How was your workout today? Did you do one? What was your most active thing you performed today? If you are into exercise, then fantastic, but the obesity and overweight numbers in our country and rising enrollments in weight loss camps would indicate that most of us do not exercise often enough. Our sedentary lives born out of modern convenience have created quite a few health problems for many of us.
Children learn more from what Mom and Dad “do” rather than what they “say.” If they see you exercising every day, then they will be more likely to exercise regularly themselves. Even if you have a hard time picturing your 7-year-old “working out,” you also cannot expect 15 minutes of playing outside with friends to be enough exercise for them.
Especially when your children get older, active play diminishes. Girls tend to switch to more sedentary activities even sooner. Unless you have a little athlete or rough and tumble kiddo, your child probably doesn’t get enough regular exercise just through playing. Sports kids only have a few practices or games a week. This is simply not enough.
Don’t get me wrong here, sports and playing outside is beneficial on many fronts, but if you want to foster daily fitness that your child will take with them long into their adult years, then you need to make it as much of a habit as brushing their teeth. This might be difficult if you don‚Äôt already exercise, but now might be a good time to get the whole family in shape. You might consider fat camps this summer or over the next break to help, but you can get started right now!
At home, you can begin helping your child exercise by finding exercise activities that they enjoy, yet offer a routine type activity. A regular game of tag at the park might be a good way to start, but continue to push towards more routine activities such as running. You could do this by sneaking in the running. Perhaps, “IT” needs to run a lap around the field before chasing the other players. You may also consider purchasing some home gym equipment and getting your kids involved with that after you teach them how to properly use it. Make sure you keep safety in mind. For younger kids, a trampoline that has walls around is a great purchase or even a jump rope for a less expensive route.
You can make any exercise fun and your child will learn how to do this as well. Sooner or later, they’ll be able to incorporate it into their lives on a daily basis. A teen weight loss camp can help also. Your child will probably have loads of fun too!
9 Comments until now
There was a girl from England on GMA today that lost 200 lbs this year at Wellspring Camp.
Dr. Js last blog post..A global survey of eating habits, and a fitter you at the top of the stairs
Dr J – I rest my case.
Great post thank you
It’s good that there are camps to address this issue- but there’s a shame that there has to be camps like this at all!
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I agree, these camps probably help children to lose some weight and to gain healthy eating habits which is great, but at the same time it is quite sad that we need them.
This is all so foreign to me as I was one of those “rough and tumble” kids growing up… we didn’t call it exercise, we called it “playing.”
One has to be so careful with this issue though, not to shame overweight kids and set up disordered eating and body image. I worry that sending reluctant fat kids off to exercise “camps” could backfire in some cases if not carefully handled.
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I keep trying to post and the security code is driving me nuts.
grrrrrh
And I had such a clever post too.
Great post. It seems fitness has been totally de-emphasized from our youth. Many schools have cut gym entirely, and most don’t require any sports or physical activity.
With the growing weight crisis it is important to get your child started early.
Great post. Ill be sending out to friends.
I agree wholeheartedly. A healthy lifestyle should really begin during childhood, and the parents can help with that a lot. I wish my family had been more active when I was a child; perhaps then I wouldn’t have been overweight all my life.
Thanks for the excellent post!
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