We As Parents Lead by Example

We as parents lead by example, this is true.  We lead our children with exercise and the way they eat.  I am just going to touch on the two because I have experience with them.When I was younger I use to run/jog with my sons.  My oldest son got involved in running. One day we went to a festival in Louisiana.  My brother and his wife were avid runners.  My son asked me if he could run that race.  I am not quite sure exactly how I answered him.  Other than I said something like, “Boy I ain’t got any money for you to run this race.”  And then his uncle said he wants to run I will pay for him.

My son almost ran that whole race that day without stopping.  If my memory serves me right he stopped right when he got close to the finish line.  And the only running my son had done was playing around at home in the yard.  We participated in a lot of races after that day.  My son really enjoyed the running and it was good exercise for him.

He ran in high school on the track team and then he joined the Navy and he stills runs. As for my other other son he was never the athletic type.  We tried to make him run with us but he never really liked it.  To this day he does not like exercise or running.  He would do some exercise but it was very little.  Well guess what changed his life around to exercise.  He joined the Navy and will ship out on Feb 21, 08, he was overweight and needed to lose some weight to get accepted into the Navy.  He then took advice from his brother, the Navy recruiter and his mom about exercising and eating proper.

He started running and doing exercises and watching what he was eating.  We noticed the pounds dropping of.  He started to slim down and we talked about what he was doing.  And we advised him on what he needed to do to continue losing the weight that the Navy required him to lose.  He feels a whole lot healthier and has more energy because of the exercise and diet.  His brother also eats well and follows a certain diet plan that works for him.     

All I am saying is that we as parents need to take the lead and run with it.  We need to lead by example.

Written by: Healthy Women Café, October 24, 2007