Sneaky Fitness: Fun, Foolproof Ways to Slip Fitness into Your Child's Everyday Life [Paperback]

Missy Chase Lapine (Author), Larysa Didio (Author)

Book Description

New York Times bestselling author Missy Chase Lapine inspired legions of parents to “sneak” good food into their children’s meals with The Sneaky Chef. Now she extends her concept of “sneakiness” beyond the kitchen, by teaming up with fitness expert Larysa Didio to provide parents with “Sneaky Strategies” for fitting in more exercise and calorie-burning activities into their child’s daily routine.

Sneaky Fitness will include:
• Age-appropriate exercises and games to get any resistant little exerciser up and moving (with targeted chapters for preschoolers, grade-school kids, and ‘tweens)
• Tips on specific toys and games that encourage exercise
• More healthy (and sneaky) recipes for fueling newly-active kids

Like the other Sneaky Chef books, Sneaky Fitness is a revolutionary way for parents to improve their family’s health—one sneaky day at a time!

Editorial Reviews

Review

Gail Saltz M.D. Clinical Associate Professor of Psychiatry, The New York Presbyterian Hospital and NBC’s Today Show Contributor
Finally a well thought out, developmentally appropriate guide to getting your child to be healthy! More than ever children are suffering from low body self esteem and serious health risks due to lack of exercise and unhealthy eating. Sneaky Fitness is a smart, developmentally well thought out and fun guide to help set your child on the path to a healthy lifestyle and feeling good about who they are. Larysa’s methods are creative and intelligent…. You have fun instead of fights! If you are a parent who cares about your kids health and longevity, you need this book!

Robbyn Sockolow, M.D., Chief, Pediatric Division of Gastroenterology and Nutrition, Presbyterian-Weill Cornell Medical Center
“Childhood obesity has reached epidemic levels in this country. Sneaky Fitness is critical to in helping the future health of our children. Larysa is the foremost expert on training children. Her expertise in this area cannot be matched.”

Julianne J. Smith, Ypsilanti Dist. Lib., MI -- Library Journal, 12/17/2009
"Lapine hit the best-sellers list with The Sneaky Chef and is probably headed there again. Fearing that exercise is as "antiquated as a VHS player" and with 32 percent of children classified as overweight, she and celebrity trainer Didio show parents how to bring age-specific exercise easily into children’s lives. They correctly assert that kids can get into a habit of inactivity and tend not to prioritize things like "health" or other pursuits that don’t have instant results. Broken down by age groups, the exercises—each listed with calorie calculations—are designed to weave cardio, strength training, and flexibility into everyday routines. The activities are simple, inexpensive, and fun (e.g., kids will love playing driveway "hockey" with a giant ice cube and brooms). Also included are new Sneaky Chef recipes, which are essentially the equivalent of spiking your kids’ food with nutrient-rich foods of similar colors…. I applaud the design that went into Sneaky Fitness to make it so easy to read and use."

About the Author

Missy Chase Lapine is the creator of the Sneaky Chef series of books, including New York Times bestseller, The Sneaky Chef: Simple Strategies for Hiding Healthy Foods in Kids’ Favorite Meals. The Sneaky Chef and Sneaky Fitness books have inspired not only families around the country, but have established a whole new healthy eating and lifestyle brand category.

 

Missy is a member of Parenting Magazine’s team of experts, the “Mom Squad,” a panel of high-profile experts. She has been a cooking instructor at New York’s finest culinary schools, and serves on the New York-Presbyterian/Morgan Stanley Children’s Hospital Advisory Council and the Health Sciences Advisory Council of New York-Presbyterian/Columbia. Missy has an ongoing commitment to the Food Bank for Westchester and is also a Curator for the members-only shopping site, OpenSky.com. Missy actively engages the public through her state-of-the-art consumer friendly website, www.TheSneakyChef.com.

 

Missy is the former publisher of Eating Well magazine and is the founder of BabySpa, a natural baby product line. She lives in Westchester County, New York, with her husband and two daughters.

 

Larysa Didio is a certified personal trainer who has extensive experience in working with clients both over and under the age of eighteen. Her Get Fit with Larysa fitness DVD for ‘tween girls was released in November 2008, and has been cross-promoted with Danskin and Sketchers products. Larysa owns her own fitness facility, PFX, a center that is one of the first gyms to offer kid-specific classes. Larysa has appeared on Good Day New York and has been featured in InStyle, Parenting, First For Women, and Destination Wedding. She lives in Pleasantville, NY. Visit her at www.larysafit.com.

Product Details

• Paperback: 296 pages
• Publisher: Running Press (December 22, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0762437952
• ISBN-13: 978-0762437955
• Product Dimensions: 9.9 x 7.8 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #405,184 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #48 in Books > Health, Fitness & Dieting > Exercise & Fitness > For Children
  • #58 in Books > Health, Fitness & Dieting > Exercise & Fitness > Pregnancy

More About the Author

Missy Chase Lapine inspired a whole new brand in the healthy-eating/lifestyle category with her first book, The Sneaky Chef. She's the former publisher of Eating Well magazine and the founder of the natural baby product line Baby Spa®. Missy is a member of Parenting Magazine's team of experts, 'The Mom's Squad.' She also serves on the Children's Advisory Council of Morgan Stanley Children's Hospital of New York-Presbyterian, where Sneaky Chef recipes are served to patients. Missy lives in Westchester, NY.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A superb resource for parents, babysitters, and child care providers everywhere, February 13, 2010

By 

Midwest Book Review (Oregon, WI USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Sneaky Fitness: Fun, Foolproof Ways to Slip Fitness into Your Child's Everyday Life (Paperback)

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.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An Inspirational Book with Long-Lasting Benefits for Your Family, January 14, 2010

By 

Susan M. Heim - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Sneaky Fitness: Fun, Foolproof Ways to Slip Fitness into Your Child's Everyday Life (Paperback)

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.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Easy to reference, creative book to get kids moving, February 12, 2010

By 

Swati Bharteey "thesinglemotherschronicles" (Chicago) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Sneaky Fitness: Fun, Foolproof Ways to Slip Fitness into Your Child's Everyday Life (Paperback)

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 -
[...]