15 Ways to Combat Childhood Obesity by Making Fitness a Family Affair

Kids live what they learn. If you don't want fat and obese kids, don't live a fat family life, says fitness expert and author Tom Gilliam. Here, he offers some simple yet powerful ideas for getting kids (and maybe you, too) excited about getting fit and to combat obesity.

You want your kids to be healthy and happy. What parent doesn't? But with America's childhood obesity epidemic growing worse every year--and with fast food meals and sedentary TV-and-computer pastimes the societal norm--you worry about their future. In a world set up to make kids fat, how can you make sure yours aren't? The solution is simple, says Tom Gilliam, Ph.D. Don't preach to your kids from the "parent pulpit" and impose a bunch of arbitrary diet and exercise rules. Instead, live a healthy body weight message, every day, and your kids will naturally come along for the ride.

"A lifetime of fitness always begins at home," asserts Gilliam, creator of the Move It. Lose It. Live Healthy.