Bye Bye TAF club...
The Trim and Fit (TAF) - opposite of FAT...hehe??? Club has been officially disbanded. It was a "Club" in schools where fat kids are forced to gather during school breaks to do some exercise and to stop them from going berserk with potato chips at the school canteen.
Its a good attempt at getting the out of shape kids to do some kind of activity, and looking back I applaud the attempt.
Guess what, I was one of the long-time members. No recess for me, "4 laps around the track and a slice of watermelon for you... tubby."
But seriously did it help? Not at all. One of the key components as a fitness coach is to address the psychology of the person as a priority before we are able to address the physical issues. The stigma of the TAF club does nothing for the psychology of a child, its hard enough growing up already.
When did my body change? Guess what! when i started lifting weights when i was 15. I didn't know ANYTHING and i made alot of mistakes and had a few injuries but hard work on a poor program will still going to give a certain level of results.
Some suggestions for this post TAF era in public health:
1. Get off the slow cardio bandwagon. Ugh it seems I have to nag about this every post. The latest research shows that long slow cardio has NO ADVANTAGE FOR FAT LOSS over diet alone!! Slow cardio is all we ever did at TAF club. Bodyweight calisthenics and fast running are the way to go.
2. Fix the school food issue. I spend alot if time in school as part of my work with families and kids who are addicted to the internet and to computer gaming. School food is cheap (good!) but its also mostly starchy nonsense (BAD BAD BAD!!). Food stall operators want profit not healthy customers. I would go for a no sweet drinks policy as well. Get the kids to spend on food and drink water - it saves pocket money also.
3. Parent Education. There was this 90KG 8 yr old in england (not nearly as bad as the girl in the video) who's mother "could not" make him eat healthy food so he ate fast food all the time. Nonsense. Get tough parents. But even more importantly, set a good example. It's true that fat parents end up with fat kids but that (I believe future research will prove this) is much more to do with the home environment that it has to do with genetics. If genetic "fatties" train and eat the right way they can get lean... and faster than they think as well! Nothing to do with genetics (in 99.99 of all cases). I could go on and on about parenting and how important it is. Not just for health but in everything. Its just not computer programming or an advertising campaign. You simply cannot "outsource".
The benefits of this will be that kids realize that they CAN lead a non-0bese lifestyle! No need for diet pills (scams) or lipo (its not all its made out to be). The ineffectiveness of the TAF club gives the kids the "oh no, I went and it still didn't work why bother trying" mentality. That does not set them up for lifelong health. Hello high hospital bills and poor work performance - bad for the person, their community and even their country.
Worrying Trend?
posted by Coach Jonathan Wong @ 3/21/2007 10:32:00 AM
Comments: 0
