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Making Fitness a Family Issue
Setting You and Your Children on the Path to Health
By Virginia Gilbert
Kids are most likely to overeat between 4 and 6 p.m., when they're bored and their working parents are out of the house. To help kids from piling on extra calories while they're unattended, Dr. Greene recommends clearing junk foods out of the cabinets and replacing them with healthy snacks.
But the best way for a parent to help a child lose weight is for the parent to get in shape herself. "It's rare for a preteen to adopt a healthy lifestyle unless the whole family does," Dr. Greene says.
An only child, Courtney didn't have siblings with whom to run around. To make matters worse, the Kempskis lived in a neighborhood with few children Courtney's age. Instead of playing tag outside after school, Courtney sat in front of the television, becoming what her mother jokingly calls a "couch potato." Kempski knew she should try to plan activities with Courtney, now 9 years old, but she was too tired and too busy getting dinner on the table after work.
Calling herself "pretty fit," Kempski exercised to programs on television, but couldn't rouse Courtney. One day at work, Kempski ran across an article in a local newspaper about Family Fitness Matters, a fitness program developed by Mary Jean Taylor, associate profesor of physical therapy at Daemen College in Buffalo, N.Y. The program helps kids shape up by involving the whole family in fun activities and educating them about healthy lifestyle choices.