Family Fitness Blog

Family Fit Plan Classes Now Available

2007-05-01T20:27:00.000-07:00

Announcing Family Fitness workouts led by Family Fit Plan co-creator, Jonathan Ross!

If you live near Bowie, MD, you must bring your kids to experience this new workout with them.

For the first time, we're now offering live classes based on the Family Fit Plan workouts. These classes are not available anywhere else on earth!

Classes begin May 10 at Sport Fit health club in Bowie, MD.

When:
Mondays at 3:30 PM (beginning May 14)
Thursdays at 4:15 PM (beginning May 10)
(class length is 45 minutes)

Where: Kids Fitness Room

Single Class: $18 members ($25 non-members)

6-Class Card: $72 members ($125 non-members)

Skip babysitting...
Go directly to
Better fitness,
Big laughs,
and a complete family workout!

Space will be limited for these classes so be sure to reserve your spot right away.
Sign up at the front desk of Sport Fit. (upstairs)

Family Fitness Champions

2007-04-19T17:32:00.000-07:00

One Household - Three Gold Medals.

We'd like to recognize a truly remarkable accomplishment of one family that uses Family Fit Plan. We never set out to build champion athletes, but that's what happens when you get fit - you never know what great things it can lead to.

Paige Havens - featured on the cover of Family Fit Plan - and her children Jack and Taylor (also featured in Family Fit Play) all won gold medals in their respective age groups at the National Standard Race (NASTAR) skiing national championships held last month at Steamboat, Colo.

Click here to read full coverage of this great accomplishment. Congratulations to the Havens family!

Go Outside and Play? Are They Serious!?

2007-03-07T07:12:00.000-08:00

Every story about childhood obesity has an admonition to "go outside and play with your kids." This over-simplified, casual response ignores the reality of life in winter.

If you live anywhere north of Florida at this time of year, it's either simply chilly or downright arctic outside - with many parts of the country literally buried underneath snow and ice. Going outside to play is at best uncomfortable and at worst punishing.

Recently, I was interviewed by Kevin Gianni of Live Awesome. I addressed this issue and a few others surrounding the challenges of family fitness. You can listen to or download the interview here.

Fish: To Eat or Not to Eat

2007-02-24T09:42:00.000-08:00

If you think what to eat is confusing - it's even worse for women who are pregnant or are attempting to get pregnant.

A recent longitudinal study - composed of over 14,000 women and 13,000 of their children up to age 12 followed since 1991 - showed that the benefits of eating fish high in omega-3 fats far outweighed the risk of consuming mercury in the fish. The children of mothers who ate more fish had higher IQs and better social interactions.

What's going on? Who's to blame for this confusion? And most importantly, what should you do when it comes to seafood consumption?

The results of this well-designed study are in sharp contrast to prior recommendations from the U.S. government to limit weekly consumption of fish by pregnant women. This was the result of increasing concerns over the damaging effects of mercury in the fish. But as with many other nutrition topics, the right course of action is often more complex than avoiding entire categories of foods that sometimes contain something bad. Further, very little guidance is given on which species of fish are the most beneficial or risky.

100 years ago there was no such thing as a mercury problem in seafood. Then governments began allowing companies to dump various wastes into lakes, rivers, and streams, thus polluting the water with mercury.

The mercury concentrates in smaller species which are eating by larger species. So, the larger up the food chain you go, the higher the typical concentrations of mercury you will find. So, we are to blame for the polluted waters that create polluted fish. Let's not be mad at the fish.

What should you do?

Eat seafood that is higher in omega-3 fats and lower in mercury. (view table from the Washington Post)
When possible, choose wild fish vs. farmed fish (farmed fish are often raised in pens located in lakes or near river outlets and are thus subject to higher concentrations of waste and sewage from dumping). Yes, the difference matters.
Support environmental legislation requiring the clean-up of our waterways and restricting future dumping of wastes into our waterways.