Recently, a mother of two boys asked me “I know it’s important that my kids get outdoors but I can’t find a way to motivate them… What can I do?”

It turns out she had recently read my article about Vitamin N (if you haven’t checked it out, it’s probably a good idea to give it a read first…) and she was really concerned about her 11 and 13-year-old sons, who typically preferred to stay indoors playing more sedentary games and usually put up a fight when presented with outdoor options… Especially in the heat of the summer.

If you’re a parent of ‘tweens (that’s 8-12) maybe you can relate too. This seems to be a fairly common concern when their interest in nature and the outside world gets replaced with iPhone’s and Xbox’s.

Incidentally, did you know that research demonstrates the majority of a child’s lifelong health habits are formed by the age of 12?

This time of year is fraught with resolutions that never actualize or worse – the steps that would lead towards them are never taken. Are you tired of looking in the mirror and asking yourself the same questions you have for the past many?

Why can’t I lose 10 pounds? Why am I tired? Why don’t I have any time? These questions and many more fill the minds of most – at least for the next month, after which time they drift away deep into the abyss of our busy lives only to resurrect themselves next January 1st.

Please understand that life is our most precious value.  Every love and desire that we have is based upon the fact that we live.  When we die, our world — and everything in our world — ceases to exist.

If you love anything at all, you must by default, love to live first!  Everything else comes second.

Intertwined with this concept of life is the idea of health.  It is a pillar of life.  You cannot be fully alive if you are not fully healthy.  Your level of health is directly proportional to your level of life.  If your health begins to fail, your life begins to become difficult.  You cannot care as much for others, and you cannot accomplish all your own hopes and dreams.

Soon it will be that time of year again. You’ll see it and hear it everywhere you go. Maybe you are thinking this message is early as we haven’t even made it through the holidays yet.  You say you still don’t know what I am talking about. Well, think about it. After all the shopping and worrying– about what to get who, will it fit, do they have one already, can we afford it, and all the visiting–your friends, your family, your in-laws, your kids, all the partying–cookies and milk, nuts and beer, chips and pretzels, dips, vegetables, wine, cheese and crackers (all, of course, before you sit down to a big meal). And after all the last minute rushing around, lost sleep, and “I’ve got a million things to do”…  What on earth could possibly (and only naturally) follow all this? That’s right–the fever, chills, ache-all-over feeling, coughing, sneezing and complaining of the flu season!