Kids and Fitness
I gave a 15 minute nutrition and fitness presentation at the end of a summer recreation girl’s basketball game. Kind of a tough crowd. Tough because girls between the ages of 13-16 who’ve just played their hearts want to go home after the game, not listen. To their credit though they gave me as much of their attention as they could. Some were receptive others were busy texting their friends or talking to the person sitting next to them. There were some parents and other adults in the audience who appeared to be interested. Everyone’s ears perked up when I told of my experience with CNN and Dr.Sanjay Gupta. I also got their attention when I mentioned that I’d lost over 80 lbs.
Informing them that 60%of average weight girls between the ages of 9 and 19 were dieting didn’t seem to phase them. Hmm, what could I tell them to make the subject of nutrition and fitness hit home. They were there for basketball so maybe that was the tie in. What you eat will have an effect on your game, I told them. A couple of them stopped texting. “If you want a scholarship to a top ten school you’ll need good grades. This means you have to pay attention in class, healthy balanced meals will help“. A couple of them sat up straighter. Finally, I was on to something, they all perked up. Now that I had their attention I had to keep it, and I did.
It would have been easy for me to go out and tell them how to design a well rounded eating plan and how many sets and reps of squats and lunges to do. However, that’s not what they needed. They needed to be reached at their level with information that they found interesting. Our children need our help. This nation is home to some of the fattest children in the world and we ‘ve got to do something about it. The parents bear some responsibility, as do the children, but the rest of us do as well. If we know better it’s up to share what we know. We have to make sure that the generation destined to care for us later on be well advised and know that banana pudding is not a fruit.
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