What's good for you is good for your kids

One of the things you’ll be asked as you try to manage a chronic health condition is if you’re willing to do what it takes to live a better life.

I had checked that box but, even so, getting up and meeting with an Oakwood trainer at 7 a.m. on a Saturday was nearly a deal-breaker. Early morning activity has never come easy for me, so it was only with reluctance that I agreed to drive out at a time when most normal people were asleep—reluctance, and a bit of frustration.

I am a Type II diabetic determined to control the condition through regular exercise and diet and, so far, that hasn’t gone too well. Obviously, I know exercise is important—it helps your muscles burn sugar, for one thing, and it generally gives you more energy and leads to a better way of life. I know diet is important, too, but despite my best efforts to be consistent in both, I regularly…am not. Suffice it to say, the old adage of ‘knowing is half the battle’ hasn’t quite been enough for me.

So, with my 11-year-old son, Henry, in tow, I headed out, determined to find the answers to a few questions: How can I exercise more effectively? How can I keep it up? And, what happened if, for one reason or another, I couldn’t exercise? Despite our best intentions, things happen. We get sick. We get hurt. We run out of time.

Henry was there because, well, Henry doesn’t know it but he’s the reason for everything I do to try to control this condition. Unmanaged, diabetes leads to long-term health complications including increased risk of heart attack and stroke, not to mention vision troubles and more. My own father passed away (recently) and, while it was Alzheimer’s that claimed him, he was too young to go and he had already suffered from some other health conditions. I want to head those off, so I can see him grow old. Or older, at least.

There were other reasons to bring him along. Since diabetes runs on both sides of the family, he’s at risk, too. Also, he’s going to middle school in a few short weeks and has shown some signs of being self-conscious about the extra weight he carries around his middle. It is a sensitive issue and I didn’t want him to feel like I was unhappy with him because I didn’t want him to feel unhappy about himself.

It’s a fine line that parents have to walk these days: the line between encouraging your children to do better and being too hard on them. It’s hard to get a kid who is generally pretty active get even more active without sounding like a drill sergeant—and the last thing I want to do is be too overbearing.

In the end I took a soft approach. I told him that it would just be the three of us there; me, him and the trainer. He wouldn’t have to take his shirt off. He could ask any questions he wanted. I asked what questions he wanted to ask, in case he wasn’t comfortable asking them—or if I could find a better way to ask them.

What about you? Are you concerned about your child’s fitness level? How do you motivate them?