Top Fundraisers will be recognized with a grant for a registered charity in their community that supports GoodLife Kids Foundation’s mission. The grant will support and provide the opportunity to positively change physical activity behavior in kids for the long term. This year’s Top Fundraisers raised 40% of all funds—fantastic job! GoodLife Fitness Club Top Fundraisers for this year’s Superhero Campaign are:

• Top Fundraiser – Canada: Markham Markville Mall (ON)           
• Top Fundraiser – Ontario: Chatham Downtown Centre (ON)     
• Top Fundraiser – Atlantic Canada: St. John’s Village Mall (NL)
• Top Fundraiser – Western Canada: Calgary McKenzie Towne Centre (AB)

Additional Fundraisers receiving community grants are:

• GoodLife Fitness Corporate Office (ON)
• Woodstock Quality Inn (ON)
• Windsor Tecumseh Mall (ON)
• Ottawa Hazeldean Road (ON)
• Ajax Harwood Plaza (ON)
• Peterborough Charlotte Street (ON)
• Burnaby Northgate (BC)

Let’s continue to raise funds to give Canadian kids the opportunity to benefit from an active life!

Kim Basler- Group EX Instructor

• Fresh fruit (apple, orange, pear, peach, berries)
• Veggies (carrots, cauliflower, peppers, snap peas)
• Cheese and crackers
• Hummus and tortilla
• Pretzels
• Trail mix (raisins, almonds, peanuts, chocolate chips -few, dried apricots)
• Celery with peanut butter

What kind of snacks do you bring on field trips? Email me at info@goodlifekids.com to tell me your healthy ideas!

Bye for now

GoodLife Kids Foundation helps our children enjoy healthier lives by supporting programs to get kids active in communities across Canada. To promote this vision, GoodLife Fitness is offering FREE fitness memberships to teens age fourteen to seventeen during July and August.

For details or to get started with your FREE GoodLife Teen Fitness Membership,  visit www.goodlifefitness.com/teenfitness

Save me from myself, from all this pace I swore I would never have, from these kids who never stop moving.  I know that many, many parents worry that their kids aren’t moving enough. I had the same fears about my son. But right now I am caught in the other extreme – kids who want to do and try everything.

I was glad when Kate was desperate to try soccer for the first time this year. I really was. But now I wonder “what was I thinking” – three sports?  My son would have a reasonable schedule were it not for his new found passion for badminton which has me driving him to school at seven thirty three times a week.  He doesn’t want to compete, he is just having so much fun.  And then there is Karate, my idea after a good friend’s son, who is also tall and gentle, was beaten up while walking home.  Last week my son told me he hates it.  Truthfully, I am grateful to get it off the schedule board.

Organization is not my event.  I mean I try – I write on my hands, I leave sports equipment where I will trip on it so I don’t forget it, I buy gadgets to keep me on schedule.  But my life is so tightly scheduled one misplaced event can create a domino effect that can have me in tears.  I am deeply grateful for the detail freak in my life, the indomitable Laurie, assistant extraordinaire who calendars all my kids events with a religious fervour that  astounds and saves me.

The greatest challenge of all this moment is  how to eat, never mind cook, a nutritious dinner.  Hummus, pita, oranges and banana’s are fine, but what about a nice meal with three courses.  I have become master of the twenty minute from fridge to table meal. I can cook more messily, but faster than almost any other mortal I have come to know.  Salad dressing in three minutes flat, pasta cooked and served with vegetables in fifteen minutes.  Steak and rice are my specialities. So you get the idea, not exactly gourmet cooking, but real food,  kid friendly and fast fast fast.   Here are a few of my favorities.  Stripped stir fried beef, steamed rice, and tossed salad. Fridge to Table 25min.  Breakfast for dinner.  Eggs, turkey sausages and fresh cut fruit.  Fridge to Table 15min.  Pasta with meatballs and homemade spaghetti sauce with vegetables.  Fridge to Table 25min.  If you have a dinner that can go from Fridge to Table in less than 30min please post it online to give us something new to cook!

Silken

The other new activity my class participated in was 4 sessions of yoga.  Each session was 50 minutes – including a warm up, learning yoga positions and a cool down.  It was really easy to see the students’ progress as with each new session they built on the previous week’s moves and started to create a good repertoire of yoga positions.  Some of the students’ responses about the yoga session were:

“I never tried yoga before but now want to do it again and again”

“I enjoyed doing something different in the gym”

“I am now doing the yoga exercises at home and showing my family”

“It was very calming and relaxing to do”

Working with community partners I was able to provide my class with new activities that have inspired these grade 6 students to continue to be active.

Daryl

Recently I went to my daughter Claire’s senior kindergarten class to share with them how being active and eating well helps us to grow strong bodies and minds, and to live a healthy and fun life. The kids shared what they liked to do that was active and fun. We found ways for them and their families to have fun and be active, like swimming or having a dance party at home. They were up for the challenge of ‘no screens day’ and instead do something active. They thought it would be cool to teach their parents to have fun with them playing hopscotch or kicking a ball around−just like I had fun with Claire.

Coloring pages and word searches on this website, as well as Canada’s Guide to Physical Activity for Children and for Families, provided other activities to do during my visit. Having the children find their heartbeats while sitting down and then again after jumping up and down ten times showed them endurance activities.  Stretching, bending and touching their toes gave them understanding of flexibility. Finally, we discussed how climbing monkey bars and helping carry groceries can help with strength.

We used Canada’s Food Guide to talk about eating healthy. In February and March the class had ‘tasting days’ for fruits and vegetables, with each child bringing in a different fruit or vegetable. At morning snack they tried them all and voted for their favourites. I was pleasantly surprised how much the kids knew about healthy eating.

Getting enough rest is also important to stay healthy, so we talked about how sleep helps them to grow and develop into strong and healthy ‘bigger kids.’ Having some ‘down time’ to relax can also help. The kids became quiet, focused and fairly still while trying a yoga balance pose.

At the end of my visit we sang an active version of ‘If you’re happy and you know it.’ Jumping up and down, marching with knees high, stretching to the sky and bending down low and then all four together each time getting faster and faster. We got our heart rates up and most importantly we had FUN doing it!

I heard from the teacher that at snack time after my visit the kids were comparing snacks to see if they were healthy choices. My daughter came home to tell her dad about the ‘no screens’ challenge and how we have to go outside after dinner and be active. We talk about those things at home all the time but maybe because it was ‘taught’ to her at school it sunk in a bit more. Another mom said the Food Guide came out at dinner that night checking out the variety of foods in their dinner. The 45 minutes I spent with my daughter’s class was definitely time well used. I encourage others to share their expertise to help our children grow into physically and mentally strong adults and…HAVE FUN DOING IT − I certainly did!

Sue Forest
Can Fit Pro certified Personal Trainer, Nutrition and Wellness Specialist, Fitness Instructor Specialist, Pre and Post Natal Specialist