Albert K. Park

With September here, I always get reminded of back to school. The biggest problem I had was deciding on what I was going to wear the first day back. What would have all the girl’s wishing they were with me and all the guys wish they were me? Maybe a Tommy Hilfiger polo shirt, Levi’s double wide leg jeans (baggier the better) and some Adidas Sambas on the feet! Now there are bigger problems in our youth like this epidemic called Obesity. Ever heard of it?

Think with me, really hard to way back when you were that bright and happy 11 year old kid. I know it might be hard, but reach far back into your memories past the college parties, behind all the high school drama, and files and files of junior high hormones. Do you remember what you used to do for fun?

Maybe it was riding your bike down to the lake to go swimming, meeting up with friends to play a pick up game, or even just running around the neighborhood raising hell! For me I was always climbing and propelling off of really high things. (Thanks to Rambo)

Why do you bring this up Albert?
I bring your childhood memories up to mainly draw a contrast to the activity levels of youth today.
What do all these things have in common?
The main commonality between the childhood activities of my youth was the focus on the physical activity level. I remember dripping sweat pedaling my blue Schwinn up my best friend’s humungous hill with only the pleasure of playing with Nerf guns fueling my drive. I remember working 2 months straight in the scorching summer heat, hammering and cutting for 6 hours a day trying to build our neighborhood fort. In previous generations, youth have always been able to maintain a balance between their nutrition and activity levels. This higher level of physical activity allowed kids to maintain a healthy frame. What has changed so much that a youth obesity epidemic has been hurled into our lives?

Differences between then and NOW!
People listen up! This increasing problem with youth obesity has developed exponentially in the last 8 years. I am only 23 years old and youth obesity was barely even a topic of interest when I was young. (and I was a chubby kid) So what factors are leading to childhood obesity increases.

1,) Active parents who practice healthy lifestyles are more likely to have active kids.
This is a no brainer. Your kids look up to you, practically worship the ground you walk on. I remember trying to do everything my dad did whether it was play golf, play catch, and even drink a beer. (hey I was 9 and curious okay!) So if your not active and wondering why your kids obese, then this should be a revelation to you now. Your child has probably never seen someone do something active in real life, try getting up and doing something with them.

Healthy eating habits are another thing kids can learn from you. By educating and showing them what healthy alternatives are out there, you can completely change a child’s life. Crack! Glug, glug, glug! If this is you murdering a can of soda, I can guarantee your kid are going to be cracking and glugging to 300 pounds with you.

2.) Increase in technology!
It’s interesting thinking about how my friend’s little sisters have always grown up with the luxury of the internet. What ever happened to doing a report using books and the ENCYCOLPEDIA! Yeah that paper version of wikipedia. (probably sitting in your attic now) When I visit him at home, it’s the exact same scene every time. I know he is down in the basement so one of his sisters will answer the door.

Little Jane, about 4 foot 2, missing one of her two front teeth, will run to the door unlock and run back into the family den.
The door creaks, as I let myself in and routinely greet the two little girls “How do you do ladies?”
They yell “good!” as I peak in the den.
Two girls, one 6 the other 9, are glued to the computer screen, sitting on their knees in order to see the screen.
This is the scene on a summer day with no school at his house.
I will sometimes ask, “why aren’t your sisters outside playing or something?”.
“I don’t know, they probably don’t want to!”
Wow!
I’m speechless.


I hate to bring up another example of how technology is affecting our youth obesity levels but this next one, I have seen take down multiple age groups like the bubonic plague. Are you ready for this?
Video GAMES!!!!
All you guys are probably chuckling a little bit right now. This is directed at males because you know there is a weakness in your genetics for this. I will admit, I am guilty for sitting glued to a screen for hours playing NCAA college football or GTA! When I was a kid it was more like Mortal Kombat 3, Contra, and Blitz! But then what is the difference. Yeah I played video games when I was a kid but I also played outside!

Now kids come straight home from school and go straight into their rooms where they have X BOX, Wii, and Play station 3 to choose from. They only leave their room to piss and eat.
Attention Grown ass Men!!
If you’re an obese man and still find yourself sitting in front of the tube playing hours on top of hours of video games. Get off your ass, and go do something active! Don’t call me a love Doctor but you might even find yourself with a girlfriend in a couple months!

3.) Physical Education and participation in Youth activities!
My foot cheated off the line as I eyed and salivated after the foam ball that would soon be squished in my little hands. Adrenaline overflowed into my 9 year old veins as I anticipated the floor burn my left knee would sacrifice for the win. Mr. Matilla’s whistle was the sweet sound of freedom for all our 4th grade animal hearts as we unleashed in a savage but very strategic game of SOCUM! Also known as dodge ball. P.E. for me was the best class of the day. It was a recess that was actually a class, I thought the school system had gotten something mixed up.

The really upsetting thing is that now, there are thousands of physical education programs across our country that are losing funding and are forced to shut down. This is huge in our fight against childhood obesity. Now there is a lack of education on the importance of physical activity at an elementary level and the kids are now moving even more less at school. So with no one telling them to stay active at school and no one telling them stay active at home, they are basically doing what they know. Not moving. Sad, yes I know.

Then What do we DO!
My free time as a kid, was not so much up to me. I was always either participating in little league, a soccer league, basketball, and violin practice. (don’t tell too many people about that last one) With local youth organizations like the Little League, Youth Soccer leagues, YMCA, and the Boys and Girls club, there are tons of resources for kids to not only stay active but get the opportunity to develop great characters. I remember meeting lifelong friendships, developing teamwork and leadership skills, and also sweating a lot. This is just a great tool to use in overcoming this youth obesity problem we have.

Conclusion
As cheesy as it sounds “I believe the Children are the future”. How are we going to let the future of our world lie victim in the hands of something so solvable as obesity. Seriously here, we are not speaking on the terms of terrorism, energy conservation, or even war. This is childhood obesity, not astrophysics. The main concept that people and trainers lose is that kids are not adults. You can’t reason with them the same way you would with a weight loss client. Kids are not going to care about love handles and not looking good in a bikini. They just don’t want to get made fun of at school which probably causes them to eat more snickers bars at home. Here are just some things to consider in helping kids fight obesity.

1.) Lead by example
- exemplify how to do it by staying active yourself and practicing healthy eating habits. Maybe by doing active things together you may even be able to develop a better relationship and lose weight together.

2.) Make exercise FUN!
- I think that this is the most important one. If it isn’t fun, kids won’t do it. This is plain and simple. I didn’t think violin lessons were fun so I never practiced. I thought soccer was fun so I played in and outside of the house, all the damn time. Plain and simple! So keep this in mind when your making your kid do 100 yard suicide wind sprints. Ask yourself this “Is this fun for him?” Maybe it is, I don’t know, just make sure they are enjoying it.

3.) Educate them!
- This is can go either way with kids. If you make the physical education fun than it’s going to be a hit. If you approach this process like you would an adult, chances are you are going to lose the kid at “we need to lose weight!” . So find a fun way to talk about eating healthy, maybe by going out and sampling different flavored health shakes!

I hope this is just a small wake up call to the growing epidemic of child hood obesity. Whether you want to believe that it is a problem or not, the epidemic is snowballing into a massive problem and the more the general population stays apathetic about this the larger the obese population will grow. These are going to be people fighting for our country, teaching our kids, and leading our country. Where do we draw the line!