Ab Workout - Combating Childhood Obesity

By Jose Loni

Include combating childhood obesity in your ab workout arsenal as childhood obesity is the leading cause of adult abdominal obesity. Children today have lost the balance between the energy they take in and the energy they expend, which is key to a healthy weight. They are faced with more food choices, more processed foods and large food portions. And modern man has engineered physical activity out of our children's lives, replacing it with remote controls, computer and video games. As a result, childhood obesity is on the rise.

The single largest factor in childhood obesity is lack of physical activity and excessive sedentary behaviour-watching too much television and playing too many video games. This sedentary lifestyle is the greatest risk factor when it comes to collecting fat around the abdomen. Abdominal fat is the invisible fat surrounding the inner organs, which gives the stomach its roundness and height.

Excess fat in the stomach area is more damaging for the heart than a few extra pounds on your bottom, thighs and hips. Each centimeter increase in the waistline increases the risk of heart disease because abdominal fat is more active. It enters the blood system and adversely affects our blood vessels, liver, blood fats and blood pressure. It also slows sugar metabolism since the body's insulin becomes less effective.

But health risks can be dealt with relatively easily. Exercise is the best way for the body to rid itself of abdominal fat. Exercising at least twice a week for at least half an hour at a time decreases incidence of abdominal obesity. And parents can encourage their children to be more active and join organized sports, dance classes or just being outdoors more instead of letting them be couch potatoes and playing computer and video games all day long.

Schools can do their part by organizing a more appealing physical education program. Offer classes like martial arts, basketball, baseball, and dance to attract much more participation from students, which is needed to combat childhood obesity.

School cafeterias can also serve healthier food choices and smaller portions for its students to increase alertness (high fat and high carbohydrate foods lead to lethargy) and avoid overeating. At home, parents should lead by example and serve nutritious food and a well-balanced diet.

There is an unfortunate correlation between the increase in child obesity and the popularity of video games. In addition, a decreased interest in customary outdoor play, overuse of the internet and the proliferation of television programming contribute to the rise in childhood obesity.

But combating childhood obesity can be done through early exposure to physical activity, healthy food choices and maintaining balance in their food intake and energy expenditure. Making these a part of their ab workout routine will get childhood obesity numbers down again.

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Kids Fitness Activities - Make Exercise Fun and Effective

By David OSullivan

The key to ensuring that your child participates in regular exercise is to make it fun and enjoyable. If your child feels as though it is a chore, or that they are being coerced into doing something, then they will run the opposite way. However, if you take the time to develop some kids fitness activities that are actually fun to do, then you will soon find that they will be asking to exercise. Below you will find some of fun activities that you can share with your children.

Play an Active Game

If your children already like to play board games, then why not interest them in an active one? Games such as twister are wonderful for getting kids up and moving. To make the activity even more enticing, offer to do it with your children. Kids of all age like to have their parents join in the fun every once in a while.

Pool Noodle Limbo

Drag your kids off the couch, and subject them to a fun game of pool noodle limbo. All you need is a pool noodle, the kind that floats in the water and some crazy limbo music if you can get your hands on some. Have two people hold the noodle while the others try to limbo underneath. Whoever can go the lowest wins, and gets first choice at the homemade popsicles?

Musical Chairs

This is an old time favorite, but also a great way to get your kids up and moving around. To play, you just need several chairs or hula hoops set next to each other. When the music starts, the kids walk around the hoops or chairs in a big circle. As the music stops, they all jump into a hoop or chair as quick as they can. The one left without a chair is sent to the cheering section, and a chair is taken away before the next round.

Different Types of Tag

Almost everyone has played tag at one point or another. If you have not introduced your kids to this wonderful game, then now is the perfect time. This is one of the most fun kids fitness activities there are. All that kids have to do is choose someone to be it, and then that person runs around tagging the others. When they are caught they have to freeze until a teammate comes and untags them. To put a fun twist on the game, give kids flashlights, and let them play tag in the dark.

There are a wide variety of kids fitness activities that can be done in a fun way. Children will be more open to exercise if they don't even know that they are doing it. By introducing a child to fun activities and games, you are allowing them the chance to get active without making it feel like a chore or something that they have to do. If you do this correctly, then your children will be asking you to exercise in no time.

Written by Dave O'Sullivan Co-Creator of Team NutraFun. For more information visit them at http://www.nutritionalfun.com

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Youth Obesity - How Can We Make a Difference

By Ben Warstler

Our youth are growing at an amazing rate, and it isn't in the good way. They are getting heavier and heavier every day with no end in site. While many believe that kids and parents are just getting lazier, I believe there is much more to this issue.

Often, we as adults get frustrated and feel as if there is no solution for our kids being overweight except for forcing activity upon them until they finally give in. Unfortunately this is the wrong approach and could quite possibly end up being the one thing that pushes youth away from physical activity. Youth must see the value in it, and by value, I'm referring to fun. It must be fun for them, but it also must be effective toward an end result. The more we make it look like work or something they have to do, the more likely they will be to turn away and give it the cold shoulder.

If you are a coach of a youth sports team, your role doesn't change from the points I made above. Many youth will be there because they want to be, but others will be there more for the social component and may not even like the sport. Your job then is to make it fun for everyone first. Running kids into the ground and yelling at them to the point of tears is no way to coach youth and I quite frankly find it disgusting (speaking about actual events I have witnessed just recently). What are the chances this child will continue to participate in this sport when they get older?

The truth is most youth don't even know how to move, let alone play a sport flawlessly. If youth don't know how to move, how can we coach a sport that involves movement? In essence we are putting the horse before the carriage believing that sport conditioning is way more important than learning how to perform the move correctly by knowing how our bodies move.

As adults we need to understand two things: first is youth learn what they see. So leading by example is vital for our youth to understand that their health can not be ignored. An active lifestyle can be fun and not hard work. Develop a lifestyle of active activities and get youth involved when preparing healthy meals.

The second thing is we can't expect youth to be excited about the same things you are. That means when it comes to exercise, going out for a run or a long swim isn't something they will find fun. There are countless other activities that will serve youth better that they will enjoy and will choose to continue these activities in the future.

Our youth fit camps in February address the needs of youth with their movement to boost confidence but also a conditioning component they so desperately need to become more active.

For more information and to grab your Free Report: The 10 Areas of Leisure: Ideas to get your youth moving again, go to http://www.youthconditioningnewengland.com

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Set Goals That Help Our Obese Children

By Jared Wadel

In general, the goal is for the whole family to get lots of exercise and eat a healthy, well-balanced diet. The message to obese kids or any children should never be, "You are fat and need to lose weight." Instead, it should be, "We all need to eat right and be active so that we can be healthy.". Remember, the goal with kids is to balance the calories they consume with the calories they burn and let them grow out of any excess weight they may be carrying.

By being active with your kids you are role-modeling healthy behaviors and spending precious time together! Our goal is to provide you with the basic information you will need as a parent or caregiver of an obese or overweight child. We need to return to more traditional ways of eating, exercising and being with our families. Girls whose moms were worried that their daughter would be overweight were more likely to have abnormal eating behaviors.

The causes of obesity are complex, including genetic, biological, behavioral, nutritional and cultural factors. Obesity occurs when a person eats more calories than the body burns up. With a child of any age, it is extremely important not to use food as a reward or to control behavior. These children learn to use food as a stress reliever.

You can encourage healthy eating by serving more fruits and vegetables and buying fewer sodas and high-calorie, high-fat snack foods. Kids need about 60 minutes each day of some sort of physical activity, that involves moving the whole body, not just the thumbs playing some sort of video game, join your child and go for a walk,or go to the play ground, what ever just get moving.Find out more on the youth obesity solution.

Author: Jared Wadel The Youth Obesity Solution... http://www.squidoo.com/theyouthobesitysolution Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Jared_Wadel

Where's the Big Bold Plan Designed to Eliminate Childhood Obesity?

By Rick Osbourne

America's staggering economy and our childhood obesity epidemic share a number of things in common starting with the fact that in both cases procrastination only serves to make the problem worse. Procrastination allows the cancer to spread and in the wake of the recent holiday President Obama took action on the economy. He applied a tourniquet in order to stop the bleeding. He jolted the heart in order to keep it beating, and he moved this nation from talking about it, to doing something about the problem. Whether you like what he did or not, he took action!

In this case the moves had to be big and bold because a hodgepodge of band-aids and patchwork solutions didn't stand a snowball's chance in Honolulu. In short, when it comes to the economy we finally took bold action. In the case of childhood obesity we have not.

Without a Big and Bold Plan...

Realistically speaking we've been debating, researching, and wringing our hands over childhood obesity for at least a decade now. But after spending many billions of dollars and passively standing by while millions of young lives are being washed down the greasy drain, all we have to show for it is a patchwork of band-aids, a hodgepodge of semi-interventions that the childhood obesity monster laughs at, and spits on, as he continues his attack on our nation's kids.

Like the economy, without a big, bold, and coherent antidote that we the people can understand and rally behind, millions of our kids will lose their battle with childhood obesity.

Where's the Vince Lombardi...

At this juncture I ask, where's the US Surgeon General who not only prioritizes the problem, but adds "And here's the actions we need to take in order to turn the tide on childhood obesity." Where's the Congressman who's willing to risk his own political capital, stand up in the face of the continually babbling experts and say "If we take these actions we'll defeat childhood obesity in a predictable amount of time." Where's the Lee Iacocca, the Vince Lombardi, the Jack Kennedy, the ML King, the Proverbial People Mover who can move us from wallowing in procrastination, to ACTION against childhood obesity,?

The Difference Between Winning and Losing

Controversial marketing guru Dan Kennedy contends that the difference between the winners and the losers in this life is the ability (or the lack of ability) to take action. It's true for our nation's economy and it's equally true for childhood obesity. In both cases it's time to stop talking and to do something about the problem...now!

Rick Osbourne spent 17 years as a physical educator and coach. He currently serves as Executive Director of Operation Pull Your Own Weight, (http://www.pullyourownweight.net) an informational website whose claim to fame is a strategy that motivates kids to naturally immunize themselves against obesity for life. Osbourne is also a public speaker, and his book "Operation Pull Your Own Weight: A Radically Simple Solution to Childhood Obesity," (on Amazon) shows parents and educators how to motivate their kids to eat better, exercise more, and to naturally immunize themselves against obesity for life. Osbourne a can be reached at Osbourne.rick@gmail.com

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Kids Fitness Routines - Why Are They Important?

By David OSullivan

Starting children on a kids fitness program at a young age is important for many reasons. Before you start thinking of ways that you can help your child stay healthy, you should consider these reasons. Once you know the reasons for helping your children stay healthy, you will be able to develop a customized plan for your child.

Good for Their Health

It goes without saying that developing kids fitness routines for your child at a young age can promote good health for their entire life. The more a child is taught to be active and healthy, the more likely they will be to keep those ideas when they are grown.

By helping your child start a healthful routine while they are still young, you can keep them healthy, and combat childhood obesity. There are few better things that you could do for your children. As your kids grow older, they will have less chance of developing weight related diseases such as heart problems and diabetes as well.

Helps Them Socialize

Kids fitness routines can teach your children how to socialize with others. This is not a benefit that is commonly considered, but it should be. Team sports whether they are through a school or local community center, are available to children who are as young as three years old. At this young age, children learn how to work together with others towards a common goal, while staying in shape and remaining healthy.

Teaches Them How to Follow Rules

With kids fitness routines, you get the chance to teach your children about following rules as well. No matter what exercise you involve them in, there will be some set of guidelines that they must follow. If they are only a few years old, this helps them practice how to follow simple set of instructions and prepares them for the rules they will need to follow in school.

Teaches Them Discipline and Self Respect

Children, who are taught to perform regular exercise routines, whether it is a fun activity like gymnastics or a team sport like baseball, will learn discipline and self respect. They will learn how to value themselves as they accomplish more and more through exercise routines. Children will also learn how to stick with a program and persevere even when they might want to quit.

Teamwork

Kids who participate in routines that involve others will learn the importance of teamwork and getting along for the sake of the greater good. This will teach them to work hand in hand towards something with people that they may not necessarily get along with.

There are so many good benefits that can be gained from getting your children involved in kids fitness routines at a young age. With all of these benefits, it is hard to find a reason not to get your child involved in some sort of exercise routine. Once you look over the various things that can be gained through regular fitness, you can begin to put a routine together or your own child.

Written by Dave O'Sullivan Co-Creator of Team NutraFun. For more information visit them at http://www.nutritionalfun.com

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Kids With Clogged Arteries

By Jeff A Wise

Kids don't usually have a lot in common with middle-aged adults. Sadly, what they are now starting to share are thick and stiff arteries.

In a recent study, researchers discovered that the arteries of many obese children and teenagers are comparable to those of a typical 45-year-old . With the saying "you're as old as your arteries," these children may see major health problems at an early age.

According to study leader Dr. Geetha Raghuveer of the University of Missouri at Kansas City, " It's possible that they will have heart disease in their 20s and 30s ." This is tragic news for our young generation.

There's no denying the childhood obesity epidemic in America. Experts weren't surprised to find such results during their study. But results like these should wake up our country and our children's parents . It's time to take control of our kids' health and make some changes.

If you have an obese or overweight child, please understand the severity of this situation. It is not your child's fault for their weight problem. You are the one in control . While you would never want to intentionally hurt your child, allowing them to live such unhealthy lifestyles will likely shorten their lifespan.

No parent wants to be the cause of their child's death, but that is exactly what you're doing when you allow them to eat whatever they want whenever they want, without restrictions or exercise .

Even if your child appears to be healthy, examine their diet and activity levels . A child may have a high metabolism, thus not gaining excessive weight, but may be equally unhealthy. What type of foods are they eating daily? Are they getting the proper amount of vegetables, fruits, whole grains, etc.? Are they involved in any kids exercise ?

Perhaps what needs to change first is your own diet and exercise. It's much harder to have healthy children if you yourself aren't healthy. If this describes you, make a resolution to improve the health of your family , beginning with yourself. But don't feel you have to do it all at once. Make gradual changes. Here are a few steps to improving your family's health and future.

• Exercise with your children 30 minutes to 1 hour at least 3-5 days a week.

• Choose healthier food selections. A good rule is to stay away from food items that have a lot of ingredients.

• Make sure you and your kids sleep 8-9 hours per night.

• Remove any unnecessary stress from your life and your kids' lives.

Parents want their children to have long, healthy lives. The best way to ensure that is to teach them healthy habits when they're young. For great suggestions, articles and kids exercises, click here.

Jeff Wise http://www.myfamilyexercise.com Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Jeff_A_Wise