Archive for November, 2006
Children all over the globe are leading sedentary lifestyles. Reports out of The President’s Council on Physical Fitness & Sports have stated that 40% of all 5-8 year olds suffer from at least one risk factor for heart disease (physical inactivity, obesity, high cholesterol, high blood pressure). The children’s obesity epidemic prevalent in our society is a reality. Numerous resources are stating that children watch an average of 2-4 hours of television a night while they exercise less and less.
The key to reducing childhood obesity is the parents. Parents need to monitor what their children do and eat every day. Taking a ‘laxed’ attitude can prove to be very dangerous. Children must be educated on how to eat properly, exercise daily, play less video games, and watch less TV. Parents need to take a lead role in reducing the rate of overweight and obese children or their children’s life expectancy will grow lower and lower. Healthy habits need to start at a very young age. Waiting for the children to figure out how to exercise and eat healthy on their own may prove to be fatal in the long run. Now is the time to act.
What are some benefits for your children when they exercise?
- Increases your child’s muscle strength and endurance
- Protects your child’s muscles and joints from injury
- May improve performance in a particular sport
- A healthy body composition
- Stronger bones
- Improved self-esteem
- Lower chance of depression
- Maintain a healthy blood pressure
- Better heart and lung function
- Lower blood cholesterol levels
- Overall well being
- A good fitness habit that lasts a lifetime
The amount of overweight or obese children has significantly gone up over the last couple of decades. It is fair to state there are many children all over the world that have become very sedentary. They sit in front of the television, work on the computer, play video games, or read too many comics. To be honest, I am probably guilty of this once in a while, although, I do try to exercise every day!
So, here was the dilemma. The children who watch over 20 hours of TV per week were most likely not getting the recommended amount of daily exercise. How do you get them to exercise without taking away their television privileges?
Realistically, some parents should probably cut the amount of TV time down about 50%. The problem is; who is going to monitor this if both parents are working late, and the child is responsible for their own actions when they come home? There has to be a way to get children to exercise while they watched television. Did you realize that every 8-10 minutes most channels were devoted to commercial time? How about if a child committed to exercise every time a new commercial came on the TV? Thus, the phrase ‘Commercial-CIZE’ was born. Children should pick realistic exercise goals to perform during commercials.
Visit the Commercial-cize web site for more information.
November 29th, 2006
by Len Saunders
Do kids understand that food = energy? Do they understand what a calorie equals to? There is a great lesson on calories from NPR ( link ) which states, “food is the equivalent of energy. And calories are simply a unit of measurement for the energy.”
The article helps simplify how labels on food products list the calories, proteins, fats, and carbohydrates. Joe Cifelli, a professor of education at St. Joseph‘s University taught a valuable lesson the some local 4th graders. This article is so good, I cannot highlight all the important / valuable sections. I encourage you all to read it, but I placed a ‘snip’ below.
Snip…”How many of you think cheese curls have energy?” he probes. About half the kids raise their hands.
“OK, half of you say yes and half say no. Good,” Cifelli says.
Cifelli knows that if he just blurts out the answer, the kids will lose interest. He wants them to figure it out. In order to bring the lesson alive, he sets the cheese curl on fire.
“I’m just going to put this flame under it,” Cifelli tells students, “and we’re going to watch what happens.” A beaker of water sits over the burning cheese curl, and Cifelli uses a thermometer to measure the temperature.
As the flame grows, Cifelli asks them to describe what they see. They talk among themselves about the smoke and the flame, then Cifelli shows them that the curl is burning on its own. He’s no longer lighting it with a flame from below.
“What does this tell us?” Cifelli asks.
“It shows us that the cheese curl has energy,” answers a student.
In order to figure out how much energy, Cifelli dips the thermometer in the beaker of water and takes a second reading.
“When we look at the new temperature, we can see that it’s 45 degrees Celsius. We can see it’s changed,” says Cifelli. He asks them to use their calculators to compute the change. He explains that the difference between the old temperature and the new temperature is the key to calculating calories.
Cifelli doesn’t expect the student to walk away with the precise understanding that a calorie is the energy needed to increase the temperature of 1 gram of water by 1 degree Celsius. Rather, he wants them to grasp a broader understanding. When he asks for questions, student Tiantia Willis says she know cheese curls are junk food, so she was surprised to see they have so much energy….Snip
Remember, each gram of fat contains 9 calories and each gram of protein and carbohydrates contains 4 calories. Therefore, the amount of calories in any food item is equal to the amount of (fat * 9) + the amount of (protein * 4) + the amount of (carbohydrate * 4) (in grams).
Another lesson would be to teach the children the difference between fat, protein, and carbohydrate calories.
November 20th, 2006
by Len Saunders
As I launch new children’s fitness programs, I will always post them here first for my regular visitors. I am going to begin a new program in December 2006 called PACES Day. The number of overweight children and adults around the globe has significantly increased over the last twenty years. For two decades, Project ACES (All Children Exercise Simultaneously) has motivated millions of children to exercise in over 50 countries. In celebration of the 20th anniversary of Project ACES (May 2008), I now introduce PACES. PACES is an acronym for ‘Parents And Children Exercise Simultaneously.’ PACES Day takes place every weekend throughout the year, highlighted on the first Saturday in May. Children need daily, quality physical education in schools, and exercise time at home (PACES). Families will sign up to exercise together every Saturday throughout the year as a way of promoting fitness and family time. To learn more about the program, click here.
November 15th, 2006
by Len Saunders
Children should learn the importance of drinking water. Since 70% (or two-thirds) of your body is made up of liquid, it is always important to replenish your body with the substance. Did you realize that 1 in 5 calories consumed by children is from liquids? This alone is a good reason to have your children drink more water that other liquids. Children should drink plenty of water as well as low fat milk and 100% all natural juices throughout the day.
There are plenty of theories about how much water we should drink every day. One formula I have found to be simple is to take your body weight in pounds and divide that number in half. That gives you the number of ounces of water per day that you need to drink. For example, if you weigh 100 pounds, you should drink at least 50 ounces of water per day. I found this example on various web pages. Personally, I find this formula to be too high. I think it would be acceptable to set a goal of one-third your body weight. Other sources just state it is acceptable to drink 8, eight ounces of water daily. They state this is for the average person not in a very hot environment or sweats a lot from physical activity. When I am asked about water intake for children, I just say drink plenty all day long and check the color of your child’s urine. After the first urination, it should remain colorless the remainder of the day. If it is yellow in color, and you have normal kidneys, that could be a sign that you need to drink more water!
Why water?
Water removes harmful toxins from the body.
Water suppresses the appetite.
Water is a great lubricant in the body.
Water helps burn fat as fuel.
Drinking water is essential for weight loss.
Water helps muscle stimulation.
Water helps you perform better during exercise.
Water helps to regulate your body temperature.
According to FreeDrinkingWater.com ( link ), “Water makes up more than two thirds of the weight of the human body, and without it, humans would die in a few days. The human brain is made up of 95% water, blood is 82% and lungs 90%. A mere 2% drop in our body’s water supply can trigger signs of dehydration: fuzzy short-term memory, trouble with basic math, and difficulty focusing on smaller print, such as a computer screen. (Are you having trouble reading this? Drink up!) Mild dehydration is also one of the most common causes of daytime fatigue. An estimated seventy-five percent of Americans have mild, chronic dehydration. Pretty scary statistic for a developed country, where water is readily available through the tap or bottle.”
“In addition to the daily maintenance of our bodies, water also plays a key role in the prevention of disease. Drinking eight glasses of water daily can decrease the risk of colon cancer by 45%, bladder cancer by 50% and it can potentially even reduce the risk of breast cancer. And those are just a few examples! As you follow other links on our website, you can read more in depth about how water can aid in the prevention and cure of many types of diseases, ailments and disorders that affect the many systems of our bodies.”
November 1st, 2006
by Len Saunders