I was taking a beach walk with my amazing nephews and I thought, just for fun, I’ll start asking them their opinions on nutrition and fitness questions. Their responses were so amazing that I had to come straight back to the condo and fire up the microphone!

Interview with my nephews: Ethan, age 12 and Brayden, age 11.

On vacation they are surrounded by different foods. Looks, texture and smell affect whether they think they will like something. Peer pressure can affect whether they want to try it or not. They were surprised to find that they now like something they did not like before, so they understand why you have to try things more than once.

These boys have grown up surrounded by people with a healthy attitude about food and exercise so that seems normal to them. They understand that the right food can give you the energy you need to excel in their chosen sports.

They have felt first-hand the effects that poor sleep or food choices can have on the quality of their performance in the game. They have also seen how good food choices and training has a positive effect on their game.

Perspective has a lot to do with whether or not we do things. At 8:30 in the evening when bed is sounding good to me. these boys wanted to go to the gym to workout. They are finally old enough to be allowed to use the exercise equipment and they are excited! They “Get” to go to the gym rather than they “Have” to go to the gym. If you grew up thinking it is a treat or something to look forward to, you are much more likely to continue with it throughout your life.

Key takeaways:

1. For most kids physical training is a means to an end – they workout for sports, to improve, to make a team, they also enjoy being fit to participate in kid activities. They rarely look at physical activity as a weight loss tool and because they view activity differently, it has a much more positive correlation.

2. The boys have first-hand experiences with how small changes can make a huge difference and relate-able stories that I would have never thought of…

3: Kids have opinions about food, and we could have a lot of fun by asking our kiddos more questions…

Journaling thoughts:

1. What are the activities you enjoyed doing as a kid? And are you still doing any of these activities?

2. Write down all of your feelings around food… how you felt about food as a kid, where life has taken you with food… do you believe food can improve your mood, energy or skill level?

3. Do you have small changes you could be making that you don’t believe could really make that big of a difference? (for example: it’s hard to believe that cutting out the glass of wine at night could improve your sleep or the extra glass of water could improve your bowel movements or the extra glass of water could help lift your depression) what are you not believing can make a difference because it feels too small?

Homework:

1. Try a new food or make one small change.

2. Go to a gym and add a kid mentality

3. Grab a buddy and do an activity.