Fat, medicated… but safe.

Teddy was a truly cranky 6 year old. He never felt like he was good at anything. His brain raced along faster than his ability to engage with the world around him. He made a lot of mistakes at school, had a lot of conflict with peers, over seemingly trivial things... and was sent to the principal’s office a lot. He had intelligence to burn, charm when he chose it, and a loving family (admittedly with a bossy older brother) and caring teachers. But the only thing that delighted him was “screen time.” Especially the Wii.

Then one day… he discovered his scooter. It didn’t require the “get ready” steps that bike and roller blades did… just a helmet. He was as fast as his big brother. He felt like he could fly. It was always in the car, and could be parked wherever he was at school.

He would spend hours after school practicing his “short track times”. He was happy to get in the car and drive to school, since he could enjoy the scooter the ¼ mile from parking space to his line. He could do tricks and the other kids started to bring their scooters to school. He spent time outdoors. He ate more. He slept better. Other kids started bringing their scooters and Teddy taught them tricks he had first learned from Wii Winter Olympics. The playground became a merry mass of first graders in motion. Rapid motion :-)

A few weeks passed… Teddy was stopped on the playground one morning on his way to his line, and told he was not allowed to ride his scooter at school anymore. (He could walk it.)

His mom went to go ask the principal reason for this and was told “it was for safety”. His mom tried to explain this to Teddy. He promised that he rode carefully and would be extra careful from now on. His teacher tried to explain that in addition to caring about the safety of others, this was about respecting everybody’s rights by following rules.

But it didn’t compute in his brain. He figured he had done something bad. He became cranky, lost his appetite, and had trouble sleeping again. (In one of the last glimpses of humor and self awareness, he asked if the principal was a friend of Mrs. Gorf - of Wayside School fame -- who only liked kids to be quiet and still and round like apples.)

His pediatrician suggested that Ritalin would help him become more successful at school.

The playground is again empty after school – except for the neighborhood teens riding their bikes, and the nannies with toddlers.

Teddy is inside… waiting for screen time.

Cranky. Sedentary. But safe.

This is a true story. Names have been changed, but not much else.

Wellness in the Health Care Bill!

As a corporate and personal wellness coach, I was thrilled to see that the health care reform legislation addresses the very common sense idea that prioritizing keeping people well will benefit us all.

In particular, I was happy to see so much attention paid to the workplace - the place where we adults spend so much time, and where stress can lead to illness.

The ROI of a good workplace wellness are becoming clear and now there are will be more focus, and more incentives around this.

I'm looking forward to being a a part of this change.

Health Promotion Provisions in Health Care Reform Bill See details here: Included Development of a national health promotion plan. Enhanced health promotion research. Technical assistance to enhance evaluation of workplace health promotion programs. Regular periodic surveys on workplace health program prevalence and components. Grants to pay a portion of the cost of comprehensive workplace health promotion programs for small employers. Allow employers to offer employees a premium discount of up to 30% (instead of the current 20%), for positive lifestyle practices or participation in health promotion programs, include safeguards, and refer to Health and Human Services to study benefits of increasing the portion to 50%.

Shoreline Park, Picnics and Dirt Piles

Shoreline Park in Mt. View has so many delights... where to start? Its the best biking/skating path for those learning to ride, it has a great kids play area, you can rent paddle boats, canoes, and they serve great beer and french fries in the charming boat house. Phew.

Just when I thought it couldn't get better -- the dirt piles appeared. While perhaps appearing to be a girly girl, I've always enjoyed getting dirty and sweaty... imagine my delight in discovering mountain biking in my late 20s!)

And back in those same late 20's days, I was dating a cute guy, whose best friend lived by Portero Hill in SF. We'd frequently go and enjoy beautiful SF days with him. One day, as we finished a hike there, we amused ourselves by hopping and sliding "off trail" to get to the bottom of the hill. And friend, we'll call him Pookie, took great photos of this fun. I subsequently married cute guy and had babies which have now grown into small men.

Flash forward to today... said small men are 7 (hooray) and almost 9. Our friend Pooks and his lovely wife (we'll call her Clabber, after the cute girl on the baking powder can) have adorable 1 year old twins. So Pooks and Clab call us up to do something family friendly and we suggest Shoreline Park, and picnic by the kids playground.

Now Pooks used to live in Mountain View and enjoyed Shoreline Park as single grown ups do... an occasion roller blade outing, or a hike. But to see it through the eyes of a parent is to truly appreciate it. And as the parents of a7/9 year olds, we felt the joy that comes when your kids drop by the picnic blanket for some food, a brief hello and chat, and then scooter off to do their thing. (As we enjoy our David Bruce and the sunshine and the time with other people's babies.)

But after 2 hours, our kids have played in the park, scootered their share, have talked us out to the paddle boats... and then... they saw the dirt piles!!! (Insert Pooks photos here when received). Our kids took off in delight. (The 1 year old twins wobbled around the blanket, but stayed close.) Pooks followed, Nikon in hand. As our kids hopped and slid, and jumped, and Pooks snapped photos of the joy, I felt some serious Circle of Life.

What a beautiful day.

Took a Walk in the Wild Zone.

Finally the stars aligned that I was able to join one of the Wild Zone afternoons.

If you've ever worried about your kids hanging on the couch and cultivating bad attitudes and posture, it refreshes the soul to see them making tree forts, playing in the mud, and forming teams, alliances and running around like banshees. (and yes, using any available stick to engage in Jedi swordplay....)

I was quite pleasantly surprised to meet both of the founders of the group, and they have quite a good system in place. They have a series of "play rangers" college students, mostly, who set up sticks, flowers, mud pits in a way to encourage cooperative (but messy) play. A big log over a mild dip becomes a bridge, and countless wigwams and tree forts were constructed and decorated.

My kids never once missed their video games the whole time we were there, and they ate and slept with nary a complaint that night. We'll be back! (They have them every 2nd Saturday in our area, and I'll be including them in the calendar of events for my Family Fitness and Fun meetup.)

Let the Wild Rumpus continue!

Random Acts of Nutrition

You know, this new Plate works for me.

As many of you may know, my kids are veggie intolerant (and salad-lergic... is that a word?)

I was ready to print this out and tape it to the dinner table, when the boys were saved from my mania by a dinner guest. (I'm trying not to be embarrassing crazy mom until I need to be.)

But that being said - it shall guide me in my meal prep and hold me steadfast in my continuing mission to force good health upon my offspring.

Two other potent weapons have fallen into my arsenal this week...

1. Jamie's Food Revolution - the Book. So I enjoy the reality show, in all its cheese reality dramatic structure, but the book is just 100% awesomeness. Gets you excited to cook healthy food and he has an absolutely BRILLIANT section called the "evolution salads" starting from dead simple (head of butter lettuce with lemon olive oild dressing) that evolves better than a pokemon... yes, bacon features in many of the evolutions.

2. Kids Cook 1-2-3. Picked randomly from the shelves at Los Gatos Library Junior section. Really creative good recipes that honestly have only 3 ingredients. Tonights Pesto Parmesean Chicken Legs, as managed by Matthew, were a delicious delight. And tomorrows banana chocolate muffins (so self rising flour is a staple in the baking section :-) look to be a winner.

Stay tuned to see if we can fill the fruit and veggie side of the plate...

the Bootcamp lives!

Get busy living, or get busy dying...

As many of you know, I frequently quote Andy Dufresne to myself to get myself motivated to do those things that take me to the edge of my comfort zone.

Well, I finally got all the stars aligned, and have launched my first "Wellness Bootcamp" melding my Wellness Coaching mojo with my passion (yes, you can say it.... obsession) with exercising with friends.

I had a coaching session myself with the wonderful Jessica Wolfson, who helped me "get busy..." by asking me about my self-imposed barriers, and my passion (ok... obsession) with regularly scheduled endorphin sessions.

Surprise.... it now seems so obvious I have been using the barrier of the time spent with the exercise sessions to keep me from facing the risk that no one will sign up for my boot camps.

Shades of my 16th birthday party... I keep thinking I'd gotten over that ;-)

The nice thing is, that now I can stop dodging the calls and emails from the other potential clients asking for the bootcamp write up... can you say copy/paste/edit location and time?

Time to get busy living (if you can call word processing on the rest of this beautiful Wednesday living ;-)

PS - flyers for the bootcamp are oh-so-available upon request :-)

Las Palmas Park, a few new wrinkles

As I "Julie/Julia" my way through the best local parks, I constantly wonder at how different things pop at different ages. And the creativity of kids.

Visiting Las Palmas in Sunnyvale last Saturday, we brought with us a school pal from Mountain View to see it through fresh eyes. Also, a best practice ;-) from a Mountain View park. Namely, we brought the cardboard snowboard practice - perfected at Rengsdorf park... again proving the ancient wisdom that the box is frequently more fun that the toy that came in it!

So, while a trip to Las Palmas on a sunny Saturday didn't jazz my kids, the chance to bring their shiny cardboard "snowboards" to surf down the Dragon's Back stone slide did. After this euphoria wore off (an hour, with few virtually no cuts or bruises, hooray!) they reveled in the pools of water left in the not quite drained lake area of the park. My eldest, initially convinced he could walk on water, if he just ran fast enough, eventually conceded he might need bigger feet. And a ski boat. And a lake.

The youngest, and his school pal, then became fascinated with the "post trail" - a feature unique to this park, and oddly compelling (I quite like the undulating walk from one post to another...)

Note for those that like getting the kids off the couch... I'm starting a meet up group to continue this Julie/Julia project... go check out on Meetup.com. Its free and I'd love to see you as we continue to explore our great outdoors, with our ungrateful offspring ;-)