Sneaky Fitness: Fun, Foolproof Ways to Slip Fitness Into Your Child's Everyday Life with 50 All-New Sneaky Chef Recipes!

Sneaky Fitness: Fun, Foolproof Ways to Slip Fitness into Your Child's Everyday Life lives up to its title as a compendium of ingenious ways that parents can help their children exercise more. Each activity comes with an "at-a-glance" summary of what age ranges are appropriate, how many young folks can participate, optimal times for setting the activity up, and how many calories it is likely to burn. From something as simple as giving one's child a few items of folded laundry at a time to put away, to playing musical chairs during TV commercials, to placing an inflated balloon on one's lawn and seeing how long it takes a child to pop it with only a wiffle bat, and more, Sneaky Fitness is an excellent way to incorporate more activity into the daily routine of one's child. Fifty brand-new "Sneaky Chef" recipes that promote healthy living (such as the "I'm a Vegetarian This Week" Burger and "Race Ya! Rice Balls") round out this superb resource for parents, babysitters, and child care providers everywhere.

Let me begin by saying this: what a great book! I was sent an advance copy for free to review at my blog (with no obligation as to what to say) - and my punch line is that this is an easy to navigate, idea packed book for getting kids to be more active in a sofa-driven, texting-based, iPod-glued society (did you know even pre-schoolers spend as much as 90 minutes a day glued to the TV or a computer?) With increasing portion sizes and fast food available at every turn, it's more important than ever to set good habits about physical activity with our kids as early as possible. Sneaky fitness is filled with 100 ideas for getting kids moving - and it's sorted by age groups (2 to 4, 5 to 8, and 9 to 12), weekend activities/sunny day activities/play date activities/party day activities/any day activities - thus making reference very simple. Here's a couple I've tried: * Harness kids "fitness factor": This involves placing things around a TV room (or wherever they hang out) that makes them naturally fidget or move around. One little hula hoop in our family room has given my daughter quite a bit of extra exercise while engrossed in SpongeBob. A few of my adult guests have partaken too - and I kick myself for not taking pictures! * Rain in Your Parade: Don't let the rain keep you in; in fact, let it draw you out! Make your obstacle course by jumping from one puddle to the next, or play "Red Light/Green Light" in the slippery, muddy stuff. * Look Ma, No Feet: Tell your kids they cannot walk to their rooms; they have to slither like snakes (ok, my daughter does this one on her own, no prompting required). * Dig to China: This one is on the list to try with our next snow fall. Kids burn 68 calories in 30 minutes by digging and filling a pail with dirt, snow or sand. That's three times the calories burned by sitting in front of the TV. An added bonus to this book is the sections containing healthy super-foods, tips on good eating habits, and many yummy Sneaky Fitness recipes (Chocolate Champion Cereal Cookies, here we come). Enjoy - [...]

I loved The Sneaky Chef, and Sneaky Fitness is fantastic! It has given me a boost in my campaign for better fitness and health for my children. The ideas I've tried have been fun, and I've had my husband join in, too. (We both love idea #92: Halftime Show)This is a great resource for FUN ideas that get my kids off the couch, and moving!

Missy Chase Lapine is on a mission to help parents raise healthier children. First, she published the New York Times bestseller, "The Sneaky Chef," which taught parents how to incorporate healthy ingredients into kids' meals -- without them knowing it. Now, in her new book, "Sneaky Fitness," she's ready to teach parents how to sneak physical fitness and exercise into their kids' lives! How would you like for your children to... Have more brain power? Have higher self-esteem? Have more (healthy) energy? Have fewer sick days? Sleep better? Get better grades? Be stronger? Be at lower risk of obesity, heart disease and diabetes? Have fun? Amazingly, your children have a much better chance of achieving all these things with a regular schedule of exercise! I was very eager to see this book because I'm the first to admit that the thought of exercise fills me with dread. I hate gyms. I don't want to jog. I stay fairly active, and I'm not overweight, but I know I'm not as healthy as I can be. And I feel badly that I'm not setting a good example for my boys, whose love of video games definitely outweighs that of exercise. So, how can I change that? Basically, Lapine and coauthor Larysa DiDio say, it's through play and activities that kids are doing already. But there are ways in which we can make these everyday activities be more effective in getting kids moving and burning calories. "Sneaky Fitness" is loaded with suggestions to do just that. For example, they say, leave out a clean load of socks and let the kids take turns tossing them into the laundry basket! Keep moving the basket farther and farther away. Not only will they have to toss farther, but they'll have to run farther to retrieve the socks from the basket. When the game is over and the socks have been folded, have your children run to the dresser to put them away. We recently did the following trick at our house: purchase an alarm clock to help your kids awaken in the morning, and place it across the room so they have to get out of bed to turn it off! If their alarm clock has a CD or MP3 player, have them wake up to a favorite song and challenge them to get their bed made before the song ends! These are just a few of the hundreds of very easy but effective ways to help your kids to exercise more. (And you can do them, too. Make it a family event!) Part Two of "Sneaky Fitness" is filled with great recipes for every meal of the day. Similar to Lapine's book, "The Sneaky Chef," these kid-friendly recipes show parents how to hide healthy foods into meals that kids already love, such as pancakes, cupcakes, and burgers. "Sneaky Fitness: Fun, Foolproof Ways to Slip Fitness into Your Child's Everyday Life" will inspire you to help your family get off the couch, get moving, get outdoors, and get in shape! You'll find that it's easy to do and, in fact, a lot of fun! Best of all, the benefits for everyone's health are numerous and long-lasting.

had been given a copy of the Sneaky Chef by a family member in the recent past and we have tried a few recipes from this and they do work. When I heard and was given the opportunity to see this new book, I knew that it had to be good. I have two girls that are quite active, but know many kids who do have an aversion to getting outside or getting fit (if you call it fitness). This book truly looks at fitness through a different lens and allows you as a parent to find ways to hide the fact that you are having the kids get fit (even though you are). I also liked the fact that the book had another 50 recipes that were not int he original cookbook. So if you are looking for ways to get your kids to think of fitness as fun and in fact are asking for these activities, look know further than this book and the activities within, you will be pleasantly surprised. [...]