Yesterday was a busy day since I was flying all morning but as soon as I hit the ground…  I popped back into action.

• 20 minutes on the ARC elliptical trainer with program/intensity increasing every 5 minutes
• 40 minutes on the treadmill – running intervals with a .15 walk in between (intervals: 1.25/1.00/.75/.50/.25/.25)
• Deep stretch

This week I will be doing workouts that incorporate more cardio than strength training.  I am trying to take it easy on my shoulder… but that won’t keep me away!

*************************

During the evening I attended a really awesome lecture about childhood obesity given by Christina Economos, Ph.D. and I must say it was great.  It really hit home because the consequences of obesity are multifactoral.  There is no one particular reason for its occurrence.  When professionals of varying specialties share knowledge and work together we can stare down obesity.  Our environment is toxic, everywhere we go there are choices and it is getting harder and harder to know what the RIGHT choice is. 

One of the things that I didn’t think so much about before yesterday is that juice is a huge component of diets during childhood and it’s elimination would be beneficial.  Rather than having processed sweetened beverages or natural sweetened beverages in addition to fruits/vegetables, parents should try to eliminate it.  Rather than having both fruits and vegetables plus juice – only one or the other should be chosen.  A great tip would be for parents to blend up their own beverages with natural ingredients for children who may or may not be picky.  In the blended beverage, items such as fruits and vegetables can be added effortlessly (serves as a great way to add in vegetables without having a huge grimace about taste). 

On a final note I wanted to highlight a new statistic that I thought to be fascinating:

• Children with 1 overweight/obese parent is 60% more likely to be overweight/obese
• Children with 2 overweight/obese parents is 80% more likely to be overweight/obese