Whiteboard Wednesdays #2 – Making Your Kids Your Workout Buddy!

 Whiteboard Wednesdays! A brand new initiative that we are excited to launch to help YOU achieve your ideal healthy lifestyle inshaAllah! Every Wednesday at 7pm EST we will be doing a whiteboard presentation,  discussion & Q&A featuring cutting edge research on major issues in health and fitness that matter to you and your family’s life. Tune in for the LIVE Facebook broadcast every week to join the discussion!

Today’s topic: Making Your Kids Your Workout Buddy!

Many parents wonder … how do I get my children to get up off their seats and stay ACTIVE? We live in a society which BOMBARDS us with unhealthy media advertisements that we become blinded and end up believing that this is the norm. As a community we suffer from high rates of OBESITY and OVERWEIGHT children that, as parents, it can sometimes be overwhelming to control.

Believe it or not, as a parent, YOUR fitness habits can also control your child’s future fitness habits as well! Today we have Zayneb Abdullatif, an entrepreneur mom, join us to discuss some practical habits and activities which we can perform with our kids to achieve this healthy lifestyle inshaAllah!

How do Activity Rates Change as Children Get Older?

There was an interesting research study we found comparing the age of the child and how ACTIVE they are. It showed that as children get older – the LESS ACTIVE they become. We can see this in the graph above how when children are 5-11 years of age their physical activity significantly higher than those children aged 12-17 years old.

We can see HUGE drops in activity levels as the kids get older. We see that even after a couple of years the level of activity in boys drops 10%! They are HALF as active once they reach the teenage years compared to when they were younger. We also see this in the girls where they drop from 9% to 3%! A HUGE difference if we compare the different ages.

As children age they are exposed to more and more distractions that limit them in their activity levels. As teenagers, they are focused around a sedentary lifestyle; on their phones, tablets, or even laptops. This is because the see their parents living this type of lifestyle and so they are RAISED in this inactive environment where everyone is distracted by something and seated for most of the day.

Many of us limit our children from engaging in various activities. For example, we prevent our daughters from playing ball with her brothers and instead keep her at home to play with her dolls instead. If we instead create this type of environment in which we even out these opportunities for boys and girls to become active, then we truly allow them to gain the most benefit in regards to their health inshaAllah. It is important for parents to take advantage of this early opportunity when our children are younger and more open to being influenced and having that physical activity implemented into their lifestyle.

Activity Levels in Boys vs. Girls

One interesting difference found was that there was a significant difference between boys and girls! They found that boys, as young as 5-11 years of age, were getting their daily recommended levels of physical activity for kids. Compared to the girls at that age with activity levels of 9 percent! Half that of the boys! Even at a YOUNG AGE, there was a major difference seen in the activity levels between boys and girls.

This may be possibly due to this social sedentary lifestyle that we impose on our children, especially girls. They are pushed to pursue and engage in activities which are mainly sedentary and are encouraged to take on these roles. This MENTALITY as parents should be changed to make sure our children are getting their recommended dose of physical activity!

How Can I Get Involved as a Parent?

Zayneb shares some important and simple tips that parents can use to get active with their children:

1. Encouragement

When we feel encouraged we get a sense of motivation and eagerness to do something. Encouraging your children to get outside and play is a GREAT way to get your kids motivated to run around and engage in physical activity. It is all up to the parents – if our kids see us at home one our phones you can guess what they would want to do as well.

2. Getting involved with your kids

Playing with your kids means time for parents to build relationships with their children as well as improve their social behavior. It is great quality time to spend with your children! They grow up so fast! So it’s good to engage with them and play different games early on in their lives. Even if it something as simple as scavenger hunt, where you hide different objects around the room and get them to find it.

3. Finding time to workout with kids

Even if it is just 15 – 20 min in the day, your kids want to workout with you! You can take an example from some of the women in my bootcamp program. They exercise at home and their children get curious and want to exercise with them! Here are some pictures sent to me of children getting active with their mothers:

Does Carrying my Baby Count as an Exercise?

Many mothers believe that they get their daily exercise through lifting and carrying their child. The truth is that using certain muscles continuously to lift up your child again and again, causes those muscles to grow. This results in an imbalance in muscle density because the rest of her muscles are strong enough to have that support. That is also why many mothers experience different pains and aches in their muscles after repeated carrying. If you add that fitness in your life, you can achieve that potential where you won’t experience those back pains and muscle aches.

Mental and Physical Stimulation with Children

Zayneb’s work as an entrepreneur is to really get children actively thinking and using their imagination while they play. Her product encourages Muslim children to use their creativity in a new and interactive way. It promotes problem solving, social skills, cooperation, as well as language development … something all children need!

Zeyneb is working on an EXCITING project for kids, designing play masjids! It is a way in which we educate and inspire our children’s minds through Islam. The kids can create stories and role plays with the characters included with the product and parents can join in as well, it is an open-ended toy! You can find out more on her fund-raising page here: www.launchgood.com/project/tell_a_tale_play_masjid

So before we wrap up, I want to mention it is never too late to get active with your children. If you don’t shape their mentality on exercise, then society will do it for them … and we saw what happens when we don’t get involved. So instead of living and modeling this sedentary lifestyle, get together with your child and STAY ACTIVE!

That is it for our second episode of Whiteboard Wednesdays. I hope you enjoyed this article and helped you and motivated you to achieve a more active and healthy family. Stay tuned next week for our 3rd episode of Whiteboard Wednesdays inshaAllah!