Let's Move Initiative
First Lady Michelle Obama launched a major campaign to address childhood obesity, a risk factor for a number of chronic diseases including diabetes, heart disease, osteoarthritis, and sleep apnea.
In announcing her "Let's Move" initiative, the First Lady said when she was young, "we spent hours running around outside when school got out. You didn’t go inside until dinner was ready." That's the childhood many of us remember, but the 7 hours and 38 minutes kids today spend in front of electronic media leaves little time for outdoor play.
Let’s move outdoors and encourage our kids to Be Out There. Research connects the lack of outdoor time to not only increased obesity, but also depression, stress, diabetes, ADD and poor performance in the classroom. It's time parents took advantage of an old-fashioned, low cost remedy to our children's obesity problem – playing outside.
Visit www.letsmove.gov to learn more about First Lady Michelle Obama’s childhood obesity taskforce.
On February 4th, the National Wildlife Federation, Sierra Club, Children and Nature Network, REI, National Recreation and Park Association, Outdoor Foundation and YMCA sent a letter to the First Lady on the importance of promoting active time outdoors in nature as a strategy to combat childhood obesity.
National Wildlife Federation invites parents to support the Let’s Move initiative by encouraging their children to spend time outside. Find activities and ideas for outdoor play.
Learn more about how outdoor time for kids can help the First Lady achieve her “Let’s Move” goal.