Encouraging endorphin addiction at a young age

My moms group met the other day to plan the upcoming year of mother-daughter activities, and the conversation got snagged on weight and body image, as it tends to do when a bunch of thinky women start talking about parenting 8-10-year-old girls.

I've written a few times about fatness and parenting girls, and it's back at the front of my mind because I've been reading lately about research suggesting that kids who are overweight early are pretty much screwed with a lifetime of being overweight. I hope to set Skipper and Duchess up for a lifetime of physical activity in a way that will survive the travails of adolescence. I really don't know how to do this, so I'm casting around in the dark.

Luckily, Duchess really likes doing stuff with people. And she likes endorphins, so my current angle is to point out how great she feels* after she exercises. Which she does a lot; without exactly planning it, we have created a situation where she gets about an hour of fairly vigorous exercise six days a week. Plus, she walks miles and miles, like the rest of us. Oh. and PE twice a week, and recess.** (Though it's worth noting that even that level of activity, which is fairly high for her peer group, still just barely meets the physical activity recommendations for kids.) So that's all working pretty well for the moment. We'll see if it lasts. Even if it does, there will probably have to be a totally different angle for Skipper, because there always has to be a totally different angle for Skipper. Usually it's a strange angle.


*Expressed in a continual stream of happy chatter emitted while bouncing Tigger-like along the sidewalk all the way home.
** She's taken to playing basketball at recess. BASKETBALL!

So sparkly and beautiful

One last thing...

... I LOVE my hula hoop. I moved all the furniture so I can use it inside, but I still have to be careful not to knock things over or clonk Dutch in the head. I'll take a picture of the sparkly hoopy glory when I get around to recharging the camera battery. You're going to be so jealous.

Acting like a kid is hard.

Hula hooping hurts, people. My waist and hips are all bruised.

My current projects include: walking-while-hooping, hooping clockwise instead of counter-clockwise, and moving the hoop up and down my body.

Soon I'm sure I will be able to do this: