Empowering Healthy Kids Blog

This looks good and I like the online tracking component:

The President’s Council on Physical Fitness and Sports is launching the first-ever National President’s Challenge, a six week physical activity challenge to get America moving!  The Challenge, which kicks off March 20th, is designed to help people live healthier and get fit by finding activities they really enjoy.

Many people remember the youth fitness test they performed in school.  What began in 1966 as a school-based program has now become the President’s Challenge and something everyone can participate in, including youth, adults, senior citizens, and people with disabilities.  The online program allows participants to track their activities, see their progress and challenge themselves to become healthier.

Signing up for the National President’s Challenge is easy and free.  Simply go to www.presidentschallenge.org and register as an individual or with a group to participate with friends, family or co-workers.  To complete the Challenge, youth aged 6-17 are encouraged to aim for at least 60 minutes of activity, five days a week, while adults 18 and older are encouraged to get at least 30 minutes of activity, five days a week.

Register at www.presidentschallenge.org. Some nice tips on getting moving from their site:

 ADULTS

•    Stand up and walk while on the phone.
•    Take stairs instead of elevators.
•    Park farther from the office and walk the difference.
•    Get off the bus a stop earlier and walk the difference.
•    Take a long walk instead of a long lunch.
•     Take a walk break instead of a coffee break.
•    Choose activities you enjoy (consistency is more important than intensity).
•    Start with small steps.  Walk 2000 steps a day; work up to 10,000 steps or more a day.
•    Get active with your family.  An active family is a healthy family.

KIDS

•    Take your dog out for a walk.
•    Start up a playground kickball game.
•    Join a sports team.
•    Go to the park with a friend.
•    Help your parents with yard work.
•    Play tag with kids in your neighborhood.
•    Ride your bike to school.
•    Walk to the store for your mom or dad.
•    See how many jumping jacks you can do.
•    Race a friend to the end of the block.

As opposed to Australia, a proposal to track the BMI of children gets knocked on the head:

The bill’s sponsor says the data would only have been used to shape efforts to fight childhood obesity, but the panel voted to strip it from a larger public health bill.

The sponsor, Representative Diane Loeffler of Minneapolis, says she did not set out to monitor individual children or make their status public in the schools. She says childhood obesity is an epidemic that’s threatening the health of children everywhere.

Opponents still feared the numbers could shame overweight children and teenagers. But the proposal is still alive for now in a Senate bill.

I generally don’t like bans; much prefer education to encourage long-term behaviour change:

The rising incidence of childhood obesity is cause for serious concern, but banning advertising to children is not the quick-fix solution to a multifactorial and complex problem. That was the key message delivered by the Association of Canadian Advertisers at a conference in Ottawa earlier this week examining childhood obesity rates.

In fact, the amount of food and beverage advertising directed to children has been decreasing in recent years even as obesity rates have climbed, Bob Reaume, the ACA’s Vice President of Policy and Research told the conference, held in response to a report on childhood obesity released last year by the federal government’s Standing Committee on Health.

Reaume’s comments stood in sharp contrast to those of a panel, comprised of academic and community representatives, who claimed a causal link between advertising and obesity. The panel is calling on governments to impose a marketing ban on “unhealthy” food and beverages to children.

Reaume noted that industry is taking a proactive approach to the obesity problem by pledging only to advertise healthier choice products and healthy active living messages. Marketers are eager to collaborate with policy makers and health groups to find effective solutions.

San Marcos students now have to pass high school fitness tests under a new California law:

The new law, which goes into effect with this year’s freshmen class, is geared toward students who have room for improvement on the statewide physical fitness test —- the so-called Fitnessgram.

The test is designed to measure categories such as muscle strength, endurance, flexibility and aerobic capacity, the body’s ability to generate energy with the use of oxygen.

Results of the test are reported each year in grades five, seven and nine, and are based on students’ performance in six tasks: curl-ups, trunk lifts, push-ups or pull-ups, shoulder stretches, body composition and a 1-mile run.

While students are required to take two years of physical education to graduate high school, the new law requires students who do not pass at least five of the six tasks on the test in ninth grade to continue to enroll in physical education until they pass. Physical education is not required after the sophomore year, but students can still take it as an elective.

As a Fitness Professional I have dedicated my life to keeping active and inspiring others to do the same, however I am only human and it is in those moments that my friends (and the people I look up to) help keep me on track either by direct action or just by setting a shining example, the ones who work hard to improve their fitness, the ones who are older than me and maintain and improve their fitness despite setbacks, the ones who take on and beat challenges that they may never have considered 6 months ago and of course the ones who dedicate time and effort to help others do the same.

These people are my heroes, these people whether they realise it or not help me constantly re-new my energies and reaffirm why I do what I do.

When it comes to kids (or adults) in your life, is there someone that you care about that you want to see be active, healthy and energised about life..

It is a great thing to care about others and help them be active but how much more could you help them (or how many more people could you help) if you ensured you applied those 3 things to your own life. The answer is more than you realise because not only will it be the ones you commmunicate directly with, it will be the ones that look up to you as a role model, as a parent, grand-parent, sibling it may even be people who you don’t know.

So think about your closest circle of friends, and ask yourself a few questions… What do you all have in common? Do each of you play a slightly different role in the group? Is there someone in that group that you aspire to be more like?
Help others by helping yourself, be unstoppable!

Gary

About the Author: Gary is the award winning Founder and Lead Trainer of juggernautPT helping people enjoy life, stay strong and be unstoppable!