In 2006, a worldwide survey conducted by UK based Tesco Ltd. asked 3,500 children aged 7-16 their opinions on playing sports.

When finding out what motivates kids to play sports, perhaps not surprisingly, most children play first and foremost to have fun. Sociability was high on the list, setting “Make friends” as the #3 motivator.Keeping fit was the second most important factor in playing sports, but some cultural differences showed through. 83% of young Chinese do sports to stay healthy compared with just 43% in the US. Stress management turned out to be a significant motivator in playing sports, especially for teenagers. With increasingly difficult school work, social challenges, and the general pressure of the teen years, sports can be viewed by many to be the answer to stress. The figures went up dramatically for 15-16 year olds in most countries. Interestingly, considering current global obesity issues, losing weight was the motivation voted for least.

Slimming down is only one of the benefits overweight kids can gain from exercise. According to a recent study in the Journal of Obesity, an exercise program can help reduce potentially harmful snoring in children. Researchers put a group of 100 overweight children on a 13-week daily exercise program. At the end of the study, they found that the number of kids who frequently snored was reduced by roughly half.

Knowing that an unhealthy weight can develop sleep problems ranging from simple snoring to sleep apnea and chronic insomnia, one take-away from this study that we can use with household members of all ages is that regular physical activity can help make bedtime significantly more restful.

Assuming you are not simply sleep-deprived, the cause of your mid-afternoon slump is most likely eating too much saturated fat and/or too many carbohydrates. A meal that is high in carbohydrates, particularly processed carbohydrates (e.g. soda, sweets, pasta, white bread) quickly breaks down into glucose, causing your blood sugar to spike and give you a burst of energy. However, because your brain cannot handle so much sugar at once, it sends a signal to your pancreas to quickly release insulin. This rapidly drops your blood sugar below the levels your brain needs to function effectively, resulting in sluggishness.

The solution is to modify what you eat. You should first eliminate all saturated fats and processed carbohydrates. Also, never eat carbohydrates without including protein. As a rule, your lunch should include:

• a fist-sized portion of lean protein (e.g. chicken, turkey or salmon)
• a thumb sized serving of healthy fats/oils (e.g. extra virgin olive oil, avocado or raw nuts or seeds)
• no more than 1 serving of unprocessed carbohydrates (2 cups non-starchy vegetables, 1 cup fruit or 1 cup whole grains)

According to the American College of Sports Medicine, 72% of American’s calories are from sources that never existed in hunter-gatherer diets including refined sugar, artificial sweeteners, white flour, high fructose corn syrup, and shortening. Processed foods may be a basic reason why 1/3 of all cancer related deaths are nutrition related.

In 2000, Americans consumed on average 152 pounds of sugar or about 400 calories from sugar each day. That’s not too surprising when you consider a drink such as a 20 oz. Tropicana Twister contains 350 calories from sugar.

The typical American diet includes 63% more salt than what is recommended. This comes from processed foods, cooking and table salt. Only 10% of our intake comes from sodium found naturally in foods.

Were our bodies designed for this much sugar and salt? Or are people just not willing to acknowledge that modern food choices are main contributors to high blood pressure, stroke and cancer?

New muscle gained from a proper activity and nutrition plan can actually add body weight. So the bathroom scale does not necessarily make for a good measure of weight loss success. Monitoring your body composition is a better gauge, but it can get complicated. Using a measuring tape is a nice and simple tool for charting progress. However, for some people, the numbers can be more discouraging than motivating. So getting creative with your measurement methods can help you stick to your plan.

A spool of ribbon can make for no-stress measurements at home. Take the spool and use it to measure the circumference of your arms, waist, hips, thighs, and calves. After each measurement, cut the ribbon and label it with the body part measured. Once you have all your pieces of ribbon cut and labeled, store them away. After a month of following your activity and nutrition plan, take out the ribbons and re-measure yourself using the same length of ribbon you previously cut for that body part. Add a new mark on the ribbon at your new smaller size and date it. You will see from the marks that you have lost inches of fat fromall over your body, without ever having had to see potentially discouraging numbers the first time.