The small study, published in the Journal of Nutrition, tested mood, concentration and mental skills in 25 women who either were given enough fluids to remain optimally hydrated or were induced into a mildly dehydrated state. Dehydration was achieved through either exercise alone or by using both exercise and a diuretic drug that increased urination.

The women’s mood and cognitive abilities were tested during exercise and at rest under the different hydration conditions. On most mental tests, the women’s state of hydration didn’t affect performance, but being dehydrated did cause headache symptoms, loss of focus, a sense of fatigue and low mood both at rest and during exercise. The dehydration induced in the study was not severe: it was around 1% lower than optimal.

They offer a telltale clue to help – in case monitoring your own mood wasn’t enough…

To check your own hydration state, peek at the color of your urine: if it’s darker rather than nearly clear, you need more water.

Water is often a neglected ingredient in a healthy diet. It’s why we’ve made it one of the highlights in our new Countdown to Health 54321+8 product line, which promotes:

• 5 servings of fruits and vegetables
• 4 glasses of water
• 3 good laughs
• 2 hours of screen time (or less)
• 1 hour of physical activity
• 8 hours (or more) of sleep

These portions are for kids – but when you are thinking about kids, but sure to think about your own needs too. It’s important to Think Healthy for everyone!

Fully 95% of all teens ages 12-17 are now online and 80% of those online teens are users of social media sites.

Teens are the most likely age demographic to be online –and 70 percent of those surveyed go online every day. Facebook was overwhelmingly the most popular social media web site used. But the report wasn’t just about quantity; the researchers really looked at what’s happening online.

It turns out that 88 percent of social media using teens have seen people be mean online. About 15 percent felt that they had been the target of online cruelty. The most popular reaction to witnessing online meanness was to ignore the situation (95 percent) but 84 percent reported having seen people come to the defense of the targets of meanness. The news wasn’t all bad for online activity however, according to the report…

More teens report positive personal outcomes than negative ones from interactions on social network sites: 78% report at least one good outcome and 41% report at least one negative outcome.

But one question we have to ask as parents and teachers is: how are students learning to behave online? Here is the answer according to the Pew Report:

For general advice and influence, parents are still the top source for teen internet and cell phone users. However, teens receive advice from a wide array of sources.

• 86% of online and cell phone-using teens say they have received general advice about how to use the internet responsibly and safely from their parents.
• 70% of online and cell-using teens say they have gotten advice about internet safety from teachers or another adult at school.
• 45% have received advice from friends or classmates, 45% have received general advice from an older relative, and 46% have received internet safety advice from a brother, sister, or cousin.
• 58% of teen internet and cell phone users say their parents have been the biggest influence on what they think is appropriate or inappropriate when using the internet or a cell phone.
• 18% of teens say their friends have been their biggest influence on appropriate internet or cell phone behavior.
• 18% say “no one” has influenced them.

Do you feel qualified to lead your teens through murky water of social media? Learning ZoneXpress has range of Internet safety products that can help, including a DVD and Activity set that may help you and your teen: Staying Safe Online: Digital Footprint DVD and Activity Packet. It helps you protect the kids in your life – whether in the classroom or at home. .

To: You

From: Learning ZoneXpress

The holiday season wouldn’t be complete without gifts! And gifts certainly aren’t complete without gift tags! Well, LZX has saved you a little bit of work this year by creating these adorable gift labels! They are designed for Avery 5162 labels, but if you don’t have that on hand, you can simply print them out on any 8.5 x 11 sheet of paper! Just cut them out, and tape them on to the gifts of your choice! They are available for free download, so you can print as many as you’d like.

Haven’t found the perfect gift to use the labels on?  Check out our Garden Heroes. Try to pick a favorite out of all 39! It isn’t an easy task, let me tell you. If you find one you like, enter GARDEN11DS at checkout, and we’ll drop the price to $4.00 for you!

Promote healthy holidays with these fun items from Learning ZoneXpress.

1 Great Plate Cut-Outs

Follow the USDA MyPlate model and teach correct portion sizes, food group proportions and plate composition with 1 Great Plate® Cut-Outs.

MyPlate Prize Box

Promote healthy eating with a variety of USDA MyPlate giveaways and prizes with the MyPlate Prize Box. Over 1200 MyPlate incentives in a convenient, easy-to-store box!

MyPlate Retractable Banner

Showcase the key nutrition and health messages of USDA’s MyPlate anytime, anywhere! The MyPlate Retractable Banner rolls up and down in seconds and features key food group messages of the USDA food icon MyPlate.

School is out and our LZX Team is traveling! We thought it would be fun to take along some Garden Heroes and snap some pictures to see if our Facebook Friends can guess where they are. We’re going all over the globe. If you have a clue where they might be, just chime in and guess where in the world the Garden Heroes are!

Meet the Fruit & Veggie GARDEN HEROES!

If you happen to be traveling this summer, please take a Garden Hero with you – snap a picture, and post it on our Facebook page (or send it to us at julia@learningzonexpress.com to post) and we’ll have fun guessing where in the world the Garden Heroes are too.

In fact, we would be happy to give you a coupon code for 10% off your next order if you correctly guess where our Garden Heroes are or if you send us a picture of your Garden Hero traveling. (One per customer please, no other discounts apply).

Not our Facebook Friend yet? Become one Today!

If you happen to be traveling this summer, please take a Garden Hero with you – snap a picture, and post it on our Facebook page (or send it to us at julia@learningzonexpress.com to post) and we’ll have fun guessing where in the world the Garden Heroes are too.

In fact, we would be happy to give you a coupon code for 10% off your next order if you correctly guess where our Garden Heroes are or if you send us a picture of your Garden Hero traveling. (One per customer please, no other discounts apply). 

We’re going to start Week 1 with a picture we think is pretty easy…

  Not our Facebook Friend yet? Become one Today!

It seems like we’re all about MyPlate here because after nearly two decades, it is exciting to have a whole new image for nutrition. But a little like fashion, we’re seeing glimmers in our own collection that may have helped to predict the latest USDA MyPlate transformation.

A couple of years ago, we started a series called 1 Great Plate™.  Our blueprint will sound familiar to anyone who has been reading up on MyPlate:

1 Great Plate™ is a good-for-you and tasty meal showing the divisions of 1/2 fruits and vegetables, 1/4 whole grains, and 1/4 lean protein.

It’s familiar because it’s built on sound science and nutrition. The “new” part of MyPlate and 1 Great Plate™ is the actual image. With 1 Great Plate™,  we created  portion-sized images that would work with three main age groups: Preschoolers, School Kids and Adults.

1 Great Plate™ for Preschoolers Poster

• 1 Great Plate™ for Preschoolers (Childcare and Kindergarten) uses a colorful plate, kid-friendly utensils and easy to eat options that will be recognizable for preschool kids
• 1 Great Plate™ for Kids includes more food, to help keep a school age kid fueled for the day – but the equation is the same.
• 1 Great Plate™ for Adults includes touches that will appeal to a more mature taste – with a touch of sauce and grown up portions

We’ve used the 1 Great Plate icons to create a range of products that promote healthy eating – posters, handouts, lesson plans, bookmarks, stickers. They are perfect for classrooms, lunchrooms, healthcare clinics – any place where good health can be shared.

1 Great Plate™ for Kids Poster

1 Great Plate™ for Adults Poster