Balance is EVERYTHING!

Living Well
365 Daily Devotions for a Balanced Life

From Carole Lewis, the national director of First Place, the nation’s leading Christian weight-loss program, comes this collection of daily devotions to help you achieve balance in every area of your life!
These are down-to-earth devotions, written by men and women who struggle with the same real-life issues you wrestle with. And they are about much more than just weight loss. You’ll learn how to make wise choices whenever you are faced with a difficult decision. Discover how to hear God’s voice and how to resist temptation. Learn how your gifts and talents can be put to work for God.

You’ll also explore such questions as “Do I want to achieve certain goals? Am I willing to be honest with myself? Am I open to new ideas? Is my pride getting in the way of what I want to accomplish? What am I afraid of? A short prayer, a guided journaling assignment and a pertinent Scripture verse from the First Place Bible studies are included for each daily reading.
By preparing your heart each day through this short devotional time and applying the truth of each reading, you’ll discover the secret of balance in every aspect of your life— whether the spiritual, physical, mental or emotional.

The balanced life begins here—in only a few minutes a day! Make each day count…all year ’round.

Here at BRAIN FOOD, we believe in living a balanced life and eating a balanced diet. That looks different for different people. Visit First Place to find out more about how you can live and eat in in balance.

Do You Know What Your Kids are Drinking?

(photo originally appeared on http://www.bandddesigns.com/energy/arch/002768.php)

Recently one of my 8th grade students was taken to the hospital. Her kidneys were beginning to shut down. She was dehydrated. I guess it's no big surprise - she consumes 2 liters of Volt a day!

She also doesn't eat breakfast, often doesn't eat lunch, and never drinks water. A definite recipe for disaster.

No longer relegated to college dorm dwellers cramming for finals, energy drinks have fast become the "drug of choice" for many teens and even pre-teens. You may not buy it for your kids, but they seem to find it on their way to school - at the local convenience store, from their friends, etc. I'm just waiting to see some guy parked at the edge of my school selling it from the back of an unmarked van.

Caffeine in large quantities isn't good for anyone, but the younger you are, the more detrimental it can be. On average, a 12 oz espresso has about 100 mg of caffeine in it. Since there are easily hundreds of different energy drinks, the side by side comparison is tricky, but it's not uncommon for an energy drink to have about 200 mg of caffeine per 8 oz. To check out your own side-by-side comparison of energy drinks, click here.

I informally polled my 8th graders and they ranked their energy drinks like this:

1. Monster

2. Rockstar

3. Red Bull

When asked about Volt, they said, "It just tastes like Sprite. It doesn't do anything to me."

What it is that teens and pre-teens want it to "do" to them?

They want to caffeine buzz. They believe it helps them stay focused in school. They want to be able to say, "Man, I was really flyin'!" to their friends. I hear it on and off during the school day. They bring it in their lunch, and then ditch the food. The abuse of energy drinks is reaching epidemic proportions. Fox News reported it this way in October. NPR reported on the epidemic with a podcast and article here.

One of the newest on the market, that I can promise you the kids will go to buy in droves, is called Cocaine. Although the manufacturers promise there is no actual cocaine in their product, they do admit to a secret ingredient that numbs the throat of the consumer.

Where will it end?

Curious about you or your children's caffeine intake. Calculate it here.

Take it one step further. Curious about how the hundreds of energy drinks affect your child based on his or her weight, click here and visit Death by Caffeine.

Here at BRAIN FOOD we believe "everything in moderation" and that holds true for energy drinks. However, children are not mature enough to know what moderation means. As parents we need to monitor their intake of all food and drink until they can show that they know how to care for their bodies unsupervised. Choose to be informed.

What Happened to Hungry Teenagers?

I teach 8th graders. Every day I ask them, "Did you eat this morning?" Nine times out of ten they say, "No."

Then they get my lecture. You'd think they'd learn to lie just to avoid it! You see, I have a real problem with children not eating before they go to school and are expected to actually participate in the learning process.

And it has nothing to do with affording breakfast or lunch. They choose not to eat.

The same is true for my class right after lunch. "Did you eat today?"

"No," and they have a variety of reasons why.

"I hung out with my friends instead."

"I forgot my lunch."

"I gave my lunch to someone else." That one sounds like a lie to me. Most kids just aren't that nice.

"I had to go make up a test at lunch."

"Oh, I never eat lunch."

Boys and girls alike. Teenagers just aren't eating much these days.

I have two teenage boys at home and they eat more at one sitting than most families of four. Most parents are forewarned about the changing metabolism of teenagers and how they "inhale" food. But I have to admit, getting my own to eat in the morning is a struggle. They just claim they're not hungry, even though their body has been fasting since dinner the night before.

Brains need protein to grow and think! Our teenagers brains are starving. This certainly explains a lot!

Then there's teenage emotions. One of my students, who already struggles with every subject area, got quite upset the other day because she discovered that her best friend's boyfriend was cheating on her. She took this very personally and told one of her friends, "I'm going anorexic!" as if in protest.

Our attachment to food is severely warped. As an Italian I grew up knowing this about food, "Live to eat, not eat to live." But most teens just don't have any appreciation for food. At this point I just want them to at the very least EAT TO LIVE.

If you make sure your children eat before they go to school, good for you! But don't just assume they actually eat at lunch. More often than not, they don't.