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One cannot read a website, a magazine or a newspaper without seeing some child related issue and the topic is usually obesity. Believe it or not, this is good news. Having spent the majority of my adult life working to change policies related to kids and education, I know often, the first step is to expand knowledge. The media performs a great service by getting people to focus on issues they may not think about normally. Here is a recent example. This was the cover story. Once the media begins to focus on items, then the public becomes more aware. When awareness rises, so too does action. People want answers, people look to policymakers when it becomes something that needs to be addressed. Policymakers, many of whom want to be re-elected take action. This is beginning to happen with obesity. While the answer is not going to be solved by changes in law, it is a start. To eliminate obesity we need more than changes in statutes. We need families, schools, communities, businesses and children themselves to help address this problem. Together we can eliminate obesity. We have had some discussion on here about who is most responsible. I would suggest, until we all get engaged, we all have a degree of responsibility. |
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Obesity is everyone's problem! |
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I have to admit, I am a C-Span watcher. Yes, I fall into that 2% of people who watch the deliberations of the United States Congress on television. The truly sad part is I will holler at the TV like most people do watching a sporting event. Comments like "That amendment was germane," "Call the vote" and various other remarks. I'm not proud of it, but admitting it is the first step. Recently, while watching the House of Representatives, they have a portion dedicated to one minute or two minute remarks by elected officials and they generally use these remarks to preface the introduction of a bill. One such bill was being introduced to mandate physical education classes and mandatory testing in physical education as part of the No Child Left Behind Act. Now, I know from my time there this bill is likely DOA due to pressure by school administrators, school boards, and other educational entities who are saddled with the costs of these mandates. For good or bad, this is the reality. Since we have established that I'm a bit of a geek, hopefully nobody will be surprised by the fact that I found the bill on line and decided to read it. I'd like to share some statistics from this bill and hopefully you too will realize why we need to act and act soon. Obesity-related diseases cost the United 11 States economy more than $100,000,000,000 every
year. The Department of Health and Human Services estimates that, by 2010, 20 percent of children and youth in the United States will be obese. Look at five kids and know that one of them will be obese. Overweight adolescents have a 70 percent chance of becoming overweight adults, increasing their risk for chronic disease, disability, and death. Of all United States deaths from major chronic disease, 23 percent are linked to sedentary lifestyles that now begin at childhood. This is not some "pie-in-the-sky" prediction. These statistics come from the government agencies that have the experts to track and run valid models to predict these numbers. As parents, community members, educators and others is this what we want for our children? The truly sad part is we know the cure. We know how to fix this problem. this is not like some unknown or new disease. The solution is in front of us and within us. We can fix this, it just takes the will. A decline in physical activity has contributed to the unprecedented epidemic of childhood obesity. Part of the decline in physical activity has been in our Nation’s schools, where physical education programs have been cut back in the past two decades. Between 1991 and 2003, enrollment of high school students in daily Physical Education classes fell from 41.6 percent to 28.4 percent. Approximately 81 percent of adults believe daily physical education should be mandatory in schools So why the disconnect? Want to learn more about this bill ways to help eliminate obesity in children? contact me
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P.S. I promise my next post will not be so severe. |
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Leave No Stone Unturned in Fighting Childhood Obesity |
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I agree with the previous post that parents are important in fighting childhood obesity. Parents play a critical role in everything from health and happiness to academic success for children. Unfortunately, we live in a world where many parents are not proactive and engaged, modeling good behavior. For many parents, it is a question of time. In some homes parents are working two jobs and so busy trying to make ends meet that they are not able to model healthy behaviors and provide the support critical. I see this all the time in education. So do we give up on those kids who do not have the adequate family structure to succeed? We all wish that parents would and could do more, but it does not always happen. My Fitness 1st is looking for different ways to incorporate and help parents to model the healthy behavior and to give their kids that extra boost to help them. Anecdotally, Shaq's Big Family Challenge, a resounding success on many fronts showed the difference in family support. The children who had a family embracing them and preparing healthy foods and encouraging exercise lost the most weight. However everyone on the show lost weight. The most heartening was the growth of the afterschool activities program. This was because the obese kids wanted to bring their friends. This sort of peer-to-peer modeling is very successful. That is why several of our grants at My Fitness 1st believes the Fitness Ambassador Program will achieve this same involvement. In the fight to eliminate childhood obesity everyone matters. In the perfect world the behaviors will be taught at home. But if they are not, we are going to find other ways to eliminate obesity. This crisis is too great and we must use every and any approach to win. |
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I recently attended a day long seminar referred to as the Children's Summit. This seminar focused on the fact that federal expenditures, as a share of the federal budget, have been declining for programs supporting children. In 1950, which seems to be the golden year for these comparisons, the federal government invested almost 20% of all expenditures in a program supporting children. Today, in 2006, the federal expenditures total roughly 15%. In a nutshell, children are a declining priority of the federal government. As part of the summit I was fortunate to hear Frank Luntz, a prominent pollster and communications specialist. He has been featured on network news and his work permeates public policy and corporate America. He opened his remarks with a very depressing statistic. The dream of all parents is for their children to do better than they have done. We want our kids to be healthier, wealthier, happier and wiser. We used to believe that would be the case. Dr. Luntz, however pointed out that for the first time since the late 1960's, our national mood is gloom. Only 1/3 of parents believe their children will do better. 2/3 of the parents think that their children will not be as fortunate. This speaks to the "ripeness" in policy for significant changes. Now, before you go and get depressed, I would urge you to think about how we can achieve change and straighten the course. We do this by helping and investing in our children. We do this by demanding (not asking ) but demanding policy makers do more to help our children. We demand more of our schools. The great thing about this time is that we have more resources to spend, we have better science and it is just a question of people getting active and working for positive change. A perfect example of this positive change and activism is Shaq's Big Challenge. I know Brad covered this in his previous post, but I would heartily second the importance of what he is doing and how hard he is working with these kids to make a positive difference. And Shaq is demanding change, among the kids, parents, school principals, teachers, cafeteria and soon the Governor. Generally, I am not a fan of reality shows, however this one is absolutely fantastic. Even better are the changes taking place in these kids. It was great to see the kids ask Shaq if they could bring friends to workout also. These kids were role models and other kids wanted to participate because they saw the positive results of the 6 kids Shaq was helping. This is exactly the model that My Fitness 1st is using to get kids healthier and to eliminate obesity. Kids helping kids. Kids serving as positive role models for their peers. If they do this, they can get money for college. How is that for a reward? |
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My Fitness 1st is developing different grant programs and ideas to change behavior of families and children to eliminate obesity. We believe one of the effective ways to do this is to have kids encourage and support other kids. By finding those students, ages 14 and up, motivated to lead healthy lifestyles and touting the successes, they will influence others to participate. We will empower youth to solve their own problems. Closely related to this approach is the Junior Ambassador approach focusing on children 10-13. By reaching younger children we can instill healthier habits before the bad habits have a chance to form. We also have some grants to community and educational organizations. This is important because we know that we cannot do this alone. We need to bring all society has to bear if we are to eliminate obesity in children. Lastly, we are also looking at setting up tuition accounts in tax deferred plans to help kids realize that healthy living is one part of the critical equation to success in life. Under this concept we will be rewarding kids with tuition accounts, an incentive for them to keep their eyes on college and recognize the importance of education. One of the most exciting things about building this foundation is that we continue to learn and hear great ideas from people like you. Please take a look at our web page and give us your thoughts. For information about the specific grants please click here Please give us your feedback by either posting here or send an e-mail to
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For the past 10 years, Dan has dedicated himself to representing public education before congress while advancing the legislative priorities of educators around the country. In this role, Dan has worked on complex education policies including the education of children with disabilities and school health policies. Combining years of public policy work with his life long focus on education, Dan is now the Executive Director of My Fitness 1st, an organization dedicated to eliminating childhood obesity. He has appeared on CNN, Fox News, in the Wall Street journal, Time Magazine, New York Times and other national and local media outlets. 
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