The White House is finally doing something concrete about America’s rise in childhood obesity rate. With one third of the nation’s kids obese, First Lady Michelle Obama has launched her Let’s Move campaign – a four-tier plan of attack against childhood obesity.

The first part of the campaign is to provide parents with a support system for making healthier food choices for their kids. When children see their parents enjoying a healthier lifestyle, they will be more likely to do the same. Because children consume almost half of their daily calories at school, the second aspect of Let’s Move is to get healthier foods in schools. Michelle is looking at getting the Child Nutrition Act reauthorized as well as getting more schools adhering to the Healthier US Schools Challenge Program.

The third part of the Let’s Move campaign involves getting kids more physically active by increasing their opportunities to do so both in and out of school – incentivizing it with the Presidential Active Lifestyle Award and a more modernized President’s Physical Fitness Challenge.

And finally, the fourth part of Michelle’s campaign to fight childhood obesity is to make healthy, affordable food available to all Americans. The Healthy Food Financing Initiative is a new program which is a partnership between the Departments of Treasury, Agriculture and Health and Human Services to invest $400 million annually to bring grocery stores which carry healthier food options to underprivileged areas.

The First Lady’s plan is quite ambitious, especially seeing that she hopes to make a considerable impact on the childhood obesity rates within one generation.

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This week Michelle Obama launched her first policy initiative as the First Lady. During her first year in the White House she was always vocal about healthy eating and exercise by campaigning for local foods, teaming up with Sesame Street and hosting a healthy kids fair. This new initiative, Let’s Move, aims to teach kids how to increase their daily exercise. In addition the initiative calls on schools to provide healthier meals and for food companies to accurately label the nutritional content of their products. Mrs. Obama said,

“I would move heaven and earth to give my kids all the chance in the world for them to be at the top of their game in every way, shape and form.”

Figures show that 32-percent of kids in the US are obese and Mrs. Obama wants to get these kids to understand how to live a balanced lifestyle where they enjoy healthy foods, prevent illness and are out running, playing and walking.

Celeb Diet Doc
Michelle Obama is taking on an issue that strikes close to home. She put her two daughters Sasha and Malia on a diet after she was warned by their pediatrician that they were becoming overweight.  Sugary drinks were replaced with water. More whole fruits and less burgers were the prescription for a healthier diet.

Michelle admits to liking junk food. ‘I love burgers and fries. And I love ice cream and cake. And so do most kids.’   She adds that she’s not excluding these foods entirely. It’s all about dialing up the healthy stuff and dialing down the junk.

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Sam Kass is probably the most important chef in America right now. He’s the man who makes sure the first family get all their daily nutrients while helping Michelle Obama make important decisions to shape her school lunch nutrition program as well as looking after the White House kitchen garden.

But it’s not about specific dishes and courses for Sam. In a recent interview with the Chicago Sun-Times, the 29-year-old chef dedicates himself to a rounded food philosophy. As the White House’s assistant chef and food initiative coordinator he has a hand in influencing policy with the Department of Agriculture, but his primary objective is to make sure he safeguards the health of the family he cooks for.

“I think enjoyment and pleasure is definitely obviously a wonderful component of eating, but the reason we eat is for nourishment No. 1, first and foremost,” Sam was quoted as saying by the Chicago Sun-Times. “So I try to make sure that the food is beneficial, that everything on the plate is beneficial and it is delicious. I also try to cook based on relationships as much as possible with the people who are growing the food and people [who are] involved in the process.”

When it comes to feeding the first family, Sam shared the ingredients for one of his citrus salads: watermelon radishes at the bottom, with carved oranges and grapefruit, crystal lettuce, lightly-candied Sicilian pistachios and honey citrus vinaigrette.

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This week the First Lady invited 100 local school children to the White House for a Healthy Kids Fair.  During the event kids were taught exercise, healthy eating habits and watched food demonstrations on how to make healthy snacks. But Mrs. Obama stole the show when she hula-hooped 142 swivels before the hula-hoop hit the ground.  She explained to the press that the event was to teach kids how to eat and exercise and she considered it a call to action because one out of three kids in the US are overweight or obese.  She said,

“One of our goals was to focus on the importance of educating our kids about healthy eating,”

The pictures of the First Family hula-hooping in the law will definitely spark a resurgence of this fun retro activity.  There’s a gym in Los Angeles that leads a class called Hoopnotica and now that the Obamas hula we’ll all be signing up for classes sometime soon!  Supposedly you can burn 100 calories in 10 minutes so break out the hula-hoop.

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First Lady Michelle Obama is on the cover of the November issue of Prevention Magazine.  As always, she looks fit and fabulous.  In the interview she reveals a little more about her diet and exercise that has already been broadcasted the world over by various magazines and television shows, but it’s great to know that someone in such a well-respected position can be such a positive influence.

The 45-year-old mother of two starts off by explaining that she has no absolutes no’s when it comes to her daily diet.  She likes her burgers and fries and also pie but she is just sure to control her intake of those items she loves.  Taking up residency in the White House was a challenge because there are always chefs available to cook exactly what she wants, such as pie.  She said,

“There are some great bakers here,” she says. “If you like pie, it will be there always – at every meal. So for me, it’s about setting up new boundaries. I had some challenges with that, but I’m balancing out.”

She also mentioned that with her kids she teaches moderation.  So if one of them asks for example, for a piece of pie, she will ask if the daughter had a piece yesterday and the daughter learns to take the responsibility on if she should or should not have a piece today.

And lastly, the First Lady said that she feels she’s in the best shape of her life now that she’s in her 40s because since the kids are older she has more time.  She workouts at 4:30am doing Pilates, cardio, stretching, and weights.  The self-described ‘closet jock’ said,

“I enjoy arm exercises because you can see what it’s hitting.”

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They mystery has finally been exposed. After months of people guessing how the First Lady gets those killer guns her personal trainer has finally revealed her workout in the October issue of Women’s Health Magazine. Her trainer, Cornell McClellan, started working with Obama in 1997 and says that she is truly committed to health and fitness. As for her workout McClellan says that after her intense carido workout and weight training she’ll do a superset for the arms including tricep pushdowns and hammer curls.

1. Do one set of tricep pushdowns with a bar attached to a high pulley.

2. Do one set of hammercurls with dumbbells immediately following the tricep pushdowns.

3. Do the above exercise two or three times and don’t rest in between sets.

Mrs. Obama takes great strides in assuring her family eats properly as she tries to eliminate processed foods and sugary drinks and instead eat plenty of fresh fruits and veggies. She recently told Children’s Health Magazine,

“But health and fitness and how we eat and thinking about it has become part of our lives, because of our kids. We are their primary role models. And if they see me exercising and thinking about what I’m eating, if they see their father, as busy as he is, getting to the gym and playing sports, when they grow up they’ll understand that this is a natural part of being an adult.”

President Obama and the First Lady are great role models not only for their kids but also for the community. Hats off to the current residents of the White House.

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Like many other First Ladies before her, Michelle Obama appeared on Sesame Street, a fantasy that many of us have had at least once in our lifetime.  Who doesn’t want to hang out with Elmo, Big Bird and the rest of the gang?  She teamed up with the lovable Elmo to tape a PSA (public service announcement) as part of the Healthy Habits for Life initiative.  In the PSA the First Lady talks with Elmo about eating right, getting regular exercise and the role that parents play when it comes to being a healthy and positive influence.

In the PSA Elmo asks Mrs. Obama what she plans on doing while on the show and she replies,

“Well, first I want to get some exercise, so I’m going to take a walk around Sesame Street.”

Elmo then jumps around for joy for the pure thought of exercising like the First Lady does and he runs off stage while Ms. Obama gives the PSA:

“If you want your child to have healthy habits, practice healthy habits too, because you are your child’s best role model.”

When she revealed she was going to do the PSA she said,

“I’m on a high…..”probably the best thing I’ve done at the White House.”

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America’s First Lady, Michelle Obama, stars on the cover of O Magazine this month.  Oprah Winfrey had an exclusive interview at the White House where she got to hear all about Mrs. Obama’s lifestyle.  When talking about diet and exercise, a lot was to be said about eating a well-balanced and natural diet and getting in daily exercise in order to be strong and energized when having such a busy schedule.  A year ago, while still on the campaign trail, Mrs. Obama said the family made the decision to eat well on the road.  She said,

“When we first started running, my big concern was making sure we ate well on the road. So we started looking at our diet, trying to eliminate junk, getting seasonal fruits and vegetables that were grown locally. We walked the kids through reading labels. We talked about why one juice might be better than another.”

Because of this change there were a lot of foods that the family had to give up which was a change for the better for everyone in the family.  Mrs Obama explained,

“Things with artificial ingredients. That’s a tough change for a lot of families, though, because so many foods aren’t real anymore. But lots of people don’t have access to a farmers’ market, or can’t afford to shop at one, so this is a bigger issue. It’s really big, because changing your diet makes such a difference. I’ve seen it in my own family. We have more energy. And I caught only one cold during the last year of the campaign, even after shaking millions of hands!”

Later in the interview, Oprah Winfrey asked if she continues to workout in the White House:

“Yes. There’s a small gym here that has everything we need. I work out about four or five days a week—and Barack does six. He’s a workout zealot…. I do treadmill, I do weights—I also do some jump rope, some kickboxing—and I’d like to take up Pilates, if I could figure out whether there’s time. After I had Malia, I began to prioritize exercise because I realized that my happiness is tied to how I feel about myself. I want my girls to see a mother who takes care of herself, even if that means I have to get up at 4:30 so I can do a workout.”

When asked why she wakes up so incredibly early in order to exercise, Mrs. Obama had a very interesting response:

“Well, I just started thinking, if I had to get up to go to work, I’d get up and go to work. If I had to get up to take care of my kids, I’d get up to do that. But when it comes to yourself, then it’s suddenly, “Oh, I can’t get up at 4:30.” So I had to change that. If I don’t exercise, I won’t feel good. I’ll get depressed. Of course, it’s easier to do it here, because I have much more support now. But I always think about women who don’t have support. That’s why work-family balance isn’t just a policy conversation; it’s about changing the expectations of who we have to be as women and parents.”

The First Lady is true inspiration to us all.

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In an interview this month with the First Lady, Michelle Obama, she told People Magazine how she stays fit and in particular, how she keeps her arms so tone.  She said she works out in the White House gym with President Barack Obama at 5:30 am!  However, she did admit that she’s not quite as dedicated as he is, but nor does she need to be as dedicated.  She laughed and said,

“I can skip a workout, he really can’t.”

Her regimen includes exercises such as cardio, calisthenics and weights.  Two years ago, when People Magazine interviewed Mrs. Obama while on the campaign trail she stated,

“It’s jump squats, you go down into a pushup then you jump up,” she said then about her routine. “What does [my trainer] call it? Squat thrusts! That’s the one I really hate. Squat thrusts with a pushup.”

Be it cardio, squat thrusts or pushups, she always look dazzling.

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Last weekend, the new administration held it’s first State dinner at the White House.  In years past, the First Lady would normally give a tour for the media prior to the event and show the china and linens that are to be used.  But Michelle Obama has changed all of that.  This time around, she took the media into the kitchen to give people an idea of how she takes to heart the importance of healthy well-balanced foods.  Mrs. Obama also used the event to give a pitch for local and sustainable foods, something she brought to the forefront while the President was on the campaign trail in 2008.  Likewise, dinner at the White House this evening showcased locally grown produce.  

“When food is grown locally,” she said, “oftentimes it tastes really good, and when you’re dealing with kids, you want to get them to try that carrot.  If it tastes like a real carrot, and it’s really sweet, they’re going to think that it’s a piece of candy,” she continued. “So my kids are more inclined to try different vegetables if they are fresh and local and delicious.”

Mrs. Obama also marveled at the cream spinach and broccoli cream soup that were both made without cream.  Just another example of how the First Lady knows the importance of low-calorie and low-fat cooking and that improvisations can be made to still make a delicious meal.

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