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By the Healthy Weight Commitment Foundation

How will you celebrate the 4th of July this year? No matter what you do, it can be an opportunity not just to mark our nation's founding, but also to launch (or build on) a healthy lifestyle for you and your family.

No doubt about it, eating is a big part of the 4th of July holiday. But it's important to remember: There's also a 5th of July. Making sure our kids live a healthy life depends on BALANCE, especially energy balance - making sure that the energy (or calories) we consume is balanced by the energy we expend through physical activity.

July 4th is a day to play. Since it falls on a Monday this year, it makes for a great weekend to do these things - as a family. That works in perfectly with the Healthy Weight Commitment Foundation's Together Counts™ program, which encourages families to eat meals together and engage in physical activities together to counter obesity and promote good health.

Why not go out for a family walk after dinner for all three days of the holiday? Or you can throw the Frisbee around. Or how about going on a swim as a family - maybe even make it a race.

If you're having a family picnic, there is nothing more fun than a potato sack race or a three-legged race - or just a regular footrace. When is the last time you got the chance to play touch football with the kids? Or if the kids are younger, tag or hide-and-seek?

The important thing is to keep on moving. It all burns calories - and it all balances out that great food we'll be eating. Let's have a great - active - Fourth of July.  

By Lisa Gable

For many American families, this is the summer of making Together Count. I'm talking about the Together Counts™ program, which encourages families to eat meals together and engage in physical activities together to help counter obesity and promote good health.

The campaign was launched by the Healthy Weight Commitment Foundation (HWCF) - 160-member organization to which Women Impacting Public Policy (WIPP) belongs. HWCF and WIPP share a commitment to reducing obesity, especially childhood obesity. The Together Counts initiative makes good sense. Families that eat together and share regular physical activities are happier and healthier.

The Together Counts campaign invites families to take the pledge - to work together and share meals together.
One of the most important ways to fight obesity is by engaging in healthy physical activity. It's a two-way street:  Both how many calories we take in and how many we expend. The best time to start pursuing this kind of energy balance is the summer -- the season of swimming and hiking, playing baseball and just plain going out and having a good time.  There are lots of opportunities for families to engage in healthy physical activities together. And sharing a meal together is especially fun when it's a picnic or a barbecue. So this summer, let's start making Together Count.  

For some tips, check out www.togethercounts.com.  

By Lisa Gable, Executive Director of the Healthy Weight Commitment Foundation

Childhood seems to have moved indoors. Kids today spend an average of 4-7 minutes a day outside in unstructured play. Kids who spend all their free time in front of a video screen don't know what they're missing. Rather than simply tell them, parents can show them - by taking part in outdoor family activities.

The Healthy Weight Commitment Foundation's national Together Counts™ campaign - see www.togethercounts.com - encourages families to engage in healthy physical activities together (and to eat more meals together).

There are many opportunities for families to have fun together, while encouraging kids to get into a physically active lifestyle. One way is to participate in the National Wildlife Federation's Great American Backyard Campout® on June 25th, a nationwide event that asks families and friends to take one night and campout in their backyards, back porches, or local parks. To join the campout, register with National Wildlife Federation at www.backyardcampout.org  and open the door to sleep under the stars.  The website provides camping resources and tools, such as packing lists, recipes and suggested activities. You can pledge to camp with your family in your own backyard or join up with a team of campers in your neighborhood.  Great American Backyard Campout is free.  NWF encourages participants to fund-raise to help support NWF programs (similar to a walk-a-thon).

This Spring, NWF launched Ranger Rick's Geocache Trails - a treasure hunt that incorporates GPS positioning technology and gets kids and parents out together on healthy nature hikes to find hidden geocaches .  Ranger Rick Geocache Trails GPS coordinates can be found at www.geocaching.com/rangerricktrails.
 
It's healthy and wholesome. Oh, one more thing - it's a lot of fun.

You don't sell as many cars as Lee Iacocca did unless you know something about people. Mr. Iacocca once said "the only institution that works is the family." So it makes sense to mobilize the power of the family to combat obesity.

Beating obesity takes two things - people consuming fewer calories, and expending more calories through healthy physical activity. It's called energy balance, and families eating and playing together can help achieve it. That is why the Healthy Weight Commitment Foundation and Women Impacting Public Policy have launched a national campaign called the Together Counts™ program. It encourages families to eat meals and engage in physical activities together.

Lots of studies demonstrate the value of families eating together - by Harvard University, University of Minnesota, University of Missouri, University of Tokushima in Japan (and others).  As a recent article on the online Huffington Post pointed out, "dinner makes a difference. Family dinner is our best bet at an immediate impact in childhood obesity."

There is also considerable support for the value of family participation in physical activities. A paper by academics at University of Northern Iowa points out: Children model their behavior on the behavior of the adults in their lives, and they are more affected by what their parents do than what they say.

No wonder the First Lady's Let's Move! initiative has issued a challenge to families to be among the first to achieve a Presidential Active Lifestyle Award (PALA) by committing to physical activity five days a week, for six weeks.

Families that eat together and share regular physical activities are happier and healthier. That's why 'together counts.'

The Healthy Weight Commitment Foundation brings together 160 retailers, food and beverage manufacturers, restaurants, sporting goods and insurance companies, a professional sports organization, NGOs, trade associations, and the U.S. Army to do their part to help families reduce obesity, especially childhood obesity.

By Lisa Gable, Executive Director of the Healthy Weight Commitment Foundation

1963 was a critical year for African-Americans. Dr. Martin Luther King led the March on Washington. President John F. Kennedy called for a Civil Rights Act. African-American leaders intensified their organizing efforts aimed at strengthening their communities.

One of those efforts was the 100 Black Men of America Inc. It brought together community leaders to explore ways of improving conditions in their community.

Black History Month is a good time to mark the work of 100 Black Men of America. One of their goals is to promote wellness, especially reducing childhood obesity. A member organization of the Healthy Weight Commitment Foundation, the organization is committed to promoting energy balance - taking fewer calories-in and expending more calories out through physical activity.   

Battling obesity is not easy, especially where recess and physical education classes have been cut back. 100 Black Men's dedicated vehicle for pursuing energy balance is called Youth Movement, a program that helps students improve their heath, develop long-term goals and overcome obstacles and achieve lifetime success, by providing an outlet for physical activity, along with nutritional education. Volunteer nurses and coaches bring equipment and assess health and fitness levels at participating schools. After-school and weekend programs offer track and field clubs, athletic training and clinics facilitated by Olympians and world-class athlete volunteers.
Black History Month is a time to pay tribute of the power of community to better lives. 100 Black Men, Inc.'s efforts to improve wellness and reduce obesity among young people is an important part of that.