Mission Statement-
To empower people with the knowledge and skills necessary to take ownership of their own health and wellness
A society that makes public health and wellness a priority should be willing to invest in prevention.
Prevention requires education: Prevention is by far the least expensive way to provide health care to the general public. With prevention, you avoid the costs associated with expensive pharmaceuticals, surgical procedures, hospitalization, and lost work productivity. With prevention, you also give the power back to the individual -- the power to take control over their life and choose a lifestyle that is consistent with the level of happiness and health that they desire. Disease prevention focuses on education and empowering people with both the knowledge and the skills they need to make healthful choices.
BeFit* is an exciting and educational family fitness program- we get the kids excited about being physically active and help family’s establish sound health and fitness habits by educating, not only the children, but the parents/caregivers as well.
Parents/Caregivers: Physical activity is an important part of your child’s life; it has a tremendous impact on physical, intellectual, and emotional development. As parents, we have a responsibility to be role models for our children, teaching and sharing with them the pleasures and benefits of a physically active lifestyle.
Parents have an incredible amount of influence on the attitudes their children develop about physical activity and wellness.
The parental support system is crucial to the success or failure of any fitness program.
At BeFit* we believe that two key factors need to be addressed in order for any youth wellness program to be successful.
One of which is educating the parents/caregivers.
-We make each family aware of the recommended amounts of daily physical activity their child should be getting.
-We tell you how much sedentary activity (video games, TV, etc.) is too much.
-We define sedentary, moderate and vigorous activity by sending home handouts with multiple examples of each.
-We give homework each week and have parents/caregiver sign an activity log.
-We have a registered dietician give a tour of a local supermarket to help each family shop in a more healthful way.
-We offer a monthly online newsletter on our web page as well as links to other informative health and wellness sites.
An educated parent/caregiver can take ownership of their family’s health and wellness. Be a role model, be responsible, be kind and BeFit!
The Children: There is an athlete in every kid. At BeFit* we understand that a child who is experiencing success and having fun will embrace physical activity and incorporate it into their lives. We make certain that each child experiences success because unlike most physical education programs BeFit does not emphasize team sports and competition. Instead our emphasis is on finding the athlete in each and every kid. By offering a wide variety of age appropriate activities we allow each child to discover which activities they enjoy most and we help them build on their success. At BeFit we never say ‘give me ten push-ups, we ask for as many as you can do today and we add on each week. So that a child whose initial evaluation had her doing one push-up may be doing five in week five-that is success! .
BeFit allows each child to grow in a non-competitive, individually progressive environment where self-motivation and self-confidence will soar along with each child’s fitness level.
The second of the two key factors mentioned earlier is the ability of the program to travel well. By this I mean, if you need exercise machines and have to go to a gym in order to perform the activities you have learned, the program is likely to fail for lack of adherence.
The BeFit program does not use any high tech or expensive exercise equipment in fact the only piece of equipment that we would like each child to own is a jump rope (<$2). The reason being is we want the kids to be able to do their work anywhere. At home, at grandma’s etc. if you have a wall and a floor you are good to go. The kids love to go home and show what they have learned.
Now that we have knowledgeable, involved parents/caregivers and children who have learned multiple age appropriate exercises that can be performed anywhere, we have the necessary ingredients to beat back obesity and all the medical issues associated with it.
The BeFit* program is the best investment a community can make in its children. Give your community the greatest gift of all-the gift of health!
News letter for parents and caregivers- what you don’t know can’t help you!
If you don’t know the recommended dosage you can’t properly dispense a remedy |
According to who you ask somewhere between fifteen and thirty percent of our children are overweight. Ten to fifteen percent of children between the ages of two and five are overweight. Type II diabetes and cardiovascular risk factors such as high blood pressure are showing up in our children. We are raising the most overweight out of shape children in our history. Despite this epidemic, physical education time is being reduced in our schools to address the academic issues related to the federal ‘no child left behind’ legislation.
“Obesity is catching up to tobacco as the leading cause of death in America. If this trend continues it will soon overtake tobacco," said Julie L. Gerberding, director of the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
We are in the midst of an obesity epidemic caused by poor diet and sedentary lifestyles. We eat too much and move too little.
Coupled with the fact that both state and the federal governments stand to be bankrupted by health care costs associated with obesity and the chronic diseases caused by obesity ( Medicare has officially announced that treatments for obesity will be paid for with taxpayer dollars) this is everyone’s problem.
An ounce of PREVENTION is worth a pound of cure |
The solution to all this is not to have cheaper drugs, nor to negotiate with health care providers for lower-cost surgical procedures; the solution is to make investments in prevention. Prevention is by far the most intelligent and least expensive way to provide health care to the general public. With prevention, you avoid the costs associated with expensive pharmaceuticals, surgical procedures, hospitalization, and lost work productivity, but in order to achieve disease prevention you must educate and herein lays the problem.
I was speaking to a group of parents whose children ranged in age from toddlers to teens. This was a well educated group of well to do suburban professionals who knew which pre- sat coarse was rated best and when the cut off date for early admission to Harvard was etc. When I asked if anyone knew the age appropriate amount of exercise recommended by The Center for Disease Control (CDC) for their child no one would even venture a guess. For my next question I asked that spouses jot their answers on a piece of paper individually. I asked if they knew how often their children had physical education classes each week. There is no right or wrong answer seeing as how I am not privy to each schools policies etc., but what was interesting was how only two couple’s answers were identical. My third question was does your child’s phys. Ed curriculum meet the CDC’s daily recommended age appropriate dose of activity (which of coarse you can’t know this until you can answer question number one correctly).
When you are armed with the answers to these three questions you are ready to begin your battle against obesity. Go to www.naspeinfo.org or e mail me at jkfitness@aol.com and find out what you need to know. Remember invest in prevention; it is worth a pound of cure!
Here is a simple equation:
The CDC recommended amount of daily vigorous activity (say 60 minutes for example)
MINUS
The amount, if any performed by your child on that day (in gym or at soccer practice etc.)
IS EQUAL TO
THE AMOUNT THAT REMAINS TO BE PERFORMED THAT DAY
60 minutes DO THE MATH - 30 minutes in gym = 30 minutes still to be done |
If you understand this than you understand a lot!