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Taylor Maxwell, 5, rides a bike that's secured to her dad Steve's bicycle. The Canton Township family participates in many workouts together.Family workouts keep kids active -- and healthy
Parents who are role models send children a message
Patrice Ross and son Raleigh Ross, 16, take an early-morning 2-mile run near their home in Detroit. Raleigh runs track at school and has lots of helpful pointers for his mom.The Food Pyramid for kids unveiled last week is a new version of the government's guide to eating right for children ages 6 to 11 years old.
According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Center for Nutrition Policy and Promotion, the Food Guide Pyramid for Young Children is an adaptation of the original Food Guide Pyramid designed to simplify educational messages and focus on young children's food preferences and nutritional requirements.
The kids' pyramid is more cartoonish than the adult version (released in April), with a girl running up the steps to the top and kids playing soccer, baseball and basketball, walking a dog, riding a bike, stretching, picnicking and even doing yoga.
Go to www.usda.gov/cnpp/KidsPyra/PyrBook.pdf for a look at the pyramid and for information about how it's been adapted, along with other tips and tools.
Detroit News wire and staff reports
Consider the statistics:
• Less than half of all Americans are considered to be at a healthy weight.
• The number of overweight and obese children in the United States has more than doubled in the last two decades, putting them at risk to become overweight or obese adults with serious health problems, including heart disease and diabetes.
• Nearly half of Americans age 12-21 are not physically active on a regularly basis.
• About 14 percent of young people report no recent physical activity.
• Participation in all types of physical activity declines as age or grade in school increases.
Source: University of Michigan Health Systems
Scott Eathorne, M.D., medical director for Providence Athletic Medicine in Southfield, offers these tips for making fitness a family effort:
• Like adults, kids should get at least 30 minutes of vigorous physical activity at least five to six days a week, where they are moving their arms and legs, running around and jumping. But while this is a minimum, parents may not want to focus on prescriptions so much when it comes to kids; it's important that they're simply active. "This is more of a classic prescription, but what we're really talking about is how you get active as a country," Eathorne says. "When I was a kid, seven days a week, we were outside after breakfast until dinnertime and then back out again in the evening."
• Keep in mind that your kids aren't little adults. They may not be able to go running for 30 or 45 minutes or may not have the skills to play a full-field soccer game, and so you need to adjust accordingly.
• Consider the activities your kids will enjoy. Let them have a say in what the activity is going to be.
• Keep it varied. Always doing something different will keep it interesting so you don't grow bored, and will allow your kids to learn a variety of skills. It also will help prevent overuse injuries. For example, if your child plays soccer, you might help him cross-train by riding bikes together a couple of days a week to maintain his aerobic capacity and endurance. You should customize it to the situation and to meet everybody's needs.
• Wear the appropriate clothing and equipment. Make sure clothes fit well and that you have safety equipment such as bike helmets -- things to keep them safe and comfortable so they are less likely to shy away from activity because they're uncomfortable.
• You don't have to plan a big activity each time. It can be as simple as a walk around the neighborhood, or even doing yard work together. Of course, kids might see that as punishment, but it's still a physical activity where you're going to be moving and exercising.
• Make sure they (and you) eat a balanced diet. For the most part, parents control what goes into the fridge and what the kids have access to until they are able to go out and buy their own snacks and foods. Kids wouldn't get bad food unless parents allowed them to.
• If you're having trouble finding the time for fitness, you may have to balance it out with other things, such as less screen time in front of the computer or TV.
Anna Roufos
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Every weekend, Steve Maxwell and his wife, Debbie, get moving with their three kids, Jacob, 9, Taylor, 5, and Mitchell, 1. They'll ride bikes as a family, hit the local roller rink, go on nature walks or simply take a stroll around the neighborhood.
"I think anything you can do as parents to get your kids up and around and outside is important," says Steve Maxwell of Canton Township. "But we just like to be together as a family, and I guess it's more fun to be doing something than to just sit around."
The Maxwell family has the right idea. Experts say parents need to teach their kids how to have an active lifestyle.
"It's important for families to exercise together," says Colleen Greene, a wellness coordinator for MFit, which provides medically based health and wellness programs and services to University of Michigan Health System patients, as well as the community. Being a role model for exercise will encourage your kids more than simply telling them that exercise is good for them, she says.
"I think we certainly do see that when parents are active with regular exercise or active hobbies, and particularly when (parents) include their kids in those things, that kids subsequently adopt these behaviors and begin to exercise regularly," says Dr. Scott Eathorne, medical director for Providence Athletic Medicine in Southfield.
However, statistics show that kids aren't as active as they should be (see box on childhood obesity).
"I think it's safe to say that in this country, in this day and age, kids (engage) in far less spontaneous play," says Eathorne. "Most of our sports are organized. You need to be part of a team or a group. It's not just the old get a bunch of kids together at the ball field and play a pick up game of football or baseball or basketball.
"The sense of neighborhood has changed dramatically. Facilities where kids can gather are not as readily available, and parents, perhaps rightly so, have concerns about their kids' safety. What we see now is a lot of parents who are getting involved with their kids, and it's a great opportunity for them to go out and just play games together, and do things that keep kids moving."
Besides the health benefits, being active helps kids build coordination and other physical skills and also "gives them a sense of confidence and well-being when they learn a new skill, such as throwing or kicking a ball," says Eathorne.
The benefits aren't just for the kids, though. Studies show that adults who exercise with somebody tend to have more success because they're more likely to stick with their program.
Parents, meet your new fitness buddy (or buddies) -- your kids.
"If you have a partner you go running with or if there's someone you meet at the gym, you're much more likely to be successful in the longer term than if you don't because it's too easy to tell yourself that you don't want to get out of bed, or you don't have enough time today to stop at the gym," Eathorne says.
"But if you build it into your family routine, then you kind of support each other. Usually if one person's down, the others will pick them up and say, 'No, no, you promised me we'd go,' and that can be really powerful."
Usually, the more meaningful your motivator is, the more likely you are to stick with your program.
"We always look at what motivator is going to make people successful," Eathorne says. "Some people may not particularly care if they don't have a healthy lifestyle -- but they sure want their kids to be healthy. That's a great motivator."
When Patrice Ross set out to become a runner, she enlisted the help of her 16-year-old son, Raleigh, who runs track. For the last three months, they've been getting up at 5 a.m. to run 2 miles.
"Every morning at 5, he's in my room saying 'Get up, let's get out' -- even in the rain," says Ross, who lives in Detroit. "It's been tough for him because I don't always want to get out of bed."
It seems she couldn't have asked for a better coach.
"At first, he said I could stop four times, then three ..." and so on. As they run, he's constantly giving her feedback about her form, too. "The first couple of days were exciting. By the third day, it was raining. But he told me to get a hat, and we went out running in the rain, and that was the best day."
Perhaps the best part overall is the togetherness.
"We spend more quality time together, and I think we're more open with one another," Ross says. "He's extremely active, and I work long hours. That's our time together."
That's where the perks of family fitness go beyond the physical and confidence elements, experts say.
"There's so much more that can come out of this notion of exercising together," says Eathorne, noting that it helps parents build relationships with their kids and spouses and gives everyone structured time to be together as a family.
And kids are more likely to communicate about other issues if they see that their parents are involved with them and want to do things with them, he says.
"We all have the challenge of busy schedules, but I think all of us try to find time to spend with our kids, and I think (exercising together) is just a different way of doing it, and I think a healthier way of doing it, as opposed to sitting down and watching TV together."
So how can parents help a family used to sitting down and watching TV to get up and at 'em? The key is to make it fun, the experts say -- especially for younger kids.
"It really shouldn't be about, 'Boy, you really need to go out and run, or you need to do some pushups,' " Eathorne says. "That stuff generally isn't fun per se for kids. Kids are all about wanting to play, and the more you can make exercise fun, the more success you have."
This will also help kids grow up with a healthy attitude toward fitness.
"Parents shouldn't say every single time, 'We're exercising because it will be good for you.' They should just be active."
It's important not to focus on weight -- except in severe circumstances, Greene says.
"It would be better to stay positive and focus on the fun you have while exercising and the healthy things it can do for you -- (such as) help you live longer and healthier."
Negative messages ("If you don't exercise, bad things will happen to you") are much less effective than positive messages ("When you exercise, do you see how much better you feel, how much more energy you have?"), Greene says. "It's not about how you look; it's about how healthy you are becoming."
As soon as kids can comprehend the concept of a game, you can start encouraging play and activity, Eathorne says. "You'll see toddlers at the park who will chase a ball and run around with their parents, and that's a good place to start," he says.
The sooner you start moving with your kids, the better.
"It's important to set healthy habits early in life," Greene says. "It's much harder to break some bad habits later in life than to set good healthy habits early on."
Want to look a little more into family fitness? Send in a postcard to try to win one of the two related books below. Put your name, telephone and address on a card and send it to Health & Fitness Giveaway, The Detroit News, 615 W. Lafayette Blvd., Detroit, Michigan 48226. Write "Lean Mom, Fit Family" or "Family Fitness Fun" in the corner. Postcards must be received by Oct. 12 to be considered.
• "Lean Mom, Fit Family: The 6-Week Plan for a Slimmer You and a Healthier Family" by Michael Sena. It includes a fit-family quiz to help you track your progress, more than 50 recipes touted as easy and kid-friendly, a list of healthy grab-and-go snacks and information about good choices at sit-down and fast-food restaurants.
• "The Family Fitness Fun Book: Healthy Living for the Whole Family" by Rose R. Kennedy. It includes dozens of games and activities with indoor and outdoor options.
Anna Roufos is a Chicago-based freelance writer.
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