Have you sat through a stop light near a junior high school lately? Right when they’re all getting out of school??? It’s AMAZING how overweight many kids are, especially girls in their waist area. It seems almost normal to see overweight kids EVERYWHERE - and programs both federal, private and nonprofit are trying to grab a hold of the problem.

Communities are embracing the program below - which essentially provides caregivers and parents with simple tools to help their overweight kid initiate a healthier lifestyle.

For more information click here.

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Many Communities Adopting Federal Program

Targeting Obese ‘Tweens’

A federal program designed to reduce obesity among middle-school girls and their parents has expanded to include 1,700 instructors across 43 states since its creation in 2006, Reuters reports. Launched by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ (HHS) Office on Women’s Health, the BodyWorks program helps equip parents and caregivers with the tools to make small behavioral changes to prevent obesity and help girls to maintain a healthier weight, according to the program’s Web site. The program, geared toward girls ages 9 to 13, includes 10 weekly 90-minute counseling sessions in which instructors teach girls and their parents how to make healthier choices at the grocery store, become more active and spend less time in sedentary activities. HHS provides all materials for the program free of charge, but communities wishing to implement the BodyWorks program must hire trainers and secure meeting space to offer the counseling sessions. To date, approximately 700 parents and caregivers have completed the program. Reuters notes that HHS plans to launch a version of the program for boys in the next few months and is working on culturally appropriate adaptations of the program to better target Hispanics and Native Americans (Harding, Reuters, 6/27/08)

Tweens aren’t looking so lean anymore.

It’s time to put more activity into their lives!!