Promoting Children's Fitness

As you may have heard, children today have a lower life expectancy than their parents for the first time in recorded history. Obesity and sedentary lifestyles are predicting serious epidemics of heart disease and diabetes when the younger generation ages. The lifestyle practices and dietary choices of American children are atrocious. If you have children or can influence them, it is time to take some simple steps to make a radical change away from the path towards a predicted dismal future.

Children have a natural affinity for exercise and play. They also have a natural affinity for healthy foods. This is an evolutionary human instinct proven true by the landmark studies of Dr. Clara Davis - where children were presented with a variety of foods and allowed to eat whatever they wanted. Over the course of several days they gravitated towards the most nutritious foods and ate the exact amount of calories and balance of nutrients they needed for peak function.

At Skyridge Elementary School, I witness a community effort to create healthy, fit lifestyles for kids. This public school has a lunchtime "Trekkers" jogging/walking program (where kids accumulate miles for awards), an annual Jog-A-Thon where every kid in the school runs laps and raises money for the Parent Teacher Club, a Skyridge Olympics competition where every child is timed in a sprint and distance race and awards are given to top performers, an after-school cross country team to introduce interested kids to competitive running and a morning pickup soccer game where up to 50 kids race full speed across a huge field for 10 minutes before the bell rings in a fierce "Big Kids vs Little Kids" daily battle! The principal organizes a healthy awareness week with signage, programs and guest speakers about healthy eating and exercise. These efforts are driven by concerned parents and educators and make a huge difference.

However, the momentum is huge against healthy eating and exercise habits. Mainstream food choices and advertising have made unhealthy foods ubiquitous in our culture. Read "Fast Food Nation" by Eric Schlosser to grasp just how devastating the impact of the fast food industry is on America. I ask you to place this issue high on your priority list – to become informed, focused and even militant against bad food and bad lifestyle practices for you and your kids.

If you have lifestyle elements that force inactivity (such as relying on car transportation), you must make efforts to ensure that your kids keep active on a daily basis. Even in a small area such as a backyard or family room, kids can figure out active games that will get their hearts racing and blood pumping. Kids food choices are essentially controlled by parents until they reach their teen years, so present them with healthy options and healthy meal time habits that they can carry with them into adulthood. More details about how you can take simple steps to eat a healthy diet and lead an active lifestyle are available in my book Power Month available at www.bradventures.com.