Healthy Living in Connecticut Blog

I've written about the dangers of childhood obesity before. It's nice to see that the State of Connecticut wants to do something about this problem. I thought I would post their press release as it is such an important cause. Three schools will be awarded $100,000 for a state of the art gym. What better way to help kids get into shape?

As many of you know, so many kids are making the wrong food choices and not getting enough exercise. We need to do something to encourage exercise. We also need to educate both kids and adults about proper nutrition. Too many parents take their kids to McDonald's instead of cooking at home.

I don't write about anorexia nervosa much as my sister had it so long that I tend to shy away from focusing on the subject too much. But I just read such an awesome story about a recovering anorexic that I had to share it. As many of you probably remember, my older sister passed away from anorexia nervosa a little over two years ago. This kind of story shows that as difficult a case as anorexia is, there is hope if people are persistent and confront the sick individual.

A case in point is Lauryn Lax. She was a member of the YMCA near Nashville, TN. The other members of the YMCA actually staged an intervention and the great thing about it is that it worked! Read about it here.

My name is Ashley Boaté and I was crowned Miss Connecticut United States 2014 on December 15th, 2013.

I plan to spend my year promoting people to get active and how important it is for your health. Breast cancer has affected both sides of my family. I personally had breast surgery for a "suspicious" abnormality at a young age and recently had another scare last year. It was proven that women who get regular exercise may have a lower risk of getting breast cancer than women who are inactive.

Did you ever notice that sugar is snuck into so many foods?

A few months ago, I purchased an almond butter from Walmart. It said all natural and it needed to be stirred. I neglected to read the food label until I got home. There was sugar in it. Target and other stores had the same problem with their almond butters. I finally found an almond butter without sugar at Whole Foods Market. Why do manufacturers think you need sugar in natural almond butter?

I was in two Wellness Challenges that my local YMCA held, beginning in the Spring of 2012. It's what kick started my weight loss. In addition, my friend and co-founder of this website, Scott, also had success by losing over 25 pounds in the eight week challenge he was in. I will be participating in their next challenge. But this upcoming challenge is vastly different from the ones we were part of.

The Northwest CT YMCA is offering the completely revamped fitness challenge, beginning April 7 and it will run for 8 weeks.