BONNIE PFIESTER FIGHTS OBESITY

Kudos to Bonnie Pfiester.  Her comments in her column in today�s Vero Beach Press Journal mirror what I talk about everyday with parents, business leaders, and children throughout the United States and beyond.  Fighting obesity must happen on all fronts.  We cannot afford to be complacent in this fight.  

As a reader of this blog you know that my focus is childhood obesity- stopping it, reversing it, and preventing it. One in three kids in America is overweight or obese.  Two in three adults are overweight or obese.  If America�s children are going to have any kind of chance to get to a healthy weight as kids and avoid the early onset of obesity-related diseases seen primarily in older adults (like type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure, and joint disease), then America�s adults had better start confronting their own daily excuses as to why they don�t exercise and why they are still making lousy food choices.  

From a kid�s perspective, it�s a case of �monkey see, monkey do�.  I see it every day.  Kids are simply modelling the behavior they see in their parents, their teachers, their friends� parents, etc. 

I  agree 150% with what Bonnie said in today�s article about the five ways people can fight the obesity epidemic.  This is what you can do:

• Fight obesity in your home.
• Fight obesity in your workplace.
• Fight obesity in your child�s school.
• Fight obesity in your church and local organizations.
• Fight obesity in your close circles.

The really great thing is that Bonnie is doing more than just talking about fighting obesity.  She has drawn a line in the sand with an offer today that shows she is serious about fighting obesity.  She said that anyone who brings a copy of today�s Vero Beach Press Journal article into her Max Fitness Club (which she owns with husband, Steve) by August 1 will receive a free 30-day club membership.  

Bonnie, you are a wonderful role model for improving the health of America � and America�s children.   Thank you!!

Kids at a recent Growing Healthy Kids in the Kitchen event in Vero Beach.

Kids on the fitness trail at a recent Growing Healthy Kids event held in collaboration with Youth Guidance Mentoring & Activities Program.

Thank you,

Nancy Heinrich

Founder, Growing Healthy Kids, Inc.

• Growing Healthy Kids is a movement to improve the health � and lives � of America�s children by designing and delivering solutions to halt, reverse, and prevent childhood obesity.  For more information, go to www.growinghealthykids.meand www.growinghealthykids.blogspot.com.

Bridal Boot Camp Premier Helps Growing Healthy Kids

Paradise Greetings,

What a great, fun evening! Last night was the debut of the VH1 reality series, Bridal Boot Camp starring Vero Beach's own Steve Pfiester! Party and gala to recognize his great work in the show and to hear some of the inside scoop about the making of the series. Party at Coste d'Este, Gloria Estefan's glorious beach hotel, then off to the beautiful Majestic Theater to watch the premiere on the big screen.

Transforming overweight and obese women who are about to marry to healthier weights. Such an important message, not just for a reality TV show, but for all girls and women because of what we know about obese women developing gestational diabetes and having larger than normal babies at higher risk for birth defects. Educating girls and women about the importance of getting to healthier weights - and staying there - so that if and when they decide to have children, those children will enter this world healthy, not sick.

The best part, for me, was the surprise that the proceeds from the event will benefit Growing Healthy Kids so we can continue to educate children and the adults who surround them about how to eat healthier and moving more with our garden-based education programs. Thank you, Steve (and Bonnie) Pfiester of Longevity Fitness Club (www.longevityclubs.com) for recognizing the work of Growing Healthy Kids to improve the health - and lives - of children, one garden and one child at a time. Let's "give the boot" to childhood obesity!!

To your perfect health,
Nancy Heinrich
Founder, Growing Healthy Kids