Kids junk food advertising - and does it really have anything to do with kids getting fatter?

My answer on this on is a big fat "NO". Most of the times when my son Kenny has been exposed to loads of food that's bad for him have not been related to cute little characters advertising junk food. Instead, it's been parents bringing a big spread of massive cupcakes from Costco to daycare, with frosting half an inch thick, for their little one's birthday. Or, I go to a playgroup, and there's a huge spread of food for the kids. There may be some fruit, but there's lots of other snack food. And this is not heavily advertised stuff like Cheetos, but rather fancy snacks, frequently organic, and sold at more expensive groceries like Whole Foods and Larry's Market. Or tasty homemade cookies and cakes. So much yummy food, so much variety. All this food is not good in excess, but that's what the kids go for.

So, the answer is not to restrict advertising. As a matter of fact, I'm not sure really what the answer is to our expanding waistlines (yes, I'm a woman and can actually say "I don't know" without choking. I'll think more about it, and comment in a future blog). But restricting advertising is absolutely not going to make a dent in the obesity epidemic.

Doing what I need to do, every day

A goal I've had numerous times over the last few years is do write up a list of things to do every day. Basically, I figured it would be a good thing to spend some time every morning planning what I needed to do that day. It sounds great, and it worked, kind of. I would frequently write up a daily plan.

However, what good is it, ultimately, to go through your to-do list and choose the items you need to do that day? It's not completely useless, because at least you think about what you need to do. But the bottom line is that you need to actually do the tasks, not just make lists.

So, I've changed my thinking recently. I still try to make a daily to-do list. However, the plan doesn't stop there. I have a little monthly calendar taped to the inside of my Palm cover. If I actually DO those tasks that are on my daily list, then I put a little star on the calendar. It may sound kind of childish, but I really like getting those little stars, and it motivates me to do a couple things:

• Be reasonable about what I put on my daily list. If I only get a star if I finish what's on my list, then I need to be realistic about what I can accomplish in a day.
• Actually do the items that are on the daily list! That's the only way to get a star
• Make my tasks very well defined. So, instead of writing "Organize garage", I'll write something like "Spend max 15 minutes clearing off workbench". I may still have a larger project/task for organizing the garage, but I wouldn't put it on my daily to-do list.

That's the plan in a nutshell. And yes, writing up something in my blog was on my to-do list today! If I finish everything else, I look forward to getting a star.

Exercising...in 10 minute increments

I've read a lot of articles recently that state that doing, say, three 10 minute sessions of exercise a day is as good as 30 minutes at a stretch. I don't have a hard time believing that, as far as it goes.

However, when it comes to cultivating a long-lasting habit of exercise, I don't believe that planning out three 10 minute sessions are a good idea. This is for a couple reasons:

• You're not just allocating 1 chunk of exercise into your day - you need to make room for three. Granted, 10 minutes is a lot less than 30, but you still have to think about it three times a day. I don't want to have to think about exercise 3 times a day - once is plenty
• What about showering? You won't get as sweaty in 10 minutes as you do in 30, but you do break a sweat.

This is not to say that cultivating a habit of, say, taking the stairs instead of the elevator, is a bad idea. On the contrary, I think it's a great idea. What I'm saying is that you need to make exercise as friction-free as possible - easy, routine, predictable. You don't want to need to think about it multiple times a day - do it in the morning, get it over with, and have time for other things.

I have a treadmill at home, and do a more serious workout 4 times a week. This is either walking with some bursts of running, or walking on an incline. A new habit that I'm trying to get into is to do a mini-workout (just basically walking on the treadmill) the other 3 days a week, to get some activity in there.