As a blogger I love to come to this space on the web and share my life with you. As a mom, I am also passionate about using this platform to share vital information pertaining to the health and well being of children and people in general.
On Wednesday, I was thrilled to be invited to a mom bloggers panel hosted by Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta Strong 4 Life team. Childhood obesity is the focus of the Strong 4 Life team and a few months ago the campaign came under fire for their billboards regarding the childhood obesity epidemic in Georgia. Nearly 40% of all children in the state of Georgia are obese according to the CDC statistics.
While many did not agree with their shock tactics the facts and numbers are just as equally shocking. Whether one sees a major problem with the ads or not, the bottom line is if we want to see our children lead full and healthy lives we all have a responsibility. I say we because even though this may not hit home with you it very well may hit very close to home with family members or friends who are battling this problem within their families. Knowledge and the sharing of information is vital.
Starting the process of getting our families healthy is quite simple. Getting active and eating healthy are the first steps. The Strong 4 Life website offers some other tips here.
I urge you to please take a look at Strong 4 Life and what they are trying to do to raise awareness of childhood obesity and healthy living. Although their focus is the state of Georgia this is a nationwide problem. Please educate yourselves and those around you about the dangers of not starting our children off on the right foot when it comes to living healthy lives.
Our lunch came from Happy Belly. This food was so good. It’s a food truck, if you are in Atlanta check them out!
(l. to r. excluding the lady in the blue shirt: Liza, Bridget, Trina, Christy, Me, Fran and Renee
What do you think are the major contributing factors to childhood obesity? As a community what can we do to help?
7 Comments
kita
April 20, 2012 at 3:15 pmGreat information. The kids do what the parents do if we eat healthy the kids have no choice.
Mrs. Pancakes
April 21, 2012 at 7:46 pmThis was a great post…I really like how you take your experiences and knowledge into the community and use your blog as a platform…but to answer your question your question…beating childhood obesity begins with parents eating right and making healthy lifestyle choices including an active life.
YUMMommy
April 22, 2012 at 3:44 pmI think that now days we aren’t has active with our kids. It’s so much easier to stay inside and watch a movie. A lot of us don’t want to sweat our hairdos playing basketball in the front yard. We have to take on more proactive roles in making sure our children will be able to lead healthy lifestyles as teens and adults.
I have to admit that since having JJ, I have fallen off the exercise wagon but that is about to change.
Nellie
April 23, 2012 at 8:06 amWell don’t all of you look insanely gawgus?! 🙂 I need to move to atl just to hang out with you lovely ladies.
I think we a) need to turn the TV off, and let them run around outside(especially boys) b) Bring Whole Foods and Trader Joes into more urban areas supermarket foods are mostly packed with crap and c) educate our selves on the type of food we are feeding our children, when possible, make things from scratch that don’t contain things we can’t pronounce.
Mimi
April 25, 2012 at 5:21 pmThe lack of availability is a huge problem. People just don’t have access and when they don’t there is little that can be done if they don’t have their own forms of transportation.
Rhonda
April 23, 2012 at 8:58 amThis is a very important topic and we need something like that here in Memphis too. It is great that you had the opportunity to be a part of this process, bringing awareness. Good day!
hospitall.tech
February 18, 2019 at 6:43 amparents should take care of their child diet and their emphasis on outdoor activities.