I participated in an Influencer Activation on behalf of Influence Central for Boys & Girls Club of America. I received a promotional item to thank me for my participation.
Childhood obesity has become a huge concern in the United States. I was shocked to learn that 3 out of 10 kids are either overweight or obese. Skills learned at a young age will carry over to adulthood. That’s why it is so important to introduce healthy habits from early childhood. It’s not enough just to encourage physical activity either. A healthy body requires a healthy body, mind and soul.
Boys & Girls Clubs of America’s (BCGA) Triple Play program is leading the way in shaping the future of our children. The Triple Play program is a healthy lifestyle program with three components focused on a healthy mind, body and soul. Created in 2005, Triple Play and it’s partners, The Coca-Cola Company and Anthem BlueCross BlueShield Foundation, have made connections with close to 10 million kids encouraging physical activity and proper nutrition. That’s an amazing number of lives touched!
There is a free Triple Play Parent Game Plan available on the Triple Play Program website. I encourage all of you to download this free information on ways to incorporate a healthy lifestyle into your family. My boys and I participated in several of the activities and had a blast.
The first game we played was Elbow Tag which is a great way to encourage physical activity. Youth should participate in vigorous exercise for at least 60 minutes a day. With all of our sports activities, my boys easily meet this requirement. However, only one-fourth of youth ages 12-15 meet this requirement. Elbow tag is one example how to get kids moving in a fun way! The full instructions are found in the parent guide.
For a healthy spirit, we need to encourage relationships and interacting with others. Strong bonds with family members and friends means a healthier mind. It also allows for leadership and teamwork.
For our spirit activity we played a memory game that Mr. B (age 7) loved! I think we will use this on our next car trip. It starts with the leader saying, “I am packing my trunk for China I am putting apples in it.” The next person adds something that starts with a ‘B’ and they have to repeat the sentence with their ‘B’ item. Keep going through the alphabet.
I always encourage healthy eating and I am lucky that my boys love a variety of fruits and vegetables. However, I sometimes have a hard time getting them to try new foods. I used an activity in the parents guide that worked fabulous for introducing brussels sprouts.
We did a blind taste test of various fruits and vegetables. If I would have announced “we are having brussels sprouts” I would have instantly been met with resistance. With the blind taste test, the boys eagerly took a bite.
One said it’s lettuce and the other said cabbage. When I told them what they were eating, they both said “but we don’t like brussels sprouts”. Yes, they did like them until they knew what they were eating! I’m going to use this game in the future for introducing new foods! It worked great.
Make sure you download the BGCA Triple Play Parents Guide and that you support a club near you. Triple Play is motivating our next generation to live healthy and happy lives!
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