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Last month I had an absolutely amazing opportunity: I was invited to the White House.
It was quite a day. I’ll be posting later in the week about the beauty and history of the parts of the White House that I was able to explore. That will be the post with the bathroom selfie and the freak outs that I was actually in the White House and the stuff I bought for my family at the little gift shop. But first I want to talk about why I was there: Let’s Move.
After wandering around for a while (more on that in the next post – it was so awesome!!), were let into the gorgeous East Room of the White House. There was a giant portrait of George Washington, and another of Teddy Roosevelt. Everything was very pretty and ornate. I was intimidated. I kept forgetting to take pictures, but I did get this one:
There were two panels of speakers, talking about everything from juggling kids and work and health to getting healthier food into public schools. There are so many different aspects to healthier eating and movement, and the Let’s Move initiative has tried to tackle all of them through these following five main principals:
- Creating a healthy start for children
- Empowering parents and caregivers
- Providing healthy food in schools
- Improving access to healthy, affordable foods
- Increasing physical activity
Some highlights from the different panels:
How It Started
We heard from Deb Eschmeyer, Executive Director of Let’s Move, about how the campaign came about: from planting the White House Kitchen Garden! The First Lady started using the garden as a way to talk to kids about health and nutrition, and the idea grew from there. I can really relate to that because when I garden, my kids ask questions about vegetables that they never would otherwise.
Choices
“Sometimes even when you want to make a better choice, you can’t,” said Dr. Karen DeSalvo, Acting Assistant Secretary for Health. There are so many barriers that poor people have to get around in order to eat better. Food deserts are a huge problem, where the only foods available are highly processed and low in nutrition.
Active Kids Do Better
Gymnast Dominique Dawes, who I remember screaming for during the 1996 Summer Olympics, is now the co-chair of the President’s Council on Fitness, Sports & Nutrition. She talked to us about how important gym and recess are in schools. “If kids don’t have their health, they can’t reach their full potential.” She explained the link between kids who move more during the school day, and better grades. To sum up, “Active kids do better.”
Keep Trying!
Dr. Katie Wilson, Deputy Under Secretary for Food, Nutrition, and Consumer Services, explained some of the changes to public school food brought about by this administration, such as getting rid of junk food and requiring that all food available for sale during the school day meets certain nutritional standards. She also reminded us that it can take up to fifteen tries before a kid likes a food!
Hey Fourth Graders!!
Thanks to the Every Kid In A Park program, fourth graders and their families can get free access to hundreds of National Parks for a whole year.
Team FNV
After realizing how much kids look up to celebrities and sports stars, Team FNV was created to tap into star potential to steer kids towards healthier foods. With stars like Jessica Alba, Stephan Curry, and Julianne Hough all donating their time, Team FNV has taken a page out of advertising campaigns for movies and sports and directed it towards fruits and vegetables.
Choose My Plate
Kids and adults can visit the Choose My Plate site to get some great advice about figuring out which foods should be on your plate.
The Results
- 31 million kids now have access to healthier lunch food, thanks to Let’s Move.
- More than 10 million kids have made a commitment through their schools to try to get 60 minutes of activity every day.
- 2 million kids have a Let’s Move salad bar in their school
You can find out what Let’s Move is doing in your area by searching here.
The First Lady!!!
I was sitting at a table about halfway back from the podium, all the way on the right of the room, next to a set of double doors, and it was finally time for the First Lady to give her speech. The double doors opened, and everybody gasped…and the person who came through, who was definitely not Michelle Obama, apologized for fooling everyone and took her seat. But the doors stayed open, and we waited. I held my cell phone up and kept it rolling. Was Michelle Obama really going to enter the room right next to me, so close I could touch her?
Of course not. After taking about five minutes of video of a freaking doorway, the doors were closed and Dominique Dawes took the stage to introduce the First Lady, who entered near the podium, of course. And it was like a rock star had entered the room.
The woman does not take a bad picture. The little collage I made for this tweet was not the four best pictures I took of her, they were the first four pictures I took of her.
Michelle Obama does not take a bad picture, ever!! #LetsMove #OMG! @FLOTUS @WhiteHouse @cafemom @The_Stir pic.twitter.com/FvxxVPrtbE
— SelfishMom (@SelfishMom) March 15, 2016
The First Lady talked to us about her own family’s struggles with food and health.
We were always rushing, always pressed for time. And as a result, meal times were all about whatever was quick and easy -– the drive-thru, the microwave, takeout –- any convenience food you could think of, we did it. And this went on for quite a while, but one day, I got a wakeup call. We were at our pediatrician’s office for a routine checkup, and after doing the exam — you know, they take the measurements and weigh them and measure their head and all that stuff — our doctor got this look of concern on his face. And he asked me, “What are you all eating at home?” And right then and there, I remember, in his — the exam room, my heart sank. The thought that I was maybe doing something that wasn’t good for my kids was devastating. And maybe some of you can relate, but as an overachiever, I was like, “Wait, what do you mean, I’m not getting an A in motherhood? Is this like a B-? A C+? What are you telling me?” (Laughter.) But it really threw me. And that was my lightbulb moment — when I realized that we needed to make some real changes in our family routine. So I rolled up my sleeves, went home, did some homework, and I searched for, obviously, simple, affordable approaches and started making some changes. For starters, I tried to cook more -– nothing crazy, just a few more home-cooked dinners each week. Maybe baked chicken on Monday, pasta and a salad on Wednesday. And I always tried to make a nice Sunday dinner that would provide leftovers for the week. Instead of cookies and chips for snacks and sugary drinks, we switched to fruit and string cheese and lots of water. And dessert in our household went from being a basic human right every night — (laughter) — to being a special treat for weekends. So we really shook things up. And I have to tell you, this new routine was not very popular at first. I still remember how the girls would sit at the kitchen table and I’d sort out their lunches, and they would sit with their little sorry apple slices and their cheese sticks. (Laughter.) And they’d have these sad little faces. They would speak longingly of their beloved snack foods that were no longer in our pantry. (Laughter.) And as they ate their veggies each night at dinner, they would curse their mother under their breath -– which was okay as long as it was under their breath. (Laughter.) So we faced some initial resistance. But here’s the thing — we stuck with it, and eventually, our kids adjusted. Their palettes actually changed, and they got used to eating food that wasn’t drenched in sugar, salt and fat. And at our next checkup, everything was back to normal. And our pediatrician was amazed. He asked me, he said, “What did you all do?” And he wasn’t asking hypothetically; he really wanted to know how we’d been able to turn things around so quickly. Because he told me that in his practice, he was seeing an increase in the number of families struggling with the exact same problem. We had long discussions in the doctor’s office about rising childhood obesity rates and the impact he was seeing on his patients’ health outcomes -– increased type II diabetes, high blood pressure. He was seeing all this. He saw the impact on their dental care. I mean, the list could go on and on. This is what he was experiencing on the ground. Now, fast-forward to a couple of years later, when Barack was first elected President and I had to figure out what was I going to do as First Lady. And I knew I wanted to work on causes that were personal to me, something that I cared deeply about. And I thought back to my family’s experience with healthy eating, the question that our doctor had asked us. That’s when I decided that Let’s Move! would be my attempt to help other families across this country answer that same question.
You can read the entire speech here, or even better, watch it!
It was a great speech, Michelle Obama was amazing, and I still can’t believe that I was in the same room with her. Still totally fan-girling. More than that, though, I’ve been trying to give more thought to my relationship with food (not good), and moving (not too bad). If we would all just make a commitment to make some small changes, together we could make a big impact. My kids are both fit and healthy, but I don’t like that they have two chunky parents. I don’t want them to think that that’s normal or good.
I moved. Now I eat. #LetsMove pic.twitter.com/emzU2YBSjK — SelfishMom (@SelfishMom) March 15, 2016
Modeling good behavior for them is critical. They’re usually not home to see me head out for a jog, but they see me eating a big dinner each night. At least they see me eat a lot of vegetables, but they also see me eat past the point of being full. I’m working on it, I swear! And now I’m definitely feeling inspired by the First Lady.
I’d really appreciate it if you would share this image on Pinterest!
