Parents: Physical Activity

We have become an increasingly inactive, or sedentary society. The Center for Disease Control (CDC) tells us that our nation’s increasingly physically inactive and poor nutritional lifestyle have combined to make obesity a leading cause of preventable death in America. Medical evidence confirms that inactivity puts us at risk for diseases including coronary artery disease, hypertension, type 2 diabetes, certain types of cancer and depression, among other chronic diseases.

Making regular physical activity, in conjunction with healthful eating, a habit requires commitment, time and patience. It is essential to lifelong wellness. You should do it for yourself and your family. Do it together!

N&F is attempting to educate our young people about “why” healthy physical activity choices are important to achieving lifelong fitness and wellness. Through participation in N&F’s motivational programming, children (and their families) will identify physical activities that they enjoy and can engage in regularly. Each child will learn to take greater responsibility for the choices they make with regard to their free time activities. Parental support and encouragement of physically active choices will reinforce the positive value of such activity. Participating alongside your child in these activities will help to firmly establish regular physical activity as a lifelong “choice” activity for them.

Younger children will, of course, require more direction and guidance from you than older children to begin and continue participating regularly in lifelong physical activity building experiences. But, again, all children regardless of age will benefit from support, encouragement, and your actual participation in the child’s efforts to become more physically active.

How much physical activity should you and your children be getting:

Adults - 30 minutes of moderate physical activity (equivalent to brisk walk) on most days of the week can reduce the risk of chronic disease in adults

Adults - Up to 60 minutes of moderate to vigorous physical activity will enhance your health, reduce the risk of chronic disease and help prevent weight gain.

Children & Adolescents- At least 60 minutes of moderate to vigorous physical activity on most, if not all, days of the week to maintain good health and fitness and for maintaining a healthy weight while growing.

These minutes do not have to be consecutive and uninterrupted. They can be collected in small 10-15 minute increments over the course of the day.

It is also worthy to note that more vigorous activity provides greater health and weight benefits.

How Much Time Do You Spend Being Physically Active?

If you’re already doing this much, that’s great and keep on moving! If you’re not, we think you can hit that mark. If you don’t know how much time you spend, you might surprise yourself. Think of this as like solving a mystery. There are some things we can do to help you figure it out.

To make it easier to figure out your current level of activity, it really helps to keep a journal. You’ll find journal sheets on this website at: Daily Food and Activity Diary. Over the next few days try and mark down during or at the end of the day how much time you spent being active. You don’t have to do it all at one time; you can collect it over smaller segments of at least 10-15 minutes throughout your day. You can include in your journal time spent in gym class, playing on a sports team, doing running or games during recess, or any other activities you did before or after school that involved being on the move or getting exercise.

For a List of Healthy & Fun Physical Activities, click here!

How Does Regular Physical Activity Help Us?

Essential to understanding the impact of physical activity upon general health and wellness is an understanding of the importance of maintaining your body’s energy balance. Our body needs to strike a balance between calories consumed through eating food and the calories burned as a result of operating our bodily functions and engaging in physical activity. We experience an energy imbalance when we consume more food calories than our bodies can burn. When we have such an energy imbalance, our bodies convert the excess unexpended calories or energy to fat for storage.

Increasingly sedentary lifestyles and an increase in food portion sizes in our nation have jointly contributed to a prolonged energy imbalance that has resulted in greater numbers of us retaining unhealthy weight. Based upon research, public health officials encourage us to engage in regular physical activity to help re-establish and sustain the correct energy balance in our body that is essential to maintaining a healthy weight.

In short, we are being told to become active again and that by doing so we will burn a greater number of calories. This will, in turn, help our bodies strike the energy balance necessary to maintain a healthy weight.

A List of Several Health Benefits of Regular Physical Activity:

Reduced risk of heart disease/cardiovascular disease Reduced risk of hypertension Reduced risk of type 2 diabetes Reduced risk of colon cancer Less chance of anxiety or depression Better and more restful sleep Helpful in weight management Enhanced self esteem

How can parents help their children practice making healthy physical activity choices for healthy lives?

1. Involve the whole family: Finding time in busy schedules to include the time for being active together is essential to meeting the recommended levels of physical activity. Choose activities the entire family can engage in together and have fun. You can make it a “team” effort and chart your levels of activity as a motivator.



2. Be a good role model: Our children learn a great deal about life practices through observing the behaviors of their parents and caregivers. Set a “good” example by incorporating moderate to vigorous physical activity in your own life.



3. Support your child’s participation in “fun” physical activity: Help your child by positively encouraging them to find physical activities that they enjoy. Accompany them on trips to facilities such as, playgrounds, ball fields, and structured sports leagues that place a priority on giving all children the opportunity to play. Check with your school and local department of parks and recreation for competitive as well as non-competitive sports and physical activity programs in your community.



4. Turn off the television, the computer and other passive electronic entertainment: Studies have shown that our children are watching hours of television or playing electronic games daily. Limiting time spent in these sedentary activities increases the opportunities for you and your children to become active together. Going for a brisk walk or playing ball together can positively impact your ability to amass the recommended levels of physical activity.



5. Have the family members sign a contract: Executing a contract promising that each family member will engage in a prescribed amount of physical activity, either together or individually, if it cannot be accomplished jointly, will help meet target levels. Chart the family’s progress toward an attainable goal and reward the family with a non-food prize when goals are realized.

Click Here Courtesy of USDA-WicWorks

Tips for helping children achieve health-related fitness: help them identify physical activity that they may find “fun” model for them a physically active lifestyle to emulate encourage them with positive expressions of support for their efforts steer them toward activities that will build their aerobic capacity (being able to exercise and play for long periods without getting tired) vary the intensity of the activity to reflect the natural cycle of childhood play which varies between periods of active play and periods of rest or reduced intensity vary the nature of the activity frequently enough to prevent boredom by bringing a number of different activities along or setting up different activity stations remember that fostering health-related fitness is different from developing sports specific skills and we are attempting to help them find a variety of activities they can enjoy for life help your child by guiding them in solving problems and eliminating barriers that preclude them from being physically active help your children understand that food is fuel for the body and that physical activity helps burn the fuel and manage weight help your child understand that regular physical activity will help make them look and feel good now and later make sure children have plenty of water available before, during and after physical activity

Physical Activity Aids in Good Mental Health:

Studies have shown a relationship between childhood overweight and lower self-esteem. In addition to lower self-esteem, children adversely affected also report increased rates of loneliness, sadness, nervousness, smoking, alcohol use, and bullying others or being bullied.

We at N&F attempt to teach children tolerance and acceptance of others. By showing that we are all different and that there are many different body types we hope to minimize ignorance and intolerance. By fostering a team approach at home and in the school, we are attempting to create reinforcing positive social structures for all children to learn to make healthy choices for healthy lives.

Help Children Set and Accomplish Physical Activity Goals

While increased physical activity has been shown to help a child experience enhanced self-esteem, the process of setting and realizing self-set goals can be equally rewarding. The process of setting activity goals and achieving those goals can have a profoundly positive effect upon at-risk children as they work with their parents to address and achieve physical activity and nutrition balance in their lives.

Key to success in goal setting is helping your child to select definite and achievable goals. Making a commitment to incrementally change behaviors through utilization of a team approach has been shown to reduce the chances of relapse to poor behaviors. Help your child to set short term goals that you are confident they can realize in a fairly short period of time, perhaps a few days of effort. They can also set a more substantial long term goal to strive toward over a larger period of time. Your family can also establish family-wide team goals to work toward and achieve together
Remember that it is important to acknowledge the achievement of goals. Try and recognize such milestones with encouragement and a perhaps a special “Certificate of Achievement” describing the accomplishment. Look for our “FREE” Printable Achievement Certificates Coming Soon.

A note of caution with regard to goal setting: be careful to help your child set goals that will help them stay motivated rather than set them up for failure.

If You Get Stuck or Could Use Some Help: Ask The Pro

If you have a question about goal setting or about other aspects of making physical activity a priority in your life, talk to your parents first. If they give you permission you can also go to “Ask The Pro” on this site. Submit questions you have. Chances are that the answer to your question that will be posted at this site will provide help to others attempting to get more active.

Physical Activity Links