Oscars Wall-E Movie Importance of Fitness Activities For Kids

I enjoyed the Oscars this week! Probably like so many, I ran out to get a copy of some of the most nominated Oscar movies! On my list was Wall-E. I decided to watch Wall-E since:

• it was up for so many academy awards
• to see what this kids movie was teaching kid
• to see what all the hype was about.

The movie had several important messages but I am going to focus on just one. (In the spirit of keeping it simple) The movie Wall-E had a clear message about the importance of activity. It really showed us what can happen to us when we move very little, in other words, live a very sedentary lifestyle.

Wall-E shows us what can happen to us if technology reaches the point where we no longer have to move. In the movie, everything we need or want is either delivered to us via robots or experienced through digital trickery. So, bottom line, there is very little need to move.

What happens in the movie? You guessed it, everyone gets larger and larger. Kind of scary to think our evolution could take us from walking to ending up with us laying on our backs... too large to really walk.

Perhaps a bit of an exaggeration... or is that where we are really headed? I know there are some days, where I could be on my computer all day, with just a couple of bathroom breaks. This generation of children are growing up in the technology era where they can do research, communicate, socialize, play and even turn in homework all without ever moving.

So although we probably will not stop technological advances, we can teach our children what our body needs to be healthy. Habits form young and get harder to break the older we get. So, let's take a lesson from Wall-E and teach our kids to be active everyday.

What to do for those kids on the computer? (let's face it, that is now a part of life)

One idea is just to set a little timer to remind your child (and you might want to do this too!) to stop once an hour and do 5-10 minutes of movement. But, let's take this one step further. Kids need limits, and limiting their total computer and TV time to no more than 2 hours a day is key!

Another idea, use just a little of their computer time to teach them about the importance of healthy eating habits. Let the child hear this message from many sources, the more they hear similar messages, the better chance they will remember.

Resource:  nutrition education games