Sugary Drinks: How Much is Enough?

It has become common knowledge that too much sugar is correlated to Type II Diabetes, heart disease and tooth decay. The bigger problem behind sugar is why it starts. And why it starts is because we become addicted to it. When it comes to the example we set for our kids, sugar intake is probably the most critical food habit we can pass down to them.

Two-thirds of children have at least 1 sports drink, soda or fruit juice on a given day as noted in a recent study from the Centers for the Disease Control & Prevention. It has been reported by the journal Pediatrics that a quarter of U.S. children between the ages of 12-19 have either Type II Diabetes or pre-diabetes.

This disease can directly lead to heart attack, stroke and eventual blindness.

The American Diabetes Association recommends tips for those with childhood diabetes to manage the disease:

1. Choosing healthy foods

2. Exercising daily

3. Taking medications and checking blood glucose as doctors advise

4. Only allow them one sugary drink per week as a treat

5. Other options that can replace this craving is fruit-infused water - even try lemon or ginger!

Hotels Begin to Focus on In-Room Fitness

This seems like a given but hotels have been for years focused on elaborate public gyms inside their hotels. But now brands like Hilton are the first to innovate around in-room fitness, capitalizing on the very large niche audience that prefer solo fitness.

With the rise of apps for solo meditation and body-weight exercises, this makes so much sense. The idea is making exercise accessible for one of the toughest times, being on-the-go or traveling. For those that travel a lot for their job, this is critical. We often make excuses for not exercising or living healthy when we’re traveling or on-the-go. In May, Hilton became one of the first hotels to offer in-room fitness with 11 pieces of workout equipment.

The workout gear includes:

1. Indoor Wattbike bicycle

2. Gym Rax

3. Training station that lets users tackle body-weight moves with TRX straps.

4. Fitness kiosk, a touch-screen display that offers more than 200 videos, including tutorials on all the equipment, cycling, high-intensity interval training and yoga classes.

Hilton’s choices came from customer feedback that they’d be willing to pay more for convenience of fitness in their room. They also took into consideration a significant study from Cornell University. This report showed that “46 percent of guests expected to work out in the fitness center during their stay, but only 22 percent actually did so.”

The rooms were built much bigger to include enough space to move around the room and store the equipment.

The partnership came about after a survey by the hotel last year found that 70 percent of global travelers struggle to maintain their wellness routines on the road, said Sarah Lipton, the brand’s global director of marketing and management, and that 51 percent of Westin guests are likely to have gym memberships.

The hotel brand Westin also had jumped on the bandwagon. The brant itself conducting a significant survey last year that noted more than 70 percent of global travelers struggle to maintain their wellness routines on the road, said Sarah Lipton, the brand’s global director of marketing and management, and that 51 percent of Westin guests are likely to have gym memberships.

This proves gyms and fitness across the hotel ecosystem shouldn’t be an afterthought. With the rise of wearable tech like fitness watches and on-the-go heart monitors, this shows fitness is only going to become closer to us and convenience is half the battle of getting up off the couch each day. Enjoy your next vacation!