Scoring More Points for Kid Fitness

I love seeing the AP Press reports on days when articles like this hit my in box. Today, ten major food and drink makers including Campbell Soup, McDonald’s and Cocoa-Cola will be doing more to promote healthy foods and exercise in their child-oriented advertising campaigns. These companies actually account for more than two-thirds of all child-targeted drink and food commercials on television. They are going to reduce the use of recognizable characters (think Little Mermaid, Shrek and others) in their unhealthy food campaigns. They will not advertise in schools. They will make sure that their online games (for advertising purposes) … Continue reading →

Protect Your Children & Yourself From Type II Diabetes

Did you know that November is American Diabetes Month? I didn’t, but it’s a good a time as any to talk about our kids and our own health. Diabetes refers to a condition where your blood sugar or glucose levels are too high. You get glucose from the foods we eat and our bodies use glucose for energy. If we have too much of it, however, it’s not good for us. When a person develops diabetes, it’s usually because their pancreas makes too little or no insulin. Since insulin is the body’s way of processing glucose and transporting it into … Continue reading →

Family Fitness: Get Back Up

We have special exercise needs. Our families and our children have special exercise needs. Our teenagers have very specific exercise needs and we need to keep this in mind as they develop. They can be far more susceptible to damage from overuse of their joints, bones and muscles during exercise. How many of us have injuries relating back to our teenage years? (I do! I have a bad knee.) Too many of our kids are spending way too much time in front of the television or playing video games online or off. They are not getting the time to run, … Continue reading →

Kid Fitness: Red Light, Green Light

Have you ever played red light, green light with your little ones? The principle of the game is pretty straightforward. You say red light and your kids stop. You say green light and they start racing around or moving. Red light, stop. Green light, go. We started playing this particular game with our daughter when she was just 2 years old and by the time she was three, she knew what it meant. Red Light: Stop. Green Light: Go. This system can be applied to our activity levels, our eating choices and more. We teach our kids what’s good and … Continue reading →

Outdoor Play – You remember what play is?

Too often as adults we forget about the simple joys. We forget what it’s like to just go out and play. When was the last time you went down a slide? What about ride on some swings? Have you pushed a merry go round to get it up to speed and just hopped on to laugh? Have you thrown the ball around, and laughed? Have you thrown a Frisbee for the dog or picked up a rock to skip stones across the calm pond? Have you jumped on your bike and taken a long ride along a winding trail and … Continue reading →

Kid Fitness: A Guide for Physical Activity

So how much activity should you child engage in regularly? How much is enough? How much is too much? How do you weigh one activity against another? With childhood obesity the rising concern of many parents, it’s important to understand how to engage your kids in activity and what the definitions of activity and inactivity are. Everyday Activities Everyday activities are the kinds of activities where our children should be spending most of their activity time. So what is included in everyday activities? The following are a sampling, though they are going to be different from child to child: Riding … Continue reading →

Kid Fitness: Flexing The Mind

We talked about stimulating your child’s mind earlier and why this is good for them. Here are a few more exercises designed to help stimulate the minds of older and younger children alike. You might try a few out for yourself as well. Observation Challenge – You perform this exercise by putting a few objects on a tray and giving the child about 10 to 20 seconds to look at it, then cover it up – ask them to name all the objects that are on the tray. You can add the number of items or reduce the observation window … Continue reading →

Kid Fitness: Getting Your Kids off the Sofa

Fall is cold and flu season and there’s nothing that puts kids and parents down quicker than a nasty flu virus or head cold. The problem isn’t just the virus, it’s the secondary conditions you can develop including sinus infections, bronchitis and more. It’s important to keep your kids fit during this time of year. The following tips are good for adults to follow as well because all a cold needs is one foot hold in a household to get everyone else ill. Washing your hands regularly Get a flu shot Exercise regularly Drink plenty of fluids Take a daily … Continue reading →

Kid Fitness – Beware the Backlash

In the last few years, we’ve seen a lot of articles on childhood obesity. We’ve also seen a lot of reaction from the schools and school districts in response to concerns of the parents and the health administration. We’ve applauded the changes they’ve made to the school menus and the cafeteria offerings. We’ve applauded the soda ban and we’re very happy about that. But there’s another ban that’s happening in some schools that’s a little more troubling – it’s a ban on cupcakes. The cupcake ban is not only in the school cafeterias but also as it relates to any … Continue reading →

Walk to School Day

Today is International Walk to School Day and my daughter’s school is celebrating it along with many other schools across the nation. I had to laugh when she came home from school yesterday wearing a sticker telling us she needed to walk to school today because it was important. 4 days out of 5, we walk anyway. So it’s amusing to hear the kids tell me how important it is to walk to school today. Increasing Our Activity Levels Walking to school is healthy for kids, provided they are not walking alone. Unfortunately, in this day and age – safe … Continue reading →