Do… swap the ice cream or donuts for a warm, reassuring hug and an open ear to listen to their feelings without preaching or telling them how they should feel. You’ll save further weight-gain and the sorrow that is sure to follow, while creating a deeper connection with your child. The benefits are endless!

Don’t…set a bad example by not taking care of yourself. Let’s face it: parents can be the worst hypocrites in the world! We are the “do as I say, not as I do” geniuses that don’t like o take our own advice, but love to dish it out. Rule number one with the kids: you better be able to eat your own cooking, literally and figuratively. Enough said.

Do…lead by example. The worst thing that’ll happen is you’ll lose a few unwanted pounds around the middle, and feel better about your relationship with the kids. They will respect you more! Nothing bad here!

Do…Find out what sport or activity they enjoy and work it into the weekly routine. If a community program, school-sponsored sport, or a fitness center that welcomes families isn’t in the cards, take the dog for a walk, bike ride, hike, whatever-just find a way to go from little or no exercise to just a little, and build on it each month. Even throwing a football around will burn a few extra calories versus Play Station for four hours. It is incumbent on you to find the way to get the kids more active-lead by example and get involved as a household as opposed to singling out the kids.

The moral of the story. At the end of the day, we just can’t be too busy to do our job as a parent. Don’t count on the schools or government to handle your child’s health-it’s not their job to raise your kid and it just doesn’t work! If you wait for them to become adults and deal with it themselves, you, and they, will suffer greater pain than if you take action right now. This is a classic take on the old ‘Pay now or pay later’ adage-it will not take care of itself, so take control of your health and that of your children before it’s too late to go back. After all, you can change what you eat now, but can’t reverse diabetes later.

Lifestage Fitness was created by combining the best attributes of most contemporary fitness centers with unparallelled personal fitness services.

Joe Ranieri is a 30-year veteran of the health and fitness industry, and is owner of Joe Ranieri’s LifeStage Fitness, an individualized fitness and nutrition training facility in suburban Chicago. Joe has helped hundreds of exercise enthusiasts of all ages and ability achieve their fitness goals using his simple, realistic approach to proper nutrition and exercise. Joe can be reached for questions regarding your desire for a healthy lifestyle through his email at joe@lifestagefitness.com.

Understanding that life-changes do not occur overnight, Joe Ranieri provides a real-world approach to making regular exercise and proper nutrition second nature – an easy, sustainable way to gradually, and permanantly, help you help yourself.

• 45 Day Slimdown - Part 1
• 45 Day Slimdown - Part 2
• 45 Day Slimdown - Counting Calories
• Surviving Fad Diets - The "Lose Weight Fast" Scheme
• Get Rid of Excess Fat - Part 1
• Get Rid of Excess Fat - Part 2

• Childhood Obesity - Leading by Example
• Childhood Obesity Step 1- Portion Control
• Eliminating Childhood Obesity - Do's and Don'ts
• Eliminating Childhood Obesity - More Do's and Don'ts

• Manage Holiday Eating - Part 1
• Manage Holiday Eating - Part 2
• Manage Holiday Eating - Part 3