The past year has had a huge impact on many things, one of which is our children. Many kids get their nutritious meals and daily physical activity while in school. But unfortunately the past year many kids were distant learning, which meant being indoors majority of the day and sitting at a computer screen. This meant they didn’t get to join in gym classes, or recess to get that physical activity. 

The Fort Berthold Diabetes Program goes into each school on the Fort Berthold Reservation and does screening on all the students grades K-11th, which includes collecting each student’s height, weight, and checking their A1C (3 month blood sugar average). This spring we noticed a high increase in many students weight. Many of which stated was a result of staying indoors and excessive eating. 

As the school year has concluded its now summer and is the time to encourage a healthier lifestyle, increase physical activity, and enjoy the outdoors! Depending on your community there are different activities to get involved in, contacting your local Boys & Girls Club can help children be able to interact with other kids while also practicing safe covid guidelines and distancing. Plan a visit to your community pool/splash pad while packing a picnic in the park for afterwards. since the sizzling hot days are amongst us its perfect time to plan some outside in the yard exercises like “Mother May I…” while incorporating physical activity like “Mother may I do 5 jumping jacks?”  This will definitely get the kids going while having fun. Adding a sprinkler for water fun will help everyone stay cool as well.

Many kids found that beings they were at home all day they seem to have been eating and snack more than usual. Keeping a meal schedule helps prevent over eating. Also pre-making a lunch and snacks will also increase the choices of a healthier lunch. 

Below is a couple fun short physical activity workouts from the website www.bgca.org you and your kids can do together. 

The Fast and the Furious

A four minute high-intensity interval workout. It alternates 20 second bursts of working out as hard as you can with a quick 10 second rest to build cardiovascular fitness and muscle.

1. Do as many jumping jacks as you can for 20 seconds

2. Rest for 10 seconds

3. Complete 8 rounds

Circuit Run

Social distancing doesn’t mean distancing yourself from outside! If you are able to be outside without being too close to others, try this run/walk workout that totals up to 20 minutes:

1. Walk for 5 minutes to warm up

2. Then do 6 rounds of:

a. Run 1 minute

b. Walk 1 ½ minutes