The Role Model In You – Grace Quantock, Wellness Professional

Role Model

Grace Quantock


As part of my new web series, The Role Model In You, here is my most recent interview. The Role Model In You series discusses how individuals were influenced as a child to lead a healthy lifestyle. It covers who influenced these individuals, the changes they made in their life to be healthy, and the message they would like to convey to the youth of today. Our guests include doctors, soccer stars, Super Bowl champions, NBA players, Olympic gold medalist, entrepreneurs, celebrities, and just regular people looking to share their story. I hope you enjoy it!

1. Your name, title, and age? What do you do (or did you do) for a living?

Ms. Grace Quantock, 25, award winning international wellness expert, writer and founder of Healing-Boxes.com

2. Who was the person that inspired you as a child to eat healthy and stay fit? What was their relationship to you?

My Grandmother. Grandma went vegetarian when she was 12, she lived in a little village in Herefordshire in the welsh boarders in Britain. There was a pig in the village all the schoolgirls would visit, he would sunbathe and take mud baths and they would talk to him and lie talking, side by side, resting on his back. But when the pig was killed for meat my Grandmother realised she couldn’t eat her the animal that was once her friend, so she became a vegetarian. This was unheard of at the time, but she did it, even through the war on rationing.

3. What did they do to inspire you?

My Grandmother always feels that the kitchen is home’s heartland and that food is essential for wellness. Grandma makes all her food from scratch. I was a teenager before I tasted shop-bought bread at a friends house. Everyone wanted to stay at my house as we had fresh baked bread and butter for breakfast. Grandma and Grandad grew vegetables, collected wild food and taught me how to. I know the names of all the wild flowers and the wild foods, how to grow them and how to store and preserve them. Grandma walks everyday. The idea of not being outside, of not exercising is foreign to her. How else would you see if the ducklings on the canal are born yet, or of the snowdrops have come up? Last year Grandma climbed snowdon, the highest mountain in Wales.

4. How did their lesson change your life?

It shaped every part of my life, it helped me hold on to, and to be raised with intrinsic values around wellness which are a part of my life every day. I know how to cook, how to grow food, what foods our bodies need, what real food is and how good it tastes and feels. I can cook welsh cakes on an old iron bake stone, heated on the stove, make brambly apple jam and tell which apple it is by the scent.

5. Do you convey their message to kids in your life presently?

I am teaching it to my nephew, and to people through the lifestyle I lead and the books I write.

6. What would be your main message to children today to lead healthy lifestyles?

your body is designed to move, to eat real food and to enjoy. Let’s celebrate what you are capable of by fuelling and moving yourself in the best ways!

7. Do you have a web site you would like to promote….web address only?

www.gracequantock.com

What Causes Childhood Obesity? – Part 6

As many of my regular viewers to this web blog know, there are many factors contributing to childhood obesity. I post daily here about it, whether news print articles, opinions, feedback, or just personal opinion.

Recently, I wrote an article for Yahoo! (click here) about childhood obesity. I started searching for sources for this article, and received over 100 responses to the question, “What do you think caused the rise in childhood obesity?” Responses came from professional and Olympic athletes, fitness experts, health experts, nutritionist, and parents.

I was unable to use everyone’s feedback, but thought it would be great to post some of their responses on my blog in a new web series, “What Causes Childhood Obesity.” I hope that you enjoy the opinions here from various individuals. Please remember, my including their posts does not necessarily mean I agree or endorse their opinion, rather, a place to share other people’s thoughts.

Keeping Kids Fit

Opinion: Dr. Abigail Allen

Suggestions from Dr. Abigail Allen, Pediatric Orthopedist at Mount Sinai School of Medicine in NYC – - ways to combat childhood obesity.

- Get outside and play for at LEAST ½ hour a day with your children.

- NO soda or juice drinks! (yes, this includes “sports” drinks)

- Eat well at home so your children make good decisions in school as well.

- Encourage your children to join an extracurricular activity that keeps them moving.