It’s summer.  The season that is between spring and fall, the hottest part of the year, the best season, the worst season.  However you want to describe it, we all have a common thought in mind: STAYING COOL.  

Let’s face it; unless you are independently wealthy or still live with your parents, most of us generally have too much on our plates. 

Excuses for not exercising become easy when the act of simply opening the pile of mail sitting on the couch for the last week seems like too much of a time burden.

For a good portion of our early years, that was the case for us Tomato owners. It’s a contradiction of sorts; we lived in Fruita and opened a business here because of the biking, and then the biking stopped happening when the business grew.

Summer vacation. I have a love/hate relationship with it. For my children, summer vacation symbolizes freedom, fun and testing my patience. Without the structure of a school day routine, it can be easy for children to fall into bad habits, such as watching too much TV, playing countless hours of video games and reaching for those infamous sugary snacks. While children might enjoy this freedom, spending too much time engaging in sedentary activities like these can quickly lead to unhealthy lifestyles. To prevent this unhealthy lifestyle here are a few tips on how I keep my children healthy over summer vacation and save my sanity at the same time!

When spring really starts making the days better and warmer, I think about riding my bike! Actually, I get really excited to get on my bike and ride on the Riverfront Trail, as well as on mountain bike trails. I also like to ride my bike to different places around town. Sometimes I ride my bike to get ice cream, and when I can, I even ride my bike to work! If you have kids, the perfect day to get your kids on bikes is Bike to School Day, Wednesday, May 4th.  Make plans with your neighbors and friends to all ride together! 

Moms everywhere tend to put themselves on the bottom of the priority list. Well, it’s time that mom puts herself on the top rung of that ladder. What we won’t do for ourselves we will do for our children. Do you want them to know how to embrace health and wellness? Well, then you need to be the role model mom.  Let's talk about how we can fit fitness, healthy eating and stress management in so we can practice OptiMOM health!

It is tough working out in the cold. Period. Whether it’s the thought of frostbitten toes or the chance of unforeseen snow, it’s tempting to tell yourself, skip the workout, and stay in bed. Here are a few ways that keep me sane and on track with my fitness routine during this bleak season.

There is nothing like racing your bike under the hot desert sun. You’re in the gate and your mind is racing. You ask yourself, what am I doing? I’m a 33-year-old wife and stay- at-home mother of two. 

On a recent Sunday morning, I took a leisurely jog along the Colorado Riverfront Trail with my dogs and gained a renewed appreciation for the variety of ways locals enjoy our rivers.

We want to hear from you. What factors contribute to a healthy community? What can we do better? 

It got me thinking about my own fears. What are they, and why do I have them? Do they stem from historical events in my own life, from my own insecurities, or something beyond, inherent within this life, this person, that is "me?" 

We pulled in to the County Line parking lot and let the dogs out to run. It was the first snowy weekend in November and lots of people had come up to cross-country ski and/or snowshoe.

We didn’t ski all that long, maybe an hour around the Dog Trail. Back at the parking lot, we opened up the back of the Sequoia, climbed in, and had some black bean and corn salsa with chips.

Looking out the back-end, I said, “Gosh, to think that last year the highway was right there.”

We were all thinking of last season. Not November, January. 

"Two people were just hit by a car,” a guy said. He nodded his head toward the end of the parking lot. “They were killed. Just five minutes ago.”

Sort of a cross between badminton, tennis and ping pong, this is a game I want to try. 

Without much effort on my part, I have found myself chairing a committee to put on a 5K race.

It’s free, unlimited and is known as the great outdoors! That is the best place to play together! We are so lucky to live in a place where there are so many options for play

I climbed Mt. Garfield for the first time seven years ago, on my 41st birthday. My children were younger then, and I knew it would be challenging. But as we got it accomplished, I remember telling my family that I wanted to do this same hike every year on my birthday.