So I mightcould be alone on this…

by

but Im still stuck pondering yesterday’s post.

And all the great comments and laments.

MizFit, and the Bumbling Band I suspect, is an action person (which is different from her being her own superhero but kind of the same). Brianna gave us some great suggestions to get started and I cant help but wanna continue the process.

My thoughts?

1. perhaps buy older children pedometers and let them see how many steps they take a day.

kids love gadgets, right? *I* wouldnt even add ANY pressure here with regards to increasing the number of steps taken. I think this might be a give and let go ( a roots and wings if you will) idea.

(Similar to the WOMAN Challenge —–Webwalking USA has a fun ‘game’ for pedometers which could work for the whole family!)

b. I loved Heathers comment yesterday about the LIFESTYLE not the LOOKS.

Perhaps we start talking to our children about what it’s like to feel tired & sluggish (“like walking through thick, deep mud”) versus energized & fabulous (“the way you feel in the morning after a great night’s sleep when you know you have a fun day ahead!”).

Have them demonstrate for us what each type of fueling might look like in action.

Explain to them how food is human fuel just as gas is (frickin’ expensive) fuel for a car.

Chat about how, when we put in poor quality fuel, we end up with a sluggish s-l-o-w moving HUMANvehicle.

Your thoughts? specific ideas?

Id love to generate a list we all could refer back to in those holy crap I need a way to motivate my family/change the path we’re on moments.

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Comments

  2. Okay, taking Miz up on her offer. There is a fabulous DVD for Children that I would love to tell you about. Shaun T. has a children’s DVD called “Fit Kid’s Club”. If you have ever seen Shaun T. you know what a fabulous motivator he is for adults and his children’s DVD is all that and more. If you would like more information, please visit my page and contact me.
    Thank you Miz. And I swear the hole in the bottom is true!

  3. Such a good idea! I especially love your suggestion of planting the ideas in their heads but not pushing it, like giving kids pedometers but not telling them to aim for a certain amount of steps. Because sometimes instructing them to increase the amount will just have (unintentional) negative effects.

  4. Mizfit, I am still pondering this myself. We’re hoping to expand our family soon, and want to raise healthy kids with positive outlooks. Any tried and true methods will go into my (somewhat faulty) memory bank. A reference point would be better than my memory!

  5. Glad you brought this up. My daughter has been borrowing my pedometer, and now wants one of her own. She doesn’t need to lose weight. When she seen how excited and surprise I am, with the total steps I’ve taken with every day steps. She got excited and wanted to also try this out.
    She now enjoys seeing how many steps she takes, just at work. I feel just like our eating habits. We teach by example. If we ourselves eat healthy and exercise. Our kids will follow. I wish I had done this, when they were younger, like Roni has with Ryan.
    When they are older it is a bit more difficult. But, I feel if you continue to live this way, and they see how much happier you are. Its like a snowball effect. It just creeps into their lives as well.

  6. A few months ago we put a pedometer on our son, just to see. In an hour and a half he got 2,000 steps. Without even trying.

    He’s my hero,lol!

  7. I’ve been thinking about it too.

    My kids are still young – 6 and 8. In my own experience, the very best thing to do is modeling a healthy lifestyle.

    Not sure what can be done once they are older, but the pedometer idea just might work!

  9. This is a neat idea for a post. And very useful. Incidentally, I refer to any fast food joint as a “Lifeshaver” or a Big Mac as a hamburger with extra artery plaque. I like to paint a mental image.

  10. I love the fuel analogy too 🙂 Although my daughter is only 2.5, we teach her that good food makes her body work better. Snacks are a treat, but she always asks for a “healthy snack” because of what I mentioned above. We also try and teach her that it’s good to walk, especially after meals, in that it helps her body utilize the food better.

  11. Since our kids are so little (5, 4, 1) they pretty much have to do whatever we do! And my husband and i lead a very active life – no tv or movies, lots of rock climbing, frisbee, soccer, dancing, parks every day etc. and we make a point to integrate our kids into our lifestyle. So I’m hoping that they will be so ingrained (indoctrinated?) that when they get more independent they will still choose to be active. We’ll see how it all pans out though:)

  12. I think it’s so hard, particularly with older kids…once they get to be about 10 (if you’re lucky!), they are so resistant to anything Mom or Dad says is a good idea. Okay, maybe that’s just my kids. 🙂 But still.

    I am a firm believer in modeling healthy behavior. I try very hard to make sure my kids see me doing the right things – and indulging sensibly, because I don’t want them thinking that being healthy can never be fun! – and to make sure the choices they have at home are healthy ones. (God knows I can’t much control their options anywhere else.) When I do preach, I preach moderation. I try to give them the message that being healthy is about THINKING about what you’re doing to and with your body before you do it, not necessarily about a weight or a size or any other number.

    But I try not to preach much at all, because if I say something more than twice, it becomes a “Mom-ism” and they totally disregard. 🙂 So I try to just model the behaviors and hope it sticks.

    V.

  13. Modelling the healthy life style is really the most important thing. My 7 yo wouldn’t really ride his bike, so my husband and I bought bikes, got a 3rd wheel attachment for my 5 year old and now we all go out together. I can’t say he loves it, but I do and my daughter really does (although I have to remind her to stop dingging the bell and pedal sometimes, especially up the hills!) It gets us all out there together. And, in the past, if we said “Let’s go for a walk” my son would complain, but now, I say “Walk or bike ride” and he will chose one, not yell “Just stay home.”

  15. i’m really excited that my future children aren’t going to have weight problems, since i’m all about the healthy food and activity. what i’m worried about though, is keeping the focus on living healthy and not “being skinny.” i’m really going to have to watch what i say.

  16. alas, i have no children to teach. and no neices or nephews…. at least not until january (!!!). but, maybe i’ll print this out and give it to my sister, or keep it for 5 years before i have my own.

  17. We try to talk about food as our “fuel,” like gas for our car or coal for the train (we have a train lover). We also try to use examples – my mother who is about to start on insulin, and who has NO ENERGY to play with the kids when she comes to visit because she eats so poorly and gets no exercise.

    Something else I’ve been trying with my 4 yo, and I can’t remember where I got the idea, is to talk about foods like a stoplight: green foods, or “go” foods, are those you can eat as much of as you want (basically), like veggies, fruit, water, and such. Yellow foods, “slow” foods, are those you should eat frequently but in moderation or small amounts – dairy, breads, eggs, most meats. Red foods, “stop foods,” are those which should be eaten rarely, never, or in VERY small amounts – ice cream, soda (the boys never get soda, but I have one occasionally), other sweet drinks, the popcorn balls I just had to make.

    My 4 yo son LOVES this, and we talk about whether what he is eating is a Go, Slow or Stop food, and the stoplight comparison works well.

    And yes, of course, modeling healthy habits, and allowing treats in moderation. Like the aforementioned popcorn balls, which made me feel like a 6-year-old on Halloween.

  18. Fitness and eating choices should TOTALLY be about healthy living . . . I agree hands down with all of you!

    Judy – great idea with the stoplight idea for talking about foods. I love it!

    At my house we have food allergies to contend with, so we talk about foods that are “on the list” and things on the list that will power our brains and bodies vs. the occasional sweet that is tasy but doesn’t help our bodies work. It is all about balance! Never easy, but easi-ER when you work together as a family and support one another with positive choices and enjoy the more fun “stop” foods from time to time!

    When I talk with students, we discuss how fitness and those so called “go” foods make our bodies feel – and how when you take care of your body, it can help you achieve your goals! The ultimate reward for loving who you are, taking care of your body and embracing your personal skills is that you can do ANYTHING you put your mind to. Again, it isn’t always easy . . . but good health, positive relationships with your family and friends, and working with others to achieve your goals (and theirs) is a rich road to travel and the strong network of people around you make those bumps (sometimes mountain-sized) roads easier to navigate.

    Great dialogue, folks! Thanks for sharing your insight!

  19. How about turning exercise into a fun, family game? Every week, have everyone in the family write down an activity they would like to do (maybe playing frisbee, hiking, going on a bike ride) and put it in a “hat”… then every week you draw an idea out of that hat and that’s the family activity you will do that week during your family activity time.

    BTW Miz, love your website, too! 😉

  20. I like that human fuel concept. Hey, it’s good for me to hear, let alone teaching it to children! 🙂

    I think making exercise and eating healthy a lifestyle right from the start, children will accept it as the norm. Easier to start a habit than break a bad one later on.

  21. WOW. Lots of ideas here I hadnt thought about before.

    And the hat idea, FatFighter? I might need that one for ME & cross-training!

    M.

  22. Great post MizFit, and great suggestions, folks!!

    I completely agree with the roots/wings analogy and not pushing your kids. In fact, sometimes I have to go slightly in the other direction to keep Mr. OCD from fixating, say, on how many steps he’s done (and by how many he’s beating MOMMY) in a given day.

    Great topic!

  23. I’d say as a kid that didn’t have great food role models, that is definitely key. I think limiting kids exposure to things can be bad too, you always remember meeting that one kid that’s never seen cartoons or a soda and that extreme isn’t good either. Just my .02

  25. I have three young boys who, like most kids are naturally very healthy eaters. We’ve discussed how commercials really aren’t in place to tell the truth, and they know that we’re just not down with HFCS, trans-fats, and energy-sapping stuff that impersonates real food. I’ve really let them be intuitive, and they have candy in the house from time to time – it usually gets thrown away because they’ll have a piece or two and then forget about it.

    Growing up in a home where food was love and treats were comfort; I’ve never been able to ignore a bar of chocolate for an hour, never mind months at a time. I think that they provide me with examples of intuitive eating.

    One of our techniques to keep exercise fun is to reward good behavior with activity (it’s the way I like to reward myself). They’ll get a bike-ride, a trip to the park, bowling, or their favorite – the high school track. When we’re there, they get to play soccer, run a few laps, do flips on the mats, and practice the long jump. They love to climb/run up and down the stadium steps, so we usually spend at least a half-hour there.

    When we’re on our way to a destination, I usually try to look into any parks, indoor play structures, or other areas of interest. Yesterday we went to the dentist, and because they were all so good – we took a detour on the way home to the super-park. We spent two hours running around, climbing, and playing before lunch.

    I also want them to try new sports, not just one I think (or they think) they should be playing. I just signed them up for gymnastics, and one boy was less than enthused, saying that it might be for girls. I told him to try it this summer, and if he doesn’t like it – we wouldn’t do gymnastics again. Guess who had the best time at the first practice? “Mom, do you know they let us jump on the trampoline, and next time we can try flips into the foam pit?!”

    One last thing. Often my husband and I will have the babysitter come to hang out with them while we have an active date – we’ll go kayaking, rock-climbing, or just for a long run. I hope that our example of enjoying an active lifestyle sticks with them. It’s not an example I grew up with and I didn’t figure it out until I was in my late 20’s; it was another few years until I really figured out how to put it into practice.

  26. wow, artsci. thanks so much for taking the time to share all those GREAT thoughts.

    definitely a tremendous addition to the cut, paste, print which will be this post!

    M.

  27. Keep exercise fun is my first thought, combined with good nutriton, and actually speaking with your children about why exercise is good, how it fuels the body, why you need to drink water, run around, and eat veggies nd fruot which I am trying to implement and you will have a recipe for success.

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