Fight Childhood Obesity

First lady Michelle Obama has made childhood obesity her signature project with the "Let's Move" campaign.   One-third of American children are either overweight or obese, and with black and Hispanic children, the figure increases to one-half. Weight-related health issues are also on the rise, and Mrs. Obama hopes that if children can develop a healthy lifestyle when they’re young, they can avoid these problems both now and as adults.  

Strong Kids, Healthy Kids: The Revolutionary Program for Increasing Your Child's Fitness in 30 Minutes a Week, by Frederick Hahn, is a very timely addition to the materials available on the subject of childhood obesity.   Mr. Hahn presents guidelines for increasing your child's fitness in 30 minutes a week.  This fitness progam includes a strength training plan for children.  A popular misconception is that children shouldn't engage in strength training because it can stunt their growth or even cause injury.  Mr. Hahn states that current research indicates that strength training is the single most effective exercise method for improving strength and fitness in children.

This book gives detailed information about developing a slow speed strength training program for your child.  It provides guidelines that must be followed to make the program effective and safe. The progam can be used at home with inexpensive weights or in a gym with professional weights. 

The last chapter of the book is "The Strong Kids, Healthy Kids Eating Plan".  This is an excellent guide for healthy eating that can benefit people of all ages.  It is not about counting calories but about eating the right kinds of foods to promote healthy growth.  The author states that 75% of Americans are chronically dehydrated...drinking a gallon of cool water over the course of a day will burn as many calories as jogging for a half hour on the treadmill!

I found a tremendous amount of information in this book that I can use to improve my own fitness program.  I am going to pass this book along to my daughter so that she can use it to develop a program for my granddaughter.  The appendix of the book lists many additional resources and the Strong Kids, Healthy Kids web site is great!