Last month, The Sneaky Chef’s Missy Chase Lapine teamed up with fitness trainer Larysa DiDio to provide “Sneaky Strategies” for fitting in more exercise and calorie-burning activities into children’s everyday life with Sneaky Fitness: Fun, Foolproof Ways to Slip Fitness into Your Child’s Everyday Life.
I was able to submit ten questions from Mom in the City readers that Missy and Larysa were kind enough to answer. I shared Larysa’s answers a couple of weeks ago on this post and Missy Chase Lapine’s answers last week. I am ending the three part series with some answers from both of them (and a giveaway of the book!).
1. What is the ideal age to introduce your kids to the concept of health (fitness or nutrition) OR is it just a lifestyle from birth?
Missy: The concept of health and fitness definitely starts at birth (and some say even before!). Education comes in many forms, and one of the most effective ways is simply teaching by example. There is ample evidence that kids are aware of and start absorbing everything about their environment from day one. So if you’re demonstrating an active and healthy lifestyle, kids will naturally emulate it. It will be completely natural to them. Conversely, teaching the theory of health and nutrition after the fact has far less impact.
Larysa: It’s never too early and it’s never too late. The earlier you start though, the more it becomes a way of life. Parents need to act as role models and be models for a healthy lifestyle. Their actions need to be congruent with what they preach. As they say, “words talk, actions scream”.
2. Is it really necessary to “sneak” good food and exercise into your kids’ lifestyle OR (once again) can it just be taught as a lifestyle from birth?
Missy: If families lived even as they did 20 years ago, none of this would be necessary. But today’s kids spend most of their day in sedentary activities. In fact, a study just released showed that the average American child spends over 8 hours a day sitting in front of some electronic device, and the rest of the time they’re sedentary at school! Add to this the onslaught of processed foods and advertising, and the result is the vast health problems
confronting our kids today. We need to counter these forces with every method we have at our disposal. Sneaking works because it meets kids where they’re at, and lets them experience how good it feels to move again, and how good they feel when they eat well again. Then they begin to appreciate these things for themselves, just as we do, and the parent’s job is done. Sneaking actually facilitates teaching by meeting kids where they’re at.
Larysa: Definitely it’s most beneficial to teach them fitness from birth but I believe that in this increasingly sedentary lifestyle we’re leading, you can never get enough fitness and health into your kids. Every effort a parent makes, further ensures that their child will be a healthy adult.
3. What would you say is the biggest benefit to introducing healthy fitness and nutrition habits to your kids during their early years?
Missy: Have you ever commented on a “natural” athlete, like a skier or a baseball player or an ice skater, only to have the person next to you say, “oh, she started when she was 3.” Children are amazingly impressionable. Whatever we expose them to becomes part of their very beingnot just physically, but emotionally and mentally as well. So it’s much more effective, and much easier, to teach them when they’re young. Not to mention the positive effects it will have on their health and well-being!
Larysa: It becomes a part of life and not a chore. Once bad habits are established it takes much more effort on a parent’s part to change them.
I was sent a copy of Sneaky Fitness: Fun, Foolproof Ways to Slip Fitness into Your Child’s Everyday Life that I will be giving away to one lucky Mom in the City reader. To win, please let me know how you “sneak” fitness or nutrition to your kids in the “Comments” section below by March 31st.