A Simple Guide
A Simple Guide to Healthier Children
Brett Klika
I spend quite a bit of time with parents, consulting on how to help their kids eat better, move more, and get fit. To help simplify the process, I’ve created an easy reference chart to provide quick answers to the most common questions.
Feel free to keep this “cheat sheet” somewhere easily accessible for quick reference.
HOW TO IMPROVE YOUR CHILD’S NUTRITION & EXERCISE
PROBLEM SOLUTION
| My kid only eats junk food. | Don’t buy junk food |
| My kid doesn’t eat breakfast. | Start them eating breakfast at a young age. |
| My kid only eats fast food. | Don’t buy them fast food. Cook food at home. |
| The school lunches are unhealthy. | Don’t have them eat school lunches. Pack them an almond butter and jelly sandwich, piece of fruit, and yogurt. |
| Big food companies put so much sugar in food! | Don’t buy food from big food companies that put so much sugar in food. |
| The vending machines at school have junk food! | If you give them money for lunch, find out where it goes. If you don’t want it to go to vending machines, create an expectation. |
| It’s someone/something else’s fault that my child eats poorly. | No it’s not. |
| Breakfast cereals have so much sugar | Don’t buy high sugar breakfast cereals. |
| I don’t want my child to have a complex about food. | Don’t create a complex about food. Discuss the difference between food and “not food”. Allow “not food” as an exception, not the norm. |
| I don’t have time/energy to oversee my child’s nutrition. | Buy stock in future diabetes, heart disease, and cancer drugs. With your certain dividends, you can help buy your child the drugs they will need to survive. |
| My child won’t………. | Do you? |
PROBLEM SOLUTION
| My child plays computer games all the time. | Don’t buy them computer games. |
| My child won’t go outside and play. | Don’t buy them computer games and make rules about watching TV. |
| My child gets bored a lot. | Have a “bored” jar at home with activities and/or chores in it. If they’re bored, have them pick from the jar. |
| My child is not good at sports. | Find something physical they like to do and do it with them. |
| My child won’t exercise. | Create opportunities for exercise. Find an active program they enjoy (paintball, personal trainer, anything). |
| I don’t want to pay to have my child exercise. | There is a tax for not having an active culture of wellness at home. Fitness cost pales in comparison to health care costs. |
| My child watches TV. All the time. | Make “rules” about watching TV. “Rules” are enforced guidelines that used to govern the child rearing process. |
| My child doesn’t have p.e. in school. | Spearhead a volunteer or “pay to participate” program. Or, you can reinforce physical activity at home. |
| My child has “bad genetics”. | Allocate time, energy, and financial resources towards wellness. A truth is a truth. Unhealthy is unhealthy. Address the problem with solutions. |
If you sense a “tone” in any of my proposed suggestions, you are very accurate. I can and will no longer stifle my frustration. A third of our kids are unhealthy are nearly guaranteed to grow up and be unhealthy adults. The financial ramifications of 1/3 of our future population requiring constant medical intervention will bankrupt our nation. That is to not even mention the suffering, pain, and unhappiness surrounding poor health.
Our entitled culture is pointing their finger every which way but inward for nearly every plight we face. Time to get it straight. It’s not the video game, food, government, school, or any other “they” industry that is creating the health issue with our kids.
Our forefathers died on the battlefield so we can have choices as to how we and our families live our lives. We choose to create success or failure in regards to the health and wellness of our families. Looking at the statistics, AT LEAST 1/3 of households are choosing failure. Unfortunately this no longer merely affects those individual households.
Unless they are paying out of pocket for the dramatically increased health care costs surrounding poor lifestyle choices, we all chip in somehow, to the tune of around a trillion dollars. This is impacting our nation so dramatically that we are slowly losing the choices our forefathers fought for.
Constantly pointing the finger is in essence forfeiting our choices in nearly every aspect of our lives. We need to turn that finger around and create success in our own households. It’s not easy. It’s actually really hard. Not like, “work your land, grow your food, build your house, make your clothes, raise your family and protect them from bears like people had to do for centuries” hard, but hard.
It will never be perfect, nor should it be. Kids will eat junk food, watch TV, play video games, and act lazy sometimes. So will we! These need to be the exception, not the rule.
If this has “offended” anyone, I’m not sorry. If you are looking for excuses or outsourcing of accountability, I will never be your guy. Solutions to problems come from facing the truth, not dancing around it. We need to join together in action and not stand by to watch millions of children grow to be unhappy and unhealthy under our watch.
Pass the word. The next time someone points a finger, send them this article. If we can all start to change our concept of accountability, we can change the world.
Be the change you seek to see in the world.
-Mahatma Gandhi
For more information and video on exercises, programs, and any other information on losing fat and creating the body you have always wanted, check out The Underground Workout Manual – Exercise and Fat Loss in the Real World at www.undergroundworkoutmanual.com.
Brett Klika C.S.C.S., Director of Athletics at Fitness Quest 10, is a world renowned human performance specialist, motivational speaker, author, and educator. In his 14 year career, Brett has accrued more than 20,000 hours of training with youth, athletes, executives, and every day people. He uses this knowledge and experience to motivate individuals and audiences around the world through his writing, speaking, DVD’s, and personal correspondence.
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6 Responses to “A Simple Guide”
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Nicely done! Let’s start accepting responsibility for our children’s health. It’s our job, as parents, to protect, nurture, and teach. It’s time to dial in and get to work! Excellent article!
Thank you for saying what all of us know intuitively. Some people have just been ignoring that still, small voice inside of them that speaks the truth since it is easier to blame others: schools, corporations, selective eaters, etc.
If we could just get parents to model the healthy behavior from the start, kids wouldn’t have to dig themselves out of the unhealthy habit hole.
Thanks, Brett.
Nice article Brett!
My daughter is almost four and has never had sugar and never seen a TV show. She watches movies, but I can control the content and kids movies are usually 30 minutes long and the END.
I think you really nailed it with “Do you…?” It seems that the hardest part of raising healthy kids is that we have to stop making excuses and live healthy ourselves!
Well done! Thank you for such a clear explanation. Parents need to stop letting their kids run the household and take back control, but first they have to take control for themselves! I think most parents put up with this crap because they are too tired/lazy to make the changes they need to in their own lives first.
STELLAR article! And as a Stevens Point
school system grad I am so excited they
are using you and your amazing perspective to work with them in enhancing physical activity in students lives! Kudos to all !
Brett:
Once again, nice work. And once again, I’m stealing it for my blog (with appropriate credit given, of course).
I tell my children all the time that the most beautiful thing about life is YOU CHOOSE. I can’t make YOU happy. I can create an environment of happiness, but I cannot make you happy. That’s on you. Same goes for an environment of health. I cannot MAKE my kids healthy, but I can create an environment where fitness and nutrition are valued. And what is more important in our role as parents than creating a healthy environment for our children? It’s so important to start young because your influence over what kids do is so much greater. As they get older, it isn’t impossible – but you’ll need to be more creative, and more persistent in breaking habits that have formed over time.
Again, what’s more important than our childrens’ health? Once that’s established, they will have set positive physical habits as the foundation on which to build a mental, emotional and spiritual connection with those around them. And once they have that foundation, the sky’s the limit.
Awesome work, Brett. Just keep pouring!
BTM