Getting Your Family Off The Couch: Cardiovascual Tag Teams

Cardiovascular Statistics
We are a society of low cardiovascular activity and poor eating habits. It is well documented that obesity is the number one health issue facing Americans today. According to a report issued by Reuters Health, 65% of adults are overweight and lack healthy cardiovascular routines.

It is not an illogical jump to make that if that many adults, many of whom are parents, are overweight and do not participate in adequate cardiovascular activities to be healthy, that their children are at high risk of becoming overweight and resistant to cardiovascular activities. Being a parent in this day and age of over full schedules and easy access to fast food makes it tough to think about cardiovascular health and healthy eating.

Cardiovascular Challenge
Being able to motivate kids to get up off the couch or away from a computer and become involved in cardiovascular activities is a trick. This is especially true if their parents are also couch potatoes or computer addicts and undervalue cardiovascular activity. None-the-less, it is absolutely critical that parents start doing the right thing and not the easy thing. Children learn life-long habits and values from their parents. The old saying about "Do as I say, not as I do," rings as true today as it ever has when it comes to over eating, eating unhealthy and not exercising. Kids notice their parents don't do what they tell them to do, so - they really don't take it seriously.

Cardiovascular Habits
A hole, I think parents get trapped in, is having good intentions and setting goals for the family to get more involved in cardiovascular activities and to eat healthier foods. So, they start to get involved in cardiovascular activities and start eating healthy food, but after two or three weeks everyone is back doing the same old things. Getting over a habit is difficult and families give up to soon. It takes up to 8 weeks to form a habit so giving up on an improved cardiovascular goal after two to three weeks is way too early to expect success.

Cardiovascular Tag Teams
So, I have an idea to suggest; organize a group of family tag teams that get together one day a week to play games of tag. I chose the game of tag because there are so many ways to play tag, it keeps people running (maybe just moving a little faster than usual, but that's a start) for a sustained period of time, is fun and competitive.

It seems like many people, who do not keep to an exercise regime when exercising alone are able to be more consistent when they have committed to others to be involved. It also seems like being on a team and playing as a family would make the chances of keeping with cardiovascular activities more likely.

Cardiovascular Tag Leagues
A family tag league could be like setting up a soccer or baseball league. It would consist of two, three or more families forming a tag team and there would be several teams in the league. The leagues could be organized around church groups, work groups, neighborhood groups, play groups or whatever.

Cardiovascular tag teams would get together and decide on a team name, colors, logo and mascot. It might even be fun to have t-shirts or ball caps made with the team colors. There is one thing for certain, teams have to wear different colored shirts when playing tag. If not, it will be hard to tell who to tag.

Once you get the cardiovascualr tag league organized, it is time to set some rules for the kind of tag game that will be played. There are so many different versions of tag, that maybe a league will host various kinds of tag games. That is all up to the league to decide. Setting up the schedule and reserving a space to play is all it really takes to get a family tag league set up. One league rule would be about eating healthy snacks and drinking water or other healthy non-sugar drinks while playing.

If you want to help your child grow up with healthy life habits, take the cardiovascular and healthy food plunge and become healthy yourself.

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