Friday, May 7, 2010

Chilren's fitness, adult behaviors


The other day I was talking to my sister about an upcoming 5k our family is doing. I found out my eight year old niece is really excited and wants to run the whole thing. I had no idea of her interest!

I've been thinking about the conversation ever since. I started wondering: What makes some adults stay fit even when life gets hectic, and other adults struggle just to stay active?

I think part of it comes from childhood. Just like all other behaviors, at least a portion of this comes from what we did as kids, what we were praised for and what we felt good at.

Think how easy it would be for someone to stay fit if it's all they've known since childhood.

Now, think how hard it would be for someone to get fit if they've never been introduced to the behaviors of being active and healthy! It's so important for our children to be introduced to healthy behaviors while they're still learning.

I guess that's why I'm excited to hear about my niece.

I know this was true for me. My interest started at age 9 when our school introduced the President's Physical Fitness Challenge. I took it to heart, practicing my running and especially the arm hang for hours and hours. My dad even rigged a pull up bar in our garage...the rest is history.

My thoughts are still on my niece. I hope I can be supportive and encouraging to her so she grows up healthy, fit and confident.

What are you doing to support healthy behaviors in your kids?

4 comments:

  1. Cool! She loves you, and she is excited about working with you to help her become a runner! Thank you for your interest in my kids.

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  2. Great blog! I think it's important actually to do the activities with the children. I started to get overweight as a child so one year my parents bought me a bunch of exercise equipment. Because they never exercised though it felt weird to be the only one in the family trying to do something like that. Kids need workout partners as much as adults do.

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  3. I was recently thinking about my childhood and different life is for my kids. I grew up in an apartment complex and almost always had other kids to run around and play with. And we ran around and played a lot! I was constantly outside- roller skating, climbing hills, riding a bike, running from apartment to apartment. I hardly ever see kids out playing the way I used to play! It's like we have to have a playset or a park or a specific activity in order to go out and have fun. A lot less sense of community, too, nowadays.

    I heard about a study recently that focused on teasing in school. The theory was that obese kids should be getting teased less because obesity is on the rise so it's more normal. Those were not the findings. It's just turning out that more kids are being teased. I have to wonder about the activity level and eating habits in those homes.

    I was very active as a kid, I slacked off and gained weight after I left home, and am now getting back to it. A friend and I have different backgrounds- she was raised in a sedentary lifestyle. Video games and TV and sitting around were a big focus. Getting out and being active were not. So it's a totally different learning curve for her because she doesn't know what it's like to feel anything other than fat, sedentary, etc.

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  4. Wow, those are all great comments, thank you! Really interesting points of view.

    Andrew, I agree that it's important to do activities with your kids for so many reasons!

    Eternal Lizdom, you hit it right on about being active as a child makes it easier to get active as an adult. Even if you haven't been for a while, it's not completely foreign!

    Thanks so much for the comments!

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