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Skip Exercise! Get Your Family UP, OUT and PLAYING
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Author Linda Gottlieb is a certified personal trainer, active lifestyle coach and cancer exercise trainer. - Contributed photo
As an adult, you know it’s important to be active every day and may even struggle to fit fitness into your increasingly hectic schedule. If you have kids you’re probably very sensitive to how much has changed since you were young, when spirited recess, riding a bicycle and walking to school were normal daily activities. Who needed to think about exercise? But today, with seemingly endless digital distractions and increasingly sedentary activities, many kids are simply the small fry version of the adult couch potato.
“Exercise” can seem like a painful punishment for a chubby child; so far removed from the exhilarating pleasures of “play”. And, if your gradeschooler does well in class, isn’t it tempting to offer cookies, candy or ice cream as a reward? As a society, weight gain and deconditioned bodies are becoming the norm. The challenge: turning daily physical activity into a healthy habit that feels good for the entire family; a celebration of joyous movement vs. another chore on the to-do list.
Do you have fond memories of spending your childhood summers at camp? Whether it was a sleep away or day camp, academic or adventure, religious or arts and crafts, the memories linger long after the campfire has been put out, and the last ‘smores enjoyed. Why only reserve that summer camp experience for your kids?
Don Siegel, chairman of the department of exercise and sports studies at Smith College, Northampton Mass., has witnessed a surge of adult campers as more and more adults are seeking a ‘getaway’ break from pressures of their daily lives.
What were once labeled health and nutrition clinics at the college are now billed as Adult Sports and Fitness Camps. These camps, located throughout the country, encourage physical activity, sports and even dream challenges like extreme skateboarding, rock climbing, and trapeze flying. Siegel calls this trend “life lived as play”. While recharging your batteries, you are also acting as a great role model for your children, demonstrating the important benefits of self care.
Since your childhood experiences may have been more tactile than virtual, more hands on than mouse or keyboard centric and more physical than latchkey shut in, ask yourself this… do your kids suffer from Nature Deficit Disorder?, a term coined by Richard Louv in his book “Last Child in the Woods”. Louv spent 10 years traveling the country speaking to parents and children, in both rural and urban areas about their personal experiences with nature. He reports that kids today are woefully limited in their relationship with the outside world.
Louv writes that in the past 30 years children of the digital age have become increasingly alienated from the natural world, with disastrous implications, not only for their physical fitness, but also for their long-term mental and spiritual heath. He even goes so far as to argue that media attention to criminal activity, sexual predators, traffic accidents and all sorts of diseases have literally “scared children straight out of the woods and fields”. The results of this disconnect with nature can be seen in increased stress, decreased quality sleep, and an epidemic in childhood obesity.
Even the term NDD is aligned with ADHD by design to attract attention, although Louv makes it clear that it is certainly not a clinical diagnosis of any medical disease.
A kid’s world in the 60’s was filled with neighborhood roaming with friends, independence and the spirit of discovery within their surroundings, full freedom to interact with nature within a framework of parental companionship. Do you remember feeling at home during long walks in the woods, tending a garden or mowing the lawn?
Today, play itself, for some, has been discounted, replaced with “enrichment” activities: structured lessons or academic events, leaving a lazy afternoon of playing in the backyard chalked up to “wasted time”. Continued...
“Exercise” can seem like a painful punishment for a chubby child; so far removed from the exhilarating pleasures of “play”. And, if your gradeschooler does well in class, isn’t it tempting to offer cookies, candy or ice cream as a reward? As a society, weight gain and deconditioned bodies are becoming the norm. The challenge: turning daily physical activity into a healthy habit that feels good for the entire family; a celebration of joyous movement vs. another chore on the to-do list.
Do you have fond memories of spending your childhood summers at camp? Whether it was a sleep away or day camp, academic or adventure, religious or arts and crafts, the memories linger long after the campfire has been put out, and the last ‘smores enjoyed. Why only reserve that summer camp experience for your kids?
Don Siegel, chairman of the department of exercise and sports studies at Smith College, Northampton Mass., has witnessed a surge of adult campers as more and more adults are seeking a ‘getaway’ break from pressures of their daily lives.
What were once labeled health and nutrition clinics at the college are now billed as Adult Sports and Fitness Camps. These camps, located throughout the country, encourage physical activity, sports and even dream challenges like extreme skateboarding, rock climbing, and trapeze flying. Siegel calls this trend “life lived as play”. While recharging your batteries, you are also acting as a great role model for your children, demonstrating the important benefits of self care.
Since your childhood experiences may have been more tactile than virtual, more hands on than mouse or keyboard centric and more physical than latchkey shut in, ask yourself this… do your kids suffer from Nature Deficit Disorder?, a term coined by Richard Louv in his book “Last Child in the Woods”. Louv spent 10 years traveling the country speaking to parents and children, in both rural and urban areas about their personal experiences with nature. He reports that kids today are woefully limited in their relationship with the outside world.
Louv writes that in the past 30 years children of the digital age have become increasingly alienated from the natural world, with disastrous implications, not only for their physical fitness, but also for their long-term mental and spiritual heath. He even goes so far as to argue that media attention to criminal activity, sexual predators, traffic accidents and all sorts of diseases have literally “scared children straight out of the woods and fields”. The results of this disconnect with nature can be seen in increased stress, decreased quality sleep, and an epidemic in childhood obesity.
Even the term NDD is aligned with ADHD by design to attract attention, although Louv makes it clear that it is certainly not a clinical diagnosis of any medical disease.
A kid’s world in the 60’s was filled with neighborhood roaming with friends, independence and the spirit of discovery within their surroundings, full freedom to interact with nature within a framework of parental companionship. Do you remember feeling at home during long walks in the woods, tending a garden or mowing the lawn?
Today, play itself, for some, has been discounted, replaced with “enrichment” activities: structured lessons or academic events, leaving a lazy afternoon of playing in the backyard chalked up to “wasted time”. Continued...
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The essential thing is to realize we can do something about it, and NOW is the time.
All you really have to do is get you and your family up off the couch and out in nature once and awhile to allow your natural self-confidence to resurface.
This “playtime” can actually strengthen your family bond and be fun for both children and parents.
If you can’t see your family packing bags, donning a camp tee or participating in archery, why not create your own family camp experience in your backyard, neighborhood park, or local beach? All it takes is a little time to organize your custom camp experience, plan the date and the “events”. Ask your kids to help plan in lieu of their normal kitchen chores; they might surprise you!
Have cabin fever and need to break the family out of the house right now? Visit www.trails.com and learn about area trails offering hikes, many under 5 miles each, more comfortable for little legs and those new to outdoor activity. Your local Sierra club www.sierraclub.com can also offer other outdoor fun. Visit local farms throughout the year where you can pick your own fruit, vegetable plants or Christmas tree. A walk through a cemetery can be a history lesson, and flying a kite an exercise in aerodynamics. Be creative, it’s your recess!
Here are three rules for making family fitness fun for everyone:
1. Practice what you preach- Show your family how important play time is for you, too by leaving the Blackberry and cell phone home when out enjoying time with family. How about discovering where the stairs are in the mall and take them, raking the leaves (and have everyone jump in the pile)? So what if they need to be raked again. It’s more family fun friendly than using the leaf blower.
2. Enjoy your active moments and talk about them – after a Sunday hike or sunset stroll on the beach, ask the kids to describe what they liked the best, how they feel (energy level, mood, breathing), and share your positive thoughts with them, too. Moving your body is the fastest way to improve disposition, sleep and attention span…all good!
3. Praise the intention, not the result- Are you or the kids new at fishing? Celebrate the effort, even if you spend all morning picking fishing line out of the trees. Next time maybe your daughter will catch her first fish (which she can proudly release).
Whatever you choose to do, keep in mind you are the role model; your actions closely observed and mirrored. You carry the responsibility for molding your children’s memories and you can create a legacy of lifelong physical activity for yourself, your children and their children. Why not invite playtime in today? Continued...
All you really have to do is get you and your family up off the couch and out in nature once and awhile to allow your natural self-confidence to resurface.
This “playtime” can actually strengthen your family bond and be fun for both children and parents.
If you can’t see your family packing bags, donning a camp tee or participating in archery, why not create your own family camp experience in your backyard, neighborhood park, or local beach? All it takes is a little time to organize your custom camp experience, plan the date and the “events”. Ask your kids to help plan in lieu of their normal kitchen chores; they might surprise you!
Have cabin fever and need to break the family out of the house right now? Visit www.trails.com and learn about area trails offering hikes, many under 5 miles each, more comfortable for little legs and those new to outdoor activity. Your local Sierra club www.sierraclub.com can also offer other outdoor fun. Visit local farms throughout the year where you can pick your own fruit, vegetable plants or Christmas tree. A walk through a cemetery can be a history lesson, and flying a kite an exercise in aerodynamics. Be creative, it’s your recess!
Here are three rules for making family fitness fun for everyone:
1. Practice what you preach- Show your family how important play time is for you, too by leaving the Blackberry and cell phone home when out enjoying time with family. How about discovering where the stairs are in the mall and take them, raking the leaves (and have everyone jump in the pile)? So what if they need to be raked again. It’s more family fun friendly than using the leaf blower.
2. Enjoy your active moments and talk about them – after a Sunday hike or sunset stroll on the beach, ask the kids to describe what they liked the best, how they feel (energy level, mood, breathing), and share your positive thoughts with them, too. Moving your body is the fastest way to improve disposition, sleep and attention span…all good!
3. Praise the intention, not the result- Are you or the kids new at fishing? Celebrate the effort, even if you spend all morning picking fishing line out of the trees. Next time maybe your daughter will catch her first fish (which she can proudly release).
Whatever you choose to do, keep in mind you are the role model; your actions closely observed and mirrored. You carry the responsibility for molding your children’s memories and you can create a legacy of lifelong physical activity for yourself, your children and their children. Why not invite playtime in today? Continued...
Linda T. Gottlieb is a nationally certified personal trainer, active lifestyle coach and cancer exercise trainer. Linda can be reached at 203-877-5270 www.FitTraining.net, www.FITChicksrule.net or www.MovingThroughCancer.com She blogs at www.fitchicksrule.net/blog
As an adult, you know it’s important to be active every day and may even struggle to fit fitness into your increasingly hectic schedule. If you have kids you’re probably very sensitive to how much has changed since you were young, when spirited recess, riding a bicycle and walking to school were normal daily activities. Who needed to think about exercise? But today, with seemingly endless digital distractions and increasingly sedentary activities, many kids are simply the small fry version of the adult couch potato.
“Exercise” can seem like a painful punishment for a chubby child; so far removed from the exhilarating pleasures of “play”. And, if your gradeschooler does well in class, isn’t it tempting to offer cookies, candy or ice cream as a reward? As a society, weight gain and deconditioned bodies are becoming the norm. The challenge: turning daily physical activity into a healthy habit that feels good for the entire family; a celebration of joyous movement vs. another chore on the to-do list.
Do you have fond memories of spending your childhood summers at camp? Whether it was a sleep away or day camp, academic or adventure, religious or arts and crafts, the memories linger long after the campfire has been put out, and the last ‘smores enjoyed. Why only reserve that summer camp experience for your kids?
Don Siegel, chairman of the department of exercise and sports studies at Smith College, Northampton Mass., has witnessed a surge of adult campers as more and more adults are seeking a ‘getaway’ break from pressures of their daily lives.
What were once labeled health and nutrition clinics at the college are now billed as Adult Sports and Fitness Camps. These camps, located throughout the country, encourage physical activity, sports and even dream challenges like extreme skateboarding, rock climbing, and trapeze flying. Siegel calls this trend “life lived as play”. While recharging your batteries, you are also acting as a great role model for your children, demonstrating the important benefits of self care.
Since your childhood experiences may have been more tactile than virtual, more hands on than mouse or keyboard centric and more physical than latchkey shut in, ask yourself this… do your kids suffer from Nature Deficit Disorder?, a term coined by Richard Louv in his book “Last Child in the Woods”. Louv spent 10 years traveling the country speaking to parents and children, in both rural and urban areas about their personal experiences with nature. He reports that kids today are woefully limited in their relationship with the outside world.
Louv writes that in the past 30 years children of the digital age have become increasingly alienated from the natural world, with disastrous implications, not only for their physical fitness, but also for their long-term mental and spiritual heath. He even goes so far as to argue that media attention to criminal activity, sexual predators, traffic accidents and all sorts of diseases have literally “scared children straight out of the woods and fields”. The results of this disconnect with nature can be seen in increased stress, decreased quality sleep, and an epidemic in childhood obesity.
Even the term NDD is aligned with ADHD by design to attract attention, although Louv makes it clear that it is certainly not a clinical diagnosis of any medical disease.
A kid’s world in the 60’s was filled with neighborhood roaming with friends, independence and the spirit of discovery within their surroundings, full freedom to interact with nature within a framework of parental companionship. Do you remember feeling at home during long walks in the woods, tending a garden or mowing the lawn?
Today, play itself, for some, has been discounted, replaced with “enrichment” activities: structured lessons or academic events, leaving a lazy afternoon of playing in the backyard chalked up to “wasted time”.
The essential thing is to realize we can do something about it, and NOW is the time.
All you really have to do is get you and your family up off the couch and out in nature once and awhile to allow your natural self-confidence to resurface.
This “playtime” can actually strengthen your family bond and be fun for both children and parents.
If you can’t see your family packing bags, donning a camp tee or participating in archery, why not create your own family camp experience in your backyard, neighborhood park, or local beach? All it takes is a little time to organize your custom camp experience, plan the date and the “events”. Ask your kids to help plan in lieu of their normal kitchen chores; they might surprise you!
Have cabin fever and need to break the family out of the house right now? Visit www.trails.com and learn about area trails offering hikes, many under 5 miles each, more comfortable for little legs and those new to outdoor activity. Your local Sierra club www.sierraclub.com can also offer other outdoor fun. Visit local farms throughout the year where you can pick your own fruit, vegetable plants or Christmas tree. A walk through a cemetery can be a history lesson, and flying a kite an exercise in aerodynamics. Be creative, it’s your recess!
Here are three rules for making family fitness fun for everyone:
1. Practice what you preach- Show your family how important play time is for you, too by leaving the Blackberry and cell phone home when out enjoying time with family. How about discovering where the stairs are in the mall and take them, raking the leaves (and have everyone jump in the pile)? So what if they need to be raked again. It’s more family fun friendly than using the leaf blower.
2. Enjoy your active moments and talk about them – after a Sunday hike or sunset stroll on the beach, ask the kids to describe what they liked the best, how they feel (energy level, mood, breathing), and share your positive thoughts with them, too. Moving your body is the fastest way to improve disposition, sleep and attention span…all good!
3. Praise the intention, not the result- Are you or the kids new at fishing? Celebrate the effort, even if you spend all morning picking fishing line out of the trees. Next time maybe your daughter will catch her first fish (which she can proudly release).
Whatever you choose to do, keep in mind you are the role model; your actions closely observed and mirrored. You carry the responsibility for molding your children’s memories and you can create a legacy of lifelong physical activity for yourself, your children and their children. Why not invite playtime in today?
Linda T. Gottlieb is a nationally certified personal trainer, active lifestyle coach and cancer exercise trainer. Linda can be reached at 203-877-5270 www.FitTraining.net, www.FITChicksrule.net or www.MovingThroughCancer.com She blogs at www.fitchicksrule.net/blog
“Exercise” can seem like a painful punishment for a chubby child; so far removed from the exhilarating pleasures of “play”. And, if your gradeschooler does well in class, isn’t it tempting to offer cookies, candy or ice cream as a reward? As a society, weight gain and deconditioned bodies are becoming the norm. The challenge: turning daily physical activity into a healthy habit that feels good for the entire family; a celebration of joyous movement vs. another chore on the to-do list.
Do you have fond memories of spending your childhood summers at camp? Whether it was a sleep away or day camp, academic or adventure, religious or arts and crafts, the memories linger long after the campfire has been put out, and the last ‘smores enjoyed. Why only reserve that summer camp experience for your kids?
Don Siegel, chairman of the department of exercise and sports studies at Smith College, Northampton Mass., has witnessed a surge of adult campers as more and more adults are seeking a ‘getaway’ break from pressures of their daily lives.
What were once labeled health and nutrition clinics at the college are now billed as Adult Sports and Fitness Camps. These camps, located throughout the country, encourage physical activity, sports and even dream challenges like extreme skateboarding, rock climbing, and trapeze flying. Siegel calls this trend “life lived as play”. While recharging your batteries, you are also acting as a great role model for your children, demonstrating the important benefits of self care.
Since your childhood experiences may have been more tactile than virtual, more hands on than mouse or keyboard centric and more physical than latchkey shut in, ask yourself this… do your kids suffer from Nature Deficit Disorder?, a term coined by Richard Louv in his book “Last Child in the Woods”. Louv spent 10 years traveling the country speaking to parents and children, in both rural and urban areas about their personal experiences with nature. He reports that kids today are woefully limited in their relationship with the outside world.
Louv writes that in the past 30 years children of the digital age have become increasingly alienated from the natural world, with disastrous implications, not only for their physical fitness, but also for their long-term mental and spiritual heath. He even goes so far as to argue that media attention to criminal activity, sexual predators, traffic accidents and all sorts of diseases have literally “scared children straight out of the woods and fields”. The results of this disconnect with nature can be seen in increased stress, decreased quality sleep, and an epidemic in childhood obesity.
Even the term NDD is aligned with ADHD by design to attract attention, although Louv makes it clear that it is certainly not a clinical diagnosis of any medical disease.
A kid’s world in the 60’s was filled with neighborhood roaming with friends, independence and the spirit of discovery within their surroundings, full freedom to interact with nature within a framework of parental companionship. Do you remember feeling at home during long walks in the woods, tending a garden or mowing the lawn?
Today, play itself, for some, has been discounted, replaced with “enrichment” activities: structured lessons or academic events, leaving a lazy afternoon of playing in the backyard chalked up to “wasted time”.
The essential thing is to realize we can do something about it, and NOW is the time.
All you really have to do is get you and your family up off the couch and out in nature once and awhile to allow your natural self-confidence to resurface.
This “playtime” can actually strengthen your family bond and be fun for both children and parents.
If you can’t see your family packing bags, donning a camp tee or participating in archery, why not create your own family camp experience in your backyard, neighborhood park, or local beach? All it takes is a little time to organize your custom camp experience, plan the date and the “events”. Ask your kids to help plan in lieu of their normal kitchen chores; they might surprise you!
Have cabin fever and need to break the family out of the house right now? Visit www.trails.com and learn about area trails offering hikes, many under 5 miles each, more comfortable for little legs and those new to outdoor activity. Your local Sierra club www.sierraclub.com can also offer other outdoor fun. Visit local farms throughout the year where you can pick your own fruit, vegetable plants or Christmas tree. A walk through a cemetery can be a history lesson, and flying a kite an exercise in aerodynamics. Be creative, it’s your recess!
Here are three rules for making family fitness fun for everyone:
1. Practice what you preach- Show your family how important play time is for you, too by leaving the Blackberry and cell phone home when out enjoying time with family. How about discovering where the stairs are in the mall and take them, raking the leaves (and have everyone jump in the pile)? So what if they need to be raked again. It’s more family fun friendly than using the leaf blower.
2. Enjoy your active moments and talk about them – after a Sunday hike or sunset stroll on the beach, ask the kids to describe what they liked the best, how they feel (energy level, mood, breathing), and share your positive thoughts with them, too. Moving your body is the fastest way to improve disposition, sleep and attention span…all good!
3. Praise the intention, not the result- Are you or the kids new at fishing? Celebrate the effort, even if you spend all morning picking fishing line out of the trees. Next time maybe your daughter will catch her first fish (which she can proudly release).
Whatever you choose to do, keep in mind you are the role model; your actions closely observed and mirrored. You carry the responsibility for molding your children’s memories and you can create a legacy of lifelong physical activity for yourself, your children and their children. Why not invite playtime in today?
Linda T. Gottlieb is a nationally certified personal trainer, active lifestyle coach and cancer exercise trainer. Linda can be reached at 203-877-5270 www.FitTraining.net, www.FITChicksrule.net or www.MovingThroughCancer.com She blogs at www.fitchicksrule.net/blog
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