Sneaky Fitness: Fun, Foolproof Ways to Slip Fitness into Your Child’s Everyday Life by Missy Chase Lapine and Larysa Didio (Book Review)

Let me begin by saying this: what a great book! I was sent an advance copy for free and my punch line is that this is an easy to navigate, idea packed book for getting kids to be more active in a sofa-based, texting-driven, iPod-glued society (did you know even pre-schoolers spend as much as 90 minutes a day glued to the TV or a computer?)

With increasing portion sizes and fast food available at every turn, it’s more important than ever to set good habits about physical activity with our kids as early as possible.

Sneaky Fitness is filled with 100 ideas for getting kids moving – and it’s sorted by age groups (2 to 4/pre-schoolers, 5 to 8/grade-schoolers, and 9 to 12/tweens), weekend activities/sunny day activities/play date activities/party day activities/any day activities – thus making reference very simple.

Here’s a couple I’ve tried:

• Harness kids “fitness factor”: This involves placing things around a TV room (or wherever they hang out) that makes them naturally fidget or move around.  One little hula hoop in our family room has given my daughter quite a bit of extra exercise while engrossed in SpongeBob.  A few of my adult guests have partaken too – and I kick myself for not taking pictures!
• Rain in Your Parade: Don’t let the rain keep you in; in fact, let it draw you out!  Make yoru obstacle course by jumping from one puddle to the next, or play “Red Light/Green Light” in the slippery, muddy stuff.
• Look Ma, No Feet: Tell your kids they cannot walk to their rooms; they have to slither like snakes (ok, my daughter does this one on her own, no prompting required).
• Dig to China: This one is on the list to try with our next snow fall.  Kids burn 68 calories in 30 minutes by digging and filling a pail with dirt, snow or sand.  That’s three times the calories burned by sitting in front of the TV.

An added bonus to this book is the sections containing healthy super-foods, tips on good eating habits, and many yummy Sneaky Fitness recipes (Chocolate Champion Cereal Cookies, here we come).

You may recognize the authors by name already.  Missy Chase Lapine is New York Times bestselling author of the book The Sneaky Chef.  She is also a member of Parenting Magazine’s mom experts, the Mom Squad and she is the former publisher of Eating Well magazine.  Her site is located at www.thesneakychef.com.   Larysa Didio is a certified personal trainer and her Get Fit video has been cross promoted with Danskin and Sketchers products.  Ms. DiDio has a site at www.larysafit .com.

You can purchase this book at Amazon at:

http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=sneaky+fitness&x=0&y=0

Enjoy,

Swati

Tags: Amazon, Danskin, Eating Well, Get Fit, godo eating habits, grade-schoolers, healthy, iPod, Larysa DiDio, MIssy Lapine, parenting, pre-schoolers, recipes, Sketchers, Sneaky Fitness, The Sneaky Chef, tweens