2nd Secret - Interview with Brian Grasso regarding youth obesity, children's health and family fun.
PR: So, let's move on to secret number 2: Exercise isn't necessarily what you think it is.
BG: Right. And this again is one of those mindset differences that parents need to understand, and I'm more than pleased to have this on my top 7 secrets list. Far too often in our contemporary society, we associate exercise as so many minutes a day of regimented, concerted work, in which the heart rate has to elevate to a certain level, we have to burn so many calories, we have to sweat for so long, and to be honest Pat, governing bodies in our culture in the United States of America and beyond do a disservice when they explain to people that you must be active for so many minutes per day at such an intensity in order to reap health benefits. Nothing could be farther from the truth.
We have to take our focus off of what the recommendations are and understand that for exercise to become part - and I don't even like to use the word exercise - for activity to become part of your child's life daily and your life daily, it has to be routed in fun. If it's fun and invigorating, we're more apt to do it. So, I don't need it to be a 30 minute Stairmaster or treadmill sweat fest. We don't have to have a bad time with this - we have to have a good time. We have to have fun. And I'll challenge you on this one particular consideration - walk on a treadmill for a half an hour at a reasonable speed - nothing excessive. Just go ahead and walk on a treadmill or go for a walk for half an hour. And then the next day play a game. Play tag for seven minutes - literally seven minutes. You know, climb all through the monkey bars and all these other apparatus on a standard park playground for seven minutes - nonstop, just go ahead and be active for seven minutes doing whatever the amenities that that particular playground offer to you. And you tell me which is harder, and you also tell me which is more fun.
The reality is that fun has to be the core of the activity, and what we have to understand is that full-body systemic movement - movement - is the key, because it's innately more difficult, it's what the body wants to do - it wants to be active in a completely systemic, all-encompassing way. So, we have to resist taking advice, the common advice of so many calories have to be burned for so long at such a heart rate intensity - we have to throw that right out the window, and we have to just play games. Be active. Have fun. And do it for short periods of time, especially in the beginning of this process.
You can't go from zero to 60 if your kid is not used to being active, if you yourself are not used to being active, it behooves the motivation to try and be active 4 or 5 times a week for 30 or 45 minutes like the recommendations say in a way that's just not fun or invigorating for you. So, get outdoors. Play games. Play tag. Play hide and go seek. Climb around the playground. Have fun for 5 to 7 minutes a day, and that's it. And then once you instill a habit of being active every single day, from there you can increase the time, you can increase the intensity; you can do all kinds of different things. But to get the ball rolling you just have to commit from somewhere in the neighborhood of 3-7 minutes a day with systemic body movements that really are game play or game oriented type activities, and once you establish that, we can move it all kinds of different directions for you.
But that's what parents have to understand - exercise is not really what you think it is when it comes to changing the tides of youth obesity and being active on a daily basis.
PR: Very good. Alright, let's move onto secret number 3...Coming Monday, Feb. 16
Our mission is to provide uplifting, healthy and fun programs to the community. You deserve the best.
Click here and enjoy this FREE E-book,
Smoothies for Athletes, and start treating yourself to something fun.
