Fit for Life: Back to School – A New Year to Get It Right

Sunday, September 04, 2016

Matt Espeut, GoLocalWorcester Health +Lifestyle Contributor

It’s that time of year for parents to rejoice. Back to school for the young ones! You get to watch them get all excited about new clothes, sneakers, and being back with their friends. But there are a couple things that kids don’t care about but you should: 1) their nutrition; and, 2) if they play sports, their training. Realistically, most school lunches contain nothing but processed garbage or extremely poor quality food, and most kids that play sports, do not get enough organized training to prepare them for their specific activity. Here’s a few tips on how to combat both dilemmas.

First, nutrition.

Start with a fundamental question: What will I absolutely not include in their lunch bags? This is an important question. Folks will find their own way, but many of the items advertised for lunch boxes are processed crap masquerading as sustenance. We know that it’s unhealthy; we know it’s addictive, yet we still see these items marketed at us. It may have “as much calcium as an 8 oz. glass of milk,” but Kraft doesn’t trumpet the trans fats, artificial dyes and other nasty stuff in the ingredients. Here’s what is in that cheese: Nonfat Milk, Water, Sugar, Modified Corn Starch, Partially Hydrogenated Soybean Oil, less than 2% of: Cocoa (Processed with Alkali), Salt, Calcium Carbonate, Sodium Stearoyl Lactylate, Natural and Artificial Flavors, Yellow 5, Yellow 6. That isn’t the nutrition you want your kids gobbling, so you should not be including anything like this in their menu. Once we have that framework down of what we will not feed them, then we discuss what we will include. I ask two questions: Will it make you proud when you’ve packed it all up that you’ve done your job of giving them a great lunch and snacks? And here’s an important question - will they eat them? I understand the balance between healthy and convenient, flexible and diligent, aware and open. You can pack the world’s healthiest lunch, but it does no good if your kids won’t eat it. Even if you have to make peanut butter and jelly, purchase the highest quality bread that your child will eat, but without those “no chance” items like high fructose corn syrup, artificial colors, etc. Always get a jelly that’s mostly fruit and as natural organic a peanut butter as possible. But even high quality PB & J only takes us so far. To really plan out a menu, before school starts, have a family meeting. Ask your kids what they would like to see in their lunches this year? If you can’t get a straight answer you need to go straight to the grocery store and walk up and down the aisles together. This way you can make informed decisions together, and it won’t feel like you are forcing good healthy food on them. Get them excited about fresh fruits, tasty vegetables like carrots, healthy trail mixes, and quality deli meats, and breads. This will make them happy and you will be satisfied that you are doing a good job as a parent, and that your kids are really eating healthier.

Second, sports, athletic training.

Now that we’ve addressed some nutrition issues, lets talk about athletics. Think on the pro level. What do the pros do in the off-season? They train. Not only for strength and performance, but also for conditioning and injury prevention. Why treat kids differently. When an untrained athlete takes the field, they are doubling their chance of injury, as well as getting their ego, and self-esteem get pummeled, because they can’t compete. You don’t need to send them off to some expensive showcase, or training camp; just a few workout sessions per week, will help improve their overall conditioning. Beware if they hit the gym with their friends, usually they will grab a suggested workout exercise out of a magazine and attempt it on their own. Not only will they increase their odds of getting injured, they may gain absolutely nothing from improper technique. The best advice I can give to a parent is to hire a trained professional, with experience in sports training. When I train my youth athletes, my number one concern is weakness in their core, and my second concern is that they are still growing and developing, so many are extremely awkward. Special attention needs to be paid, because an adolescent should develop their core before loading the body. Movement patterns need to be perfected, before speed work is implemented. Progressions need to be strategically planned, so imbalances, dysfunction and injury do not occur. I am not a parent, but every parent wants their child to excel, and all will cringe, and feel the pain when their kid gets hurt. These issues can be solved by implementing a simple training program, so if you want to have your child be competitive, and injury free, include some good nutrition and training to that back to school schedule. It’ll keep everyone happy all year through, and have you feeling that success that you felt on their first day back.

Matt Espeut, GoLocal's Health & Lifestyle Contributor has been a personal trainer and health & fitnesss consultant for over 25 years. He is the owner of Fitness Profiles, a one on one, and small group personal training company, as well as Providence Fit Body Boot Camp, located at 1284 North Main St., on the Providence/Pawtucket line. You can reach Matt at (401) 453-3200; on Facebook at "Matt Espeut", and on Twitter at @MattEspeut. "We’re all in this life together – let’s make it a healthy one!

Related Slideshow: The 7 Best Health and Fitness Apps

Here is a list of some of the most obsession worthy health apps.

Prev Next

MapMyRun

MapMyRun is the number one selling running app for a reason: it is easy to use, offers community support if you want it, and tracks and stores your exact routes for you. If you are training for a race or a serious runner, users say that the extra perks in the upgraded paid version are well worth it.

Made for iPhone, Android and Blackberry

Prev Next

MyFitnessPal

MyFitnessPal seems to be the clear favorite amongst everyone polled. It is helpful not only for the fitness tracking aspect, but everyone polled mentioned how much they loved the food/diet aspect as well. From carb counting for diabetics to recipe ideas to complement your fitness goals, users love this app.

Made for iPhone and Android

Prev Next

JeFit

JeFit is another fitness app that has rave reviews. It not only tracks progress for you, but offers a huge database of workouts. While many apps offer community support, JeFit allows you to sync workouts with friends who use the app, offering a (real) virtual buddy system.

Made for iPhone and Android

Prev Next

Strava

Strava gets the highest mark of all the cycling apps. While it is also great for runners, the cyclers seem particularly inclined towards the fierce competition that can be ignited by this app. You can track all of your rides via GPS, then you can compare your efforts to those logged by others in the community on the same stretch of road. You can also join ongoing challenges that can net you great prizes (in addition to bragging rights).

Made for iPhone and Android

Prev Next

YogaStudio

YogaStudio gets the top vote for Yoga apps. It has a lengthy collection of full class-length videos available at your fingertips. Unlike many other apps, this one also allows you to customize your own video yoga class. All of the poses are done by qualified yoga instructors, and you can find classes suitable for all levels of yogis.

Made for iPhone only

Prev Next

SimplyBeing

SimplyBeing meditation app offers the best of both worlds. You can choose to run this app as a background for your meditation with soothing music or natural sounds that run for a set amount of time. Conversely, for those of you who have trouble focusing during meditation, you can choose a soothing voice-guided meditation.

Made for iPhone and Android

Prev Next

Fooducate

Fooducate is an app all about educating people so that they make healthier food choices. Although not perfect, this app is easy to use (you can even take pictures of bar codes to instantly find foods in their database). It gives food a letter grade, tells you the pluses and minuses, and gives you better ranked alternatives. You can also use it as a weight loss tool by tracking your daily calories.

Made for iPhone and Android