restaurant. And you don’t clean up the bite or two the kids left on their plates. No more means no more.

You can follow the ketogenic diet, the Mediterranean diet, a vegan diet, or any of the many ways to eat, but unless you learn to say “no more” on a regular basis, you won’t get to the body weight you desire.

Be like Riley. Say “no more” and see how it affects your weight.

The Bottom Line

The Memos this week have focused on a common-sense approach to health. We absolutely need to get ourselves checked out by healthcare professionals to make sure there’s no underlying disease going on. Once that’s done, remember that many times, the simplest solution is the correct one. That’s a common-sense approach to health.

What are you prepared to do today?

Dr. Chet

 

Let’s Go!

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Riley, my pretend grandson, is learning to talk; he’s taking his time about it, but he’s got a few things down pat. Paula says he’s the only child she’s ever known who used verbs before he used nouns, and his favorite verb is go.

Whenever he hears anything that sounds like “shoes,” he perks up and asks, “Shoes?” If I tell him, “Go get your shoes,” he’s off like a rocket to find them. Then he brings them to me and wants me to put them on him. As soon as I do, he runs to the front door and starts saying, “Let’s go!”

RileysWalk2I’ll admit there are times I’m not crazy about going out in 85-degree muggy weather, but I can’t look into those big blue eyes and say no. So off we go! I’m teaching him boundaries because he wants to go everywhere and get there fast; he’d barely learned to walk when he started running. He’s learning stop and if he doesn’t, he has to hold my hand. But it’s a joy to see a toddler, or anyone really, who wants to move so much.

Whether you’re a parent or a grandparent, getting kids to move early in life is important. But you have to be able to keep up with them, and that means you have to be fit as well. Do you really want to say Daddy or Grandma is too tired? Of course that will happen sometimes, but it should be rare. By the way, going with them counts as exercise for you, too.

That means you have to take care of you first. If you do, when you hear, “Let’s go!” you’ll be ready to go.

What are you prepared to do today?

Dr. Chet