Tag: real food

Contribute to Yummiloo, a Fun, Imaginative Children’s TV Show from Veteran Film/TV Creators Traci Paige Johnson (“Blue’s Clues”) and Caroline Baron

If you’re a parent, you probably get frustrated by the deluge of advertising for unhealthy foods and the dearth of quality TV shows, which promote healthy eating.
It’s time to get excited, you conscious, conscientious, health-oriented parents.
Yummiloo, a fun and healthy-eating promoting TV show from veteran TV and film directors/producers Traci Paige Johnson and Caroline Baron, is in the works.
With your help through Kickstarter, your children, your relatives’ kids or your loved one’s youngsters will be able to watch a food adventure animated TV show that will expose preschoolers to healthy eating through irresistible characters, stories and games.
Pretty cool, right? Help make this awesome children’s TV show show a reality. .
I invite you now to contribute to the KickStarter campaign for Yummiloo before the June 9 deadline.
Now, learn more about Yummiloo below.
YummilooWideImagine if Willy Wonka’s Land of Pure Imagination were filled with healthy food instead of candy. Imagine no more!
Traci Paige Johnson, co-creator of the blockbuster franchise Blue’s Clues and the force behind Super Why, Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood and Creative Galaxy has created that land for preschoolers everywhere.
IMeet Yummiloo, a food adventure animated TV show that’s designed to expose preschoolers to healthy eating through irresistible characters, stories and games.
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After working for 10 years to create the Blue’s Clues brand, Traci took time off to raise her three children.
She quickly realized that one of her greatest parenting challenges was to teach her kids how to eat and live healthfully.
Childhood obesity was on the rise as was the flow of ads and marketing tactics targeted at kids by companies selling unhealthy food products.
Recognizing the lack of healthy lifestyle messaging in kids media and that media matters, Traci knew what her next project would be.
Enter Caroline Baron, Oscar nominated feature film producer (“Capote,” “Monsoon Wedding”), visionary changemaker (FilmAid) and mother of two.
The two talented women and concerned parents, Traci and Caroline, joined forces to form yummico, a company dedicated to creating multiplatform entertainment for kids and “delicious media” while educating kids on how to make healthy choices.
First, the talented duo began to address the food crisis facing our children today, creating a game app to meet kids where they are today: on their tablets and screens.
Premiering on the iOS platform in 2013, yummico’s Yummiloo Rainbow Power app used entertaining stories and characters as a vehicle to teach preschoolers healthy eating.
A ‘Featured App’ on Apple for nine straight weeks, the Yummilo Rainbow Power app went on to win numerous awards and garnered over 120,000 downloads.
Based the success of the app, they knew that their next project would be to bring the adorable Yum Yums and their message to television.
The premise is simple. Most of us know how strong an impact media makes on our kids. We also know about how obesity is such a problem. And we know that the pervasive marketing of unhealthy foods has had an adverse effect on obesity prevention.
But wouldn’t creating a TV show that celebrates and informs healthy eating habits — eating whole foods, and foods low in saturated fats and trans-fatty acids — tilt the bar the other way?
Just as Blue’s Clue’s revolutionized children’s educational media by engaging kids in virtual conversation, Yummiloo will teach kids that healthy food can be delicious and fun.
This show — which you can help get off the ground now with your Kickstarter contribution — will flip the script on the current advertising strategies, which have made the junk food industry the unofficial poster children for the obesity crisis.
Instead, Yummiloo will always engage kids first as adventure storytelling – with exciting, delicious food as the ever-present backdrop.
As you may already know, a recent Interim World Health Organization Study on Obesity supports this strategy, suggesting that “new scientific evidence highlights the need for a multifaceted approach to the problem, including a focus on the life-course dimension”…which include “reducing the exposure of children to marketing of unhealthy foods and the appropriate marketing of healthy foods in order to achieve the goals of healthier eating norms and behaviours.”
The WHO study also suggests that getting to kids at a young age is the most effective way to change the paradigm. Indeed, “life-course studies suggest that interventions in early life, when biology is most ‘plastic’ and amenable to change, are likely to have the greatest positive sustained effects on health, particularly because they may influence responses to later challenges.”
Join me in helping to get kids excited about eating real food!
StaffPick
To fund the pilot, a Yummiloo Kickstarter campaign was recently launched. The project was immediately given Kickstarter recognition and made a Kickstarter Staff Pick, designated New and Noteworthy, and after a few days, deemed Popular.
As Kickstarter is an all or nothing model, the goal of $72,000 must be met by the time the campaign ends, Tuesday, June 9th at 8 pm EST.
Please join me and make your contribution now to the important Yummiloo Kickstarter campaign.
Please spread the word!
And join these other sites:
Yummico – http://www.yummico.com
Facebook: www.facebook.com/getyummico
Twitter: www.twitter.com/getyummico
Pinterest: www.pinterest.com/yummico
Donate now to the Kickstarter campaign here.
Please join me in spreading the word about this valuable upcoming TV show and in contributing to make it hit your TV.
Remember, you need to act before June 9.
Now tell your friends and relatives and post notices on Facebook or Twitter buddies.

7 Simple Steps to a Sweeter You & Sweeter Life (Article)

Friends and followers, here’s an article I wrote that I hope will help you. This piece is designed to inspire all of you — including, of course, sugar addicts (for whom I offer my Break Free of Your Sugar Addiction in 6 Weeks Program) — and those who are immune (or relatively unfazed) by sugary temtpations.
7 Simple Steps to a Sweeter You & Sweeter Life By Connie Bennett, CHHC, CPC
With spring here and summer on the horizon, this is an ideal time to take stock of where you are and where you’d like to go. In other words, it can be invaluable to take a probing look inward and make some moves in the direction of your dreams. Ask yourself:
* Are you the kind of person you’d like to be?
* Are you achieving your heart’s desires?
* How can you be kinder, better and sweeter?
* What traits and skills can you develop or cultivate to get to where you want to go and to be the person you know you can be?
* And how can you have a sweeter life?
Let’s also put it another way: It’s time for some internal spring housecleaning. Since we’re human, each of us can always find something about ourselves to improve.
My clients have found that doing this kind of taking stock, assessing and goal setting helps them to build confidence, achieve inner joy, fall in love with themselves and be endearing to others.
Here are 7 areas to explore that can lead you to personal growth and transformation so you become a person you like, admire and respect — and, of course, a person others find sweet.
1) Take delight. Do you view the glass as half full rather than half empty? Do you feel joy, delight and glee when you view a sunset, when you see trees, when your child looks at you with adoring eyes, when you first bite into an organic apple, when you walk down the street, or when you’re immersed in a project? Make yourself look at the bright side of things. No one wants to be around a killjoy so concentrate on fostering that part of you that’s childish, innocent, sweet and fun. Become the kind of person people (and you would) love to be around.
2) Listen with zeal. Do you pay close attention to other people when they speak? Do you care about their worries, goals and fears? Or are too wrapped up in yourself? There’s nothing more annoying than someone who cuts you off in the middle of saying something. Challenge yourself to really focus on what people are saying. That way others will want to share with you more. Besides, you’ll like yourself better, too.
3) Cultivate gratitude. Lately, thankfully, giving thanks has been given good play—and not just around Thanksgiving. Being appreciative is something we should do on a daily basis. Have you thanked God or the universe lately for your loved ones, your home, your job, your friends, your innate skills and talents, your material possessions, etc.? If not, begin a gratitude journal or take stock on your computer every morning and/or evening.
4) Get enough zzz’s. Lack of sleep seems to be an American hobby, if not an obsession, and I confess, I’m one of the worst offenders. (I’m working on it!) Many of us seem driven by all that we have to do, whether it’s answering e-mails, cleaning the house or catching up with a friend. But recent research suggests that sleep-deprived people may be more likely to be overweight. Not getting enough rest also may make you grumpy, brain foggy and unproductive. Even more frightening, sleep deprivation may increase your risk for heart attacks, strokes, colon cancer, breast cancer, heart disease and diabetes.
5) Enjoy food that lives. One of the most effective ways to become a healthy, energetic, kind, successful, loving person is to eat superior, nutritive carbs — the kind that grows out of the ground or from trees (vegetables, fruits, nuts and seeds) and turn your back on those health-harming culprit carbs. Are you a sugar junkie or a carb craver? Do you grab chocolate, soda or donuts just to get through the day? As my book SUGAR SHOCK!, explains, overeating sugary foods and refined, much-like-sugar carbs (processed breads, pasta, crackers, white rice, etc.) could send you into sugar shock and lead to some 150 ailments, including obesity, depression, heart disease, cancer, type 2 diabetes, mood swings, infertility, low libido, failing memory and premature aging.
6) Get moving. As we all know by now, physical activity can work wonders. If you’re feeling like a zombie—that is sluggish, listless and unmotivated, there’s nothing like getting off your derriere and dancing or just plain walking to energize you. It’s well documented, as the Mayo Clinic points out, that exercise improves your mood, combats chronic diseases and can even put the spark back in your sex life. So put on your sneakers now. (In fact, I’m off for a fun bike ride myself now.)
7) Break free of clutter. The road to self improvement doesn’t always have to be complicated. In fact, just getting rid of your “stuff” can give you a tremendous breakthrough experience. Cutting out clutter is one of those simple, but uplifting projects that can quickly bring you to a better place. It is exhilarating and exciting to discard excess documents, old clothes and undesirable doodads. (Earlier today, I got rid of some excess stuff. Feels darn good, you’ll find.)
Don’t these 7 Steps to a Sweeter & Sweeter Life sound easy? Don’t waste any time—pat yourself on the back because you’ve considered taking such important action. Now, start moving those goal-setting muscles and select one step to concentrate on each day of the week. I’m willing to bet that within three weeks, you’ll already become more happy, content and self-fulfilled. So get going—start building the foundation for a sweeter you and a sweeter life.
Connie Bennett, MSJ, CHHC, CPC is a former sugar addict and author of SUGAR SHOCK! (Penguin Group), which has been praised by Dr. Mehmet Oz, who says it “spills the beans” and bestselling author Dr. Mark Hyman (UltraMetabolism), who said it “could save your life.” Connie is a certified holistic health counselor, a certified life coach, sugar-liberation expert, speaker, frequent TV and radio show guest (“CBS News Sunday Morning,” “Oprah & Friends Radio,” etc.). She maintains her Sugar shock Blog, hosts the weekly Gab with the Gurus Radio Show and holds Sugar-Liberation Secrets seminars and teleseminars such as Break Free of Your Sugar Addiction in 6 Weeks. Connie also is an experienced journalist and columnist, who has been published widely in print and on the Web. To learn how to release your sugar habit, find out about Connie’s Break Free of Your Sugar Addiction in 6 Weeks Program. Copyright © 2010, Connie Bennett, Stop SUGAR SHOCK!, www.SugarShockBlog.com
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Grateful for You

It’s Connie here to tell you that I’m VERY grateful to you, dear readers.
I really appreciate your support so that I can continue to serve you.
Now that it’s the holiday season, I feel that I want to tell you how grateful I am.
Grateful, as www.Dictionary.com tells us, means you’re “warmly Or deeply appreciative of kindness or benefits received.”
YOU, dear readers, are so important to me.
Because of YOU and 1) your willingness to learn, 2) your open-mindedness, 3) your desire to have a happier, healthier life and 4) your spreading the word about this Sugar Shock Blog, my book SUGAR SHOCK! and my coaching services, I can continue to help YOU and many more to break free of this health-harming, mood-dampening addiction to sugar, refined carbs, artificial sweeteners and other bad habits
(or what I call babits™).
So thank you, YOU magnificent creature, YOU.
I love you, and as “Think Big” author Michael Port puts it, “not in a weird way.”
YOU Special One, I’m also here to remind you to remember that YOU are a wonderful, special, dazzling person with so great qualities.
So for the holidays through the end of the year, I invite you to remember to treasure your glorious body, which has been here for you no matter what.
When was the last time you thanked your body for all it does for you?
Let me gently suggest that you think twice before putting junk foods and sugar-filled, calorie-packed drinks into your body this holiday season, OK?
Before you slip a sweet “treat” into your mouth or nosh on fake, junk foods (that are artificially sweetened or filled with dyes and other additives), why not ask yourself, “What does my wonderful body really want?”I do hope that this post inspires you to treat your body like the temple it is. Wishing you all a fabulous rest of the year!