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Teach 'Em to Eat and Exercise
How can kids keep fit if they don't know how?
By now, the stats are well known: The obesity rate among children age two through 11 has more than doubled and has more than tripled among kids 12 through 19. This leads to what used to be grown-up health problems, like high cholesterol, high blood pressure, and "adult-onset" diabetes, showing up in kids. It also practically guarantees that those health problems will become an even bigger burden on society as a whole as this generation of hefty kids hits adulthood.
But what's a kid to do? Our whole sedentary, snack-loving culture is stacked against youngsters. That's why three women in Weston, Florida, have lead a whole host of volunteers to not only preach healthy habits to our youth, but to give them the tools to put those habits into practice.
Doctor Elaine Rancatore, a competitive distance runner and former codirector of the Stroke Center at the Cleveland Clinic in Weston, teamed up with Weston YMCA wellness director Debbie Hickie and health teacher and volleyball coach Kim Love from Cypress Bay High School in, you guessed it, Weston, to create Fitness Lifestyle Design, a high-school course that combines physical-fitness training with nutrition and cooking classes.
The course meets four days each week, with two periods devoted to physical-fitness classes at the YMCA and the other two dedicated to lessons on the long-term health consequences of poor eating and exercise habits — as well as lessons in preparing meals in the classroom kitchen. Students commit not only the class time, but their lunch hour as well. To emphasize the importance of breakfast and give the kids a chance at a second healthy meal each day, there's also an optional breakfast club before school.
With nearly 5,500 students, Cypress Bay is the largest high school in the United States. Most gym classes have 45 students — and most of the time kids are standing or sitting around waiting for their turn in some traditional team sport like basketball or softball. FLD classes are capped at 25 and all the activities at the YMCA are noncompetitive, promoting constant participation. The 75-member staff at the Y volunteers their time on a rotating basis, so the kids are exposed to a wide variety of activities including weight training, yoga, pilates, and spinning.
But what's a kid to do? Our whole sedentary, snack-loving culture is stacked against youngsters. That's why three women in Weston, Florida, have lead a whole host of volunteers to not only preach healthy habits to our youth, but to give them the tools to put those habits into practice.
Doctor Elaine Rancatore, a competitive distance runner and former codirector of the Stroke Center at the Cleveland Clinic in Weston, teamed up with Weston YMCA wellness director Debbie Hickie and health teacher and volleyball coach Kim Love from Cypress Bay High School in, you guessed it, Weston, to create Fitness Lifestyle Design, a high-school course that combines physical-fitness training with nutrition and cooking classes.
The course meets four days each week, with two periods devoted to physical-fitness classes at the YMCA and the other two dedicated to lessons on the long-term health consequences of poor eating and exercise habits — as well as lessons in preparing meals in the classroom kitchen. Students commit not only the class time, but their lunch hour as well. To emphasize the importance of breakfast and give the kids a chance at a second healthy meal each day, there's also an optional breakfast club before school.
With nearly 5,500 students, Cypress Bay is the largest high school in the United States. Most gym classes have 45 students — and most of the time kids are standing or sitting around waiting for their turn in some traditional team sport like basketball or softball. FLD classes are capped at 25 and all the activities at the YMCA are noncompetitive, promoting constant participation. The 75-member staff at the Y volunteers their time on a rotating basis, so the kids are exposed to a wide variety of activities including weight training, yoga, pilates, and spinning.
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