Family First | VoiceAmerica™

Family First VoiceAmerica™

How do we get our children to read books in this fast paced, digital world? Will they only know texting abbreviations or will they know the joy of reading stories which call on their imagination and engage them in deeper thoughts? Please check out my radio interview, on Family First with Host Randy Rolfe, this Friday with children's book author connie Baranzano, who has worked with hundreds of kids to help them discover the value and fun of reading and in the process build their sense of self-esteem and empowerment.

Simply go to http://www.voiceamerica.com/episode/54209/what-makes-your-child-love-reading at 1 PM Pacific or 4 PM Eastern and listen to our interview live or come back later and hear or download the show as a podcast.

Take Home Tip from Randy Rolfe: Read aloud not just to your child but with your child. Called choral reading, it is fun and easy and puts no pressure on the child, but instead engages them directly with your great modeling of the joy of reading.

Family First | VoiceAmerica™

Family First VoiceAmerica™

I'm so excited about my new net radio show on Voice America, "Family First!" My guests have such wonderful insights and after over 25 years as World Ambassador for Family, I know so many experts who can really enrich your life with their wisdom and experience. Do tune in at your desk or on the go, on your PC or your handheld, and enjoy a great interview. It's live at 4 PM ET and 1 PM PT, or go to the archives. This week I have the honor of speaking with Sharon Weinstein, RN, and international nurse educator, who has still managed to keep family first. Here's the link:
http://www.voiceamerica.com/episode/54025/creative-tips-for-finding-life-balance

Friday at 1 PM Pacific Time on VoiceAmerica Health & Wellness Channel

Family First, with host Randy Rolfe

Creative Tips for Finding Life Balance!
May 27, 2011
How often do we hear about the challenges modern families face with both parents working outside the home and still trying to maintain a close-knit and happy family life? Finding a balance between your roles as parent and active participant in the workplace is one of the greatest sources of everyday stress for families today. My guest this week is not only an expert on the subject but is a personal example of how to manage this balancing act. A health educator for over 30 years, Sharon Weinstein is an energetic, motivating and highly skilled nurse, nurse educator and consultant specializing in workplace wellness, corporate training programs and motivational speaking presentations. Among many other roles, she also was advisor to Central Clinical Hospital, Moscow, Russia for twelve years while raising her family and oversaw the building of a western-style International Patient Department. Among her many writings, Sharon’s book B Is for Balance is all about this issue. Listen in! Learn More »

Missed the Live Shows? Past Episodes are available On Demand and Podcast Ready.

Thanks for getting the word out about how to create happier healthier families!

Listen Live to VoiceAmerica Health & Wellness

Be sure to tune into
Family First

Log on to Listen: http://www.voiceamerica.com/episode/54025/creative-tips-for-finding-life-balance

Questions? Comments? Call: 1-866-472-5792

Take Home Tip from Randy Rolfe: It is never too late to let your children and spouse know that they are top priority in your life! Say it out loud and be sure to give extra hugs.

Eating disorders?

Do you know someone affected by an eating disorder, or disturbed by being overweight? Listen to Randy Rolfe’s show Family First on Voice America Net Talk Radio this week! Someone you know has a family member who is affected, because there is so much confusion and misinformation in popular culture today about body image, food choices, and everyday stresses of school, work, social interaction, and overwhelming multitasking. Do listen in to a wonderful interview this Friday at 1 PM Pacific, 4 PM Eastern as Randy Rolfe interviews one of the nation’s foremost experts on this topic, Alice Balance, psychotherapist and dietician and author of the new book Eat Up the Good Life. The show is live Friday May 20 at 1 PM Pacific, 4 PM Eastern, but it is also archived and downloadable to portable listening devices. So tell any friends who are interested in this topic. They will thank you!

Here is the website to go to to hear or download or forward the show:

http://www.voiceamerica.com/episode/53936/overcoming-eating-issues-and-lifestyle-blocks-to-good-life

Tell your friends!

Take Home Tip of the Day from Randy Rolfe: Eating disorders can be overcome! Whether it is weight problems, anorexia, bulimia, snack attacks, or simply a bad relationship to your food, there are good answers and doable solutions! Get a hold of Alice Baland’s book Eating Up the Good Life! You can access it at www.eatingupthegoodlife.com.

Hi – This is Randy Rolfe wishing you a happy Mother’s Day! We all have or had mothers and they gave us life. That is something to be truly grateful for. And then for most of us there has been so much more! I am finishing a book for Mothers who have lost their Mothers, called Moms Losing Moms – The Empty Castle Blues. So I am thinking even more than usual about my Mother and all she meant to me. This day gives us a chance to dwell in that place of appreciation. If your Mother is still here, let hre know how much you appreciate her. If she is gone, take time to remember all the little things and the big ones that endeared her to you. I am so glad I got in touch with my Mother on each Mother’s Day, sent her a mushy card, and let he know I was glad she was my Mother. If your children call or send cards or give you an extra hug, embrace the moment and feel good about yourself. There is no more important role in the world than Mother. I just launched my first show as host, called Family First, now archived at www.voiceamericahealth.com. My Mother would have been so tickled. She loved seeing me on TV espousing healthy family relationships, since she was a sociologist herself and taught me from an early age that healthy families were the key to a healthy society and a healthy world. I am so happy too that she got to know her grandchildren and her first great grandchild. So whatever you do to celebrate this Sunday, enjoy giving and receiving love.

Randy Rolfe’s Take Home Tip: Extra hugs all around for Mothers! Have fun and enjoy.

Sugar - The Bitter Truth - a video must see!

As the country starts it's Easter binge on sugar, I recommend you go to this youtube video and watch this 90 minute presentation by Dr. Robert Lustig, pediatrician and endocrinologist at the University of California at San francisco: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dBnniua6-oM. I Randy Rolfe have been teaching for over 30 years that refined sugar, whether from cane, beet, or corn, is the main cause of modern degenerative conditions like diabetes, heart disease, metabolic syndrome, obesity, joint problems, dehydration, and cancer. I first learned about it from nutrition texts from the 1920s, but the most convincing was the work of British Surgeon T.L. Cleave in the 1950s, supplemented by studies throughout the 1970s. Somehow after that our nation got on a kick to blame fat for getting fat and for the increase in heart disease in the twentieth century. Sounds obvious but it's wrong. All that just hid the real cause - the mounting amount of sugar added to our foods and beverages. If you want to protect your children's health and longevity, watch this film. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dBnniua6-oM

Take home tip for the day. No more sodas. Drink natural fruit juices, diluted with purified water (not distilled - it robs your body of minerals). Limit all sweet baked goods to one per day or none. Avoid candy - except on an occasional holiday. (I do live in the real world.)

Get in touch with your child's social media habits now!

Social media is one of those areas where your child is unlikely to appreciate the risks until they already are deep into the habit of devoting a great deal of time to it. It is new area parents must be vigilant about. Not only should a parent know how much their child is using Facebook, for instance, but they should also have a regular dialogue about what is going on and how the child is reacting.

Furthermore, use should be restricted so that non-cyber activities predominate. And for younger children, the use of social media needs to be prevented, since the child needs to have a grounding in reality before he or she begins to participate in the what some are now calling the "Fakebook" scene. One 16-year-old in a newspaper interview said it was like a giant popluarity contest. It can exaggerate the already stressful effects of artificial competition for popularity in the school or neighborhood environment.

Here is the latest news.

CHICAGO (AP) — Add “Facebook depression” to potential harms linked with social media, an influential doctors’ group warns, referring to a condition it says may affect troubled teens who obsess over the online site. A NEW CONDITION?

Researchers disagree on whether it’s simply an extension of depression some kids feel in other circumstances, or a distinct condition linked with using the online site. But there are unique aspects of Facebook that can make it a particularly tough social landscape to navigate for kids already dealing with poor self-esteem, said Dr. Gwenn O’Keeffe, a Boston-area pediatrician and lead author of new American Academy of Pediatrics social media guidelines.

Parenting Tip for Today: Randy Rolfe, author of The Seven Secrets of Successful Parents, recommends that parents be in touch with their children about their use of Facebook. For kids under 18 living at home they need to limit the child's time spent on social media or any type of cyber screen. And they should get their child to agree to let them have access to their Facebook and other pages. Things that go on on these pages are in fact public and a parent has the right and duty to guide their child's public activities for the sake of their child's reputation and future.

Easy way to remove toxic BPA from your family

For over thirty years my family and I have avoided plastic packaging whenever possible because I knew the plastic leached into our foods and I knew that couldn't be good. How did I know it leached? I could smell the plastic. If the plastic molecules could reach my nose, then they were getting into our food. So we stored food in glass and ceramic containers in the fridge.

Now, finally, with attention on the dangers of BPA in so many of the water bottles sold, a new study shows how prevalent the BPA is and also how changing to non-plastic containers can directly and immediately reduce your family's BPA load.

Here is the story from the San Francisco Chronicle:

"Forgoing packaged foods such as canned soups and vegetables could dramatically lower levels of a hormone-disrupting chemical that has been linked to myriad health problems, including birth defects, autism and reproductive issues, according to a study released today.

"In the study, published in the journal Environmental Health Perspectives, five Bay Area families were asked to eliminate packaged foods from their diets and store food only in glass or stainless steel containers. After only three days, levels of the chemical bisphenol A in the subjects' urine dropped by more than 60 percent, researchers found.

"Researchers were surprised by the dramatic drop in levels of the chemical after such a short change in diet, even though it was known that bisphenol A, also known as BPA, does not stay in the body for long.

""We're hoping these very remarkable results will help us in our outreach and education to people to show them how easily changes can be made in their personal habits that may diminish significant exposure to BPA," said Janet Gray, an author of the report and science adviser to the Breast Cancer Fund, a San Francisco advocacy group and partner in the study."

Read more at: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2011/03/30/MNSL1IIVQM.DTL&tsp=1

Tip for the day: Buy glass containers and avoid products that come in cans and plastics. Go to Randy Rolfe's book The Seven Secrets of Successful Parents to learn more about how to take care of the basic needs of your kids and family!