CHILDHOOD OBESITY....THE HEALTHY TRUTH

     We live in a society that puts an emphasis on excess. Look at the food commericals, look at our nations wealthy, and look at our children. In the US alone we have approximately 9 million children over the age of 6 is obese. Now you ask how is this a national problem? It is estimated the treatment of this problem cost us approx $100 million dollars. Children are developing adult like diseases such as sleep apnea, type 2 diabetes, and atherosclerosis( this is the hardening of the arteries)-this is the beginning of heart disease. Now all these complications and obesity itself can be changed if we decide to take action. It is important that these issues are addressed because they sometimes lead to depression, anxiety, low self esteem, social isolation, high blood pressure, fatty liver disease, asthma, increased school absence, decreased test scores, decreased fine and gross motor skills, early onset of puberty in girls and delayed puberty in boys. Scariest of all is this generation may be losing as much as 5 years off their life.
     Our society has become fast paced resulting in our lost of family time. This includes healthy home cooked meals, and outside time spent running and playing. Now this has been replaced with fast food dinners and video game babysitters. No longer are children outside developing social skills or fine tuning their gross motor skills. They text one another and learn how to play football on XBOX with Madden 2012. Our children are a reflection of who we have become. When they see mom and dad stretched out on the couch with some oreo's( OK the cookies are my guilty pleasure) chances are they will do the same. I make it a point to get my children out the house every chance I get, even if it is to just take a walk through the neighborhood. We play all kinds of sports, they ride scooters to the playground,  we skip renacting the Wizard of Oz scence. I am usually the Tin Man, we even race to and from the store( I let them win only on Tuesday's and Saturday's...long story). What I have learned with my children is when exercising is fun they don't realize they are exercising. One place where children can get in a workout and not realize it, is at the playground. The equipment is ideal for this. They climb the monkey bars, they tend to play chase with one another, the run up the wrong way on the slide, even the swings are good forms of exercise. All of this is exercise and its a great way for them to burn off that energy they have built up. Nothing better than children worn out and ready for a nap(this is when I have my cookies).  When he weather doesn't permit outside play, most malls have play areas where children can go and run till their hearts content. Here they can work out social skills while at the same time get in a workout.
      All this in conjunction with eating healthy. All the sugar, soda, cookies( I know me and Oreo's....i will be in Oreo rehab soon) and fatty foods need to be with replaced with fruit, veggies and fish and turkey.
Our future doesn't have to be clouded with obesity and disease. Let our children know we love them not only through our hugs and kisses, but by giving them a fighting chance to grow up and grow old. Take 30 minutes of your you day and show your children some HEALTHY LOVE.
#GET AKB FIT

TEACHING A HEALTHY APPROACH TO A HAPPY EXISTENCE