Obesity Rates in Children

Obesity rates and inactivity levels in our children are beginning to spiral out of control.  In the United States more than 30% of kids and teens are overweight or obese and by the year 2010 it is estimated to be around 50%.  That is half the kids and teens in the US people!! 

There is no need to point fingers at any one problem or person, because as a whole we are all in trouble.  The numbers for the adult population are not much better.  However, I feel we are not taking care of our children and doing right by them.

The difference here in my opinion is this:

1. If you are an adult, you are in control of your own fate, you can choose to eat fast food etc.  As a child, the food choices available to you, are not necessarily in your control.
2. If you become overweight as an adult you do not start dealing with the symptoms of being overweight until you are older 50′s and 60′s.  Whereas, the kids who are obese are dealing with adult issues such as high blood pressure, high cholesterol and type II diabetes in the their teens.

This is definitely going to change the life span of our future generations if something isn’t corrected.

It is obvious that as we become more technically advanced our opportunities for activity diminish.  Kids would rather play on the computer then ride a bike or skateboard, heck even some of those have become motorized.

I take back the pointing fingers part.  One place I will lay blame is our school systems and local sports organizations.  Physical education is down to once a week or in some cases not at all.  Believe it or not for kids to become efficient at hopping, skipping, jumping and running they have to be exposed to it and have opportunities to practice those various skills.  They can’t very well do that if they are never taught the skills in the first place.  If I didn’t know how to play outside I probably would be more comfortable inside.

I have been watching my son play baseball for the past 5 years in little league.  I am very frustrated, with the whole structure we have in place for our 4-10 year olds.  (My daughter plays soccer and I see some of the same things).  They don’t keep score, OK I can live with that.  However, at some point in time our children do need to learn how to keep score, and with that learn to lose graciously.  This issue will be a rant for another day.

So, if they don’t keep score the main focus would be on skill acquisition and teaching the fundamentals I would suppose.  The funny thing is, as I have been watching the past few years, most of the coaches have only been focusing on the better players.  Now, some coaches seem to have it right, they are spending a lot of their time with the kids who need it.

 Again, I can understand where some of the kids are coming from, they try a new sport for the first time and because they might not be as good as some of the other players, they are stuck out in the outfield all the time, instead of being allowed to try some of the other positions.  They get bored hate the sport and never want to go back.

As the adults in our community and families we need to step up and become the role models for our children.  We can help get them moving more and teach them how to make better food choices.

If you are in the area enroll your kids in my Summer Fitness Camp this July.

Stay Motivated,

Karen

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