Interview with Brian Grasso regarding youth obesity, children's health and family fun.
Pat Rigsby: Hey everyone! Pat Rigsby here, and today I have the great pleasure of interviewing Brian Grasso - the world's leading expert on youth fitness. Brian is the founder and CEO of the International Youth Conditioning Association.
So, Brian, I am so excited today that you are going to share your 7 secrets every parent needs to know about raising healthy, happy, and active children. So, let's go ahead and dive right in, if you don't mind.
Brian Grasso: My honor actually - I am very excited myself.
PR: Okay, well, the first secret: you're either part of the problem or part of the solution - can you expound on that, please?
BG: Yeah, this might be one of the more important and critical of my 7 secrets to understand for parents. You know, the obesity crisis and the overweight crisis is affecting youth worldwide - it really is a family issue. It's a systemic issue of the entire family. And what parents have to understand from a mindset perspective is that you cannot preach, you cannot ask or in any conceivable way suggest that your child needs to lose weight or require them to eat healthier or be more active without you yourself being part of that process.
This is very much a systemic family issue, and children will be led - they can be led - but they will follow if they are led properly. But they will never go ahead and just do, because you're preaching at them or to them to do. And that really is - this is why, Pat, this is the first of my seven secrets, because it has to sort of be the lead off hitter.
Parents have to have a mindset change and understand that in order for your child to eat healthier, to be more active, to be active daily, you yourself have to commit to that lifestyle. You have to lead the charge; it has to be a top down systemic family approach. And when parents understand that, everything changes for the child for a number of reasons, not just one or two - a number of reasons. Causes of factors that occur when parents get involved in this process actively are innumerable. One of which is self-esteem, for example. We should never put kids in a place where they identify themselves as overweight or obese, and if we single them out in our family unit or our family structure as they have to create a change, they have to make a change, because they're somehow broken, somehow they're overweight or obese and in need of a correction of some kind - if we single them out and require only them to pursue this better nutritional lifestyle, this more active lifestyle, we then essentially pigeon hole and identify them as overweight or obese in their own minds, in their psyches, in their emotionality, and their self-esteem. And that all by itself causes emotional turmoil, but it can actually backfire as a motivating cause or reason why the child wants to get involved in better nutrition and a more active lifestyle. That's just one reason.
So, parents have to heed this one very, very well. If you're not part of the solution, you are a part of the problem, and part of the solution means being an active player in the process and having this as a top down approach for your entire family - the entire family, yourself included, has to get involved in activity and healthy nutrition to make this a truly final solution for your child.
PR: Wonderful, wonderful insight. So, let's move on to secret number 2...Coming on Friday, February 13
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