Summer fitness camps of today are venues where overweight or obese children can learn the value of healthy living and healthy eating. What makes this kind of learning unique is that the children or teenagers are inside a structured environment where they do not have to face the pressures and the temptations of everyday life and the real world outside.

The thought of sending your youngster to a fitness camp shouldn’t scare you. Summer camps such as Camp Pocono Trails are beneficial and fun for overweight and obese kids – and it is the fun factor here which is very important. This is also what makes these camps effective. Summer camps offer a variety of activities, and kids have the freedom to choose activities that they want to join in. The scope of most fitness camps for teens includes education, food and fun.

Education entails lessons on nutrition and cooking for campers. The goal of these lessons and classes is to teach teenagers and kids the kinds of foods that are healthy and nutritious. This is also to expose them to different kinds of foods that are delicious and healthy as well, and will also teach them on how to prepare simple snacks and meals that they can enjoy. Teenagers and kids usually return home from fitness camps with a desire to help in cooking or grocery shopping for the home. Kids also become better in their food choices at home and in other places as well.

Summer Fitness Camps also offer good food. They might offer the typical teenage food for sometime (pizza, burgers and chicken), but they will certainly also offer better food choices such as fruits and vegetables. Portions may also be controlled, but teens will usually be taught to make their own decisions as to when they want to stop eating.

Fitness camps for kids and teenagers are also fun. As said, it is the fun factor that makes it really effective, since teenagers or kids would usually love to involve themselves in activities which are fun and entertaining. There will be plenty of activities and games that will call on the teens to be physically active. In fact, your child may want to continue a sport he might have started at fitness camp.

Fitness camps may also have emotional and behavioral therapy, which will help touch emotional aspects of eating. Therapy helps teens get over these past issues, which is very vital for the success of your teenager’s weight loss efforts.

Fitness camps such as Camp Pocono trails also employ staff members who are qualified for the job. There will be nutritionists, nurses and people with educational and psychology backgrounds who will help work with overweight children.

With this, you might be pretty excited about sending your child to a fitness camp. But before doing so, it’s best to check out the summer camp or fitness camp for yourself to make sure that they meet the standards necessary for them to be safe and effective venues for your child.

You know as well as I do that we cannot turn back the clock.  We can’t expect our children to not want or desire these games.  The reality is that we simply need to set up limitations and a system to ensure that they get plenty of exercise along with their screen time.  Here are some ideas of how you can do that:

1.  Set up screen-time reward tickets

For every 15 minutes of exercise they perform, they get 30 minutes of screen time.  This is something that they will perceive as a great deal because they get more for less.  Most kids will see that if they do 30 minutes of cardiovascular exercise (running, jumping rope, riding their bike etc.) that they’ll end up with an entire hour of their favorite screen activity.  And, you’ll be sneaking in that ever important 30 minutes of necessary activity in order to promote weight loss.

2.  Buy a Wii and Wii Fit

Screen time doesn’t have to be inactive anymore.  Wii Fit has provided a fun outlet for kids that incorporates the best of both worlds.  They get to set up their “Mii” which is a virtual image used on the screen to represent your child.  An initial weight is taken as well as other fitness assessments such as BMI and balance.  As your child sets up their own personal fitness program, they get to track their progress.

3.  Provide Other Activities

Hey, the screens are tough competition, but your child still enjoys other activities.  Fitness camps are absolutely fantastic for kids.  They are a lot of fun and they’ll help your child develop a fitness plan that they’ll continue long after the camp is over.  As well, make a point to get the whole family out and about on a daily basis.  This could be a game at the park, walking the dog together or even having a silly yet fun, active obstacle course in the backyard!

1.  Being green means saying no to fast food. Fast food contributes to the demise of the planet in a few different ways.  The amount of trash from a typical fast food meal is huge.  It may not seem like much at the time, but go one week without bringing fast food home and take note of how often the trash can fills up!  Fast food also contributes to our gluttonous need for beef.  Excessive consumption of beef means the need for more and more cattle and more and more land use.  More land use means stripping rain forests in some cases.  More cattle means more cattle gas, which contain methane gas that can pollute the atmosphere.

2.  Being green means buying organic. Organic produce and meats are more nutritious and tastier to boot.  You need less of each to get the same amount of nutrients which means eating less which is also very, very green.  Less consumption means less land use.  (I’ll spare you by not repeating the cow fart scenario)  No chemicals, no pesticides, no growth hormones, no herbicides… just plain better for you and the environment!

3.  Being green means walking or riding your bike whenever possible. I didn’t say whenever convenient, I said whenever possible!  A big part of our obesity crisis is the simple fact that we’ve become accustomed to a plethora of modern conveniences!  A big part of our economic problem is our dependence on overseas oil.  Stomp out both problems and start walking or biking!

4.  Being green means turning off the TV. Television use contributes to the greenhouse gasses that are harming the planet.  Just watching a few less hours per day can help limit the amount of greenhouse gasses emitted which means you and your family are making a positive impact on the environment.  Now, get the kids to go outside and play with the neighbors’ kids and those neighbors’ neighbors’ etc… Multiply all of those households that are watching a few less hours per day and the positive effect on the environment just got a lot bigger!  What’s more?  Your kids are outside playing, running, getting fresh air and improving their health!  Another win/win!

Hopefully these suggestions inspire you and your kids to jump on the green train and head towards healthy.  If your kids need more inspiration or the problem is larger than a bit of effort a week, you may consider a fitness or weight loss camp for your kids.  The counselors and educators at kid friendly weight loss and fitness camps can help inspire you and your child to make positive changes!

1.  Turn on your favorite song and see how many times you can perform a certain activity while the song is still playing.  This activity might be jumping rope, doing jumping jacks, shooting hoops, going up and down the stairs, running around the house… anything.  Try it a second time and see if you can beat your first score.  Keep doing this every day and soon you’ll be amazing at whatever activity you chose.

2.  Create your own obstacle course.  You can do this indoors or outdoors, but make sure you allow for time to pick up afterwards.  Use garden hoses, ropes, buckets to jump over, sticks, stations for situps/pushups, chairs or picnic tables to go around or crawl under, bean bags to toss into a bucket, jump rope to jump down a path…. anything goes!  For added fun, time yourself and try to beat your time on a second, third, or even a fourth go!

3.  Animal races.  Pick an animal, any animal.  Okay, not a three-toed sloth!  Try mimicking an animal all the way across the yard or across a large room:  Kangaroo hop, cheetah dash, angry ostrich run, warthog charge, deer leaps, Tasmanian devil spin, jackrabbit sprongs, duck waddle (imagine a duck that’s forgotten how to fly being chased by a golden retriever).  Get creative.  If you have someone to play this with, you can race each other.  Make the choosing easy.  Try grabbing an animal encyclopedia and with your eyes closed, flip open the book and point to something on the page.  Whatever you get is what you have to mimic!  Pray you don’t pick a snake!

4.  Volley time!  Grab a volleyball, beach ball or even a balloon.  In a large space, use your forearms or finger tips to bump the ball in the air.  See how long you can keep the ball from touching the ground.  You probably need to do this outside so you don’t end up breaking Mom’s favorite figurine, but if you can’t, a simple air-filled balloon comes in handy for indoor play.

5.  Pretend gym equipment.  This can be done while you’re watching your favorite show on television.  Take your pretend jump rope and mimick the movement you’d make if you had a real jump rope.  The best part?  You can be really, really awesome with this pretend jump rope because you can’t trip over the rope.  You can even do those fancy moves that you’ve seen professional athletes do with the jump rope like alternating sides or using one foot.  If jumping’s not your thing, try out your pretend treadmill!  Turn it on and start running!

For more fun fitness ideas, attend one of our fitness camps!  Ask your mom or dad to check one out today!  They are loads of fun and you’ll meet tons of kids that just might become your fitness buddies.