Care Packages for Students! Written by Lee Mellott
I am crying tears of joy mixed with great sadness as my oldest daughter prepares for her freshman year of college at University of Maryland in fall. She has already told me I am to send care packages. So it was neat to receive a school sponsored offer in mail "aiming for 100% participation" for care packages they were selling! What could be more fun for her and easier for me than ready-made packages with my "personal, handwritten note" delivered directly to her dorm.At least that was what I was thinking until I read details on "favorite with student" goodie boxes – more boxes you buy better value. The Welcome Package includes Nerds candies, strawberry twizzlers, fruit candies, potato chips, caramels, Laffy Taffy, atomic fireball candies, Tootsie pops, peanut chews, toffee popcorn, chewy fruit gems etc. Oh yeah there is a mini sports bottle, stationary set and sewing kit in there too. With exception of first package, none of other boxes contained anything but candy, munchies and other faux goodies, except Halloween one which boasted a bendable skeleton and a plastic spider friend! So mom will be making and sending her own care packages! If you have a child going off to boarding school or college, it's easy to make and fill care packages – and certainly more personal.
| | Surviving September: The Dietary New YearWritten by Will Clower, Ph.D.
With summer completed and school back in session, it’ll be time to settle back into another fall routine. And, even though flexible schedules of summer have gone, this is actually a very good thing for your weight and health. In summer, schedules can be hectic, haphazard, jumbled. This plays havoc with your weight control efforts because you end up eating on run, at odd times during day, or out of sync with any rhythm you have established. Just as your sleep is affected by its normal cycles, your body also needs predictability when eating. Uneven eating patterns leads to multiple between-meal snacks, and these only provide extra calories. Dr. Barbara Rolls at Penn State University has shown that, when you eat between-meal snacks, you are not going to eat less at next meal. In fact, they have no bearing at all on how much your body is hungry for later on. So all those calories are just piled onto total. This really makes September very much like January in many ways. January is “diet month” because people will have eaten poorly at office parties and family reunion grazing fests for 6 straight weeks – and they're finally ready to turn over a new dietary leaf. In same way, we typically slip-n-slide off our normal eating schedules through summer months, only to return to normalcy and "real life" in September. So September becomes like dietary New Year. It’s perfect time make fresh schedules and routines that fit a new, relaxed lifestyle. Put space in your day for relaxation, so you aren't so stressed through day. This will keep you from cramming too many activities around your life this fall. Make sure you sit down for dinner (not in your car), and enjoy those around you.
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