Today is the big Easter egg hunt and festivities held every year at the white house for hundreds of children. What I love about this year's festivities is the focus on nutrition and healthy eating. Our first lady has continued her commitment to promoting healthy eating to children as part of every event.
This year, besides the big Easter egg hunt, there will be stations set up throughout the area promoting healthy foods, cooking with kids staffed by some leading chefs, fun exercise stations with basketball, hula hoop and even yoga (to name just a few). Even a farmers market and a trip through the White House garden to see what fruits and vegetables are currently being grown. Music and dancing is also part of the event which is always a lot of fun and great exercise!
When she opened up the event and welcomed the children, she kept it fun and positive but still talked the kids about how much fun it was to be active and eat healthy foods.
This is a great example of how we can do the same in school activities, birthday parties, holiday festivities and even simple fun family outings. These are all opportunities to promote healthy choices and being active in a fun way. And it doesn't have to be very elaborate, you know kids have a great imagination and if they pick up ideas and messages very easily. As long as it is presented in a way that is fun to them.
The fast food industry and high fat/high sugar food manufacturers constantly bombard kids with fun advertisements, cartoon characters and toys promoting how fun it is to eat their products. And obviously it has been a good formula. But kids need to hear the other side, and we can work together to provide that message in little and big ways.
So next activity, think a little out of the box, and see how you can bring in a little fun and promote nutrition and exercise to kids.
Thank you Michelle Obama for demonstrating that healthy messages to kids can easily be part of kids' festivities!
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