Fat 2 Fit Show #32 - Geocaching
Written on June 1, 2008 – 8:21 am | by Russ Turley
The ultimate goal of losing weight is to eat all that you want of the best tasting food and still lose weight. In the same sense, the ultimate goal of exercise should be doing something that you really enjoy and accidentally exercising.
In this show, we introduce the global sport called Geocaching. It is basically a world wide treasure hunt. There are thousands of these “treasure chests” or “caches” throughout the world. To play the game, you get the GPS (global positioning system) coordinates of the Cache that you want to find, and then you go out and try to find it. All that you need is an inexpensive hand-held GPS device similar to the one above and access to the internet to get the latest Geocache coordinates. It is truly a sport that is open to anyone of any ability.
In our email and comments section, Dawn asked a question about what to do with the extra hanging skin that people have after a large weight loss. Russ’ wife actually underwent a “tummy tuck” last week to remove excess skin from three pregnancies and offers his insight. Teresa also sent us an email thanking us for giving her an insight that helped her out while she is traveling for business. Our last email was from Jenn, who asked us about her problem knees and any insights that we might have to strengthen the joints.
In our Web Report section, Jeff talked about the 2008 Canadian statistics for childhood obesity in Canada. The results were very poor. Who would have thought that there are overweight and obese 2 year olds? Russ brought up another Vagus nerve that is showing some promise to help control the feeling of hunger in people.
Links Mentioned in the Show:
The Official Global GPS Cache Hunt Site
How does Geocaching work?
Russ’ GPS Device is a Garmin Etrex
Jeff’s GPS Device is an older Magellan Explorist
90% of Canadian kids fail health standards
A new Vagus Nerve Study
Recipe of the Week:
Low Fat, Low Calorie Tostadas
Listen here, or subscribe to automatically receive future shows.
Tags: 2008 childhood obesity statistics, fun exercise, Geocaching, vagus nerve
5 Responses to “Fat 2 Fit Show #32 - Geocaching”
By paxye on Jun 4, 2008 | Reply
Though I do not deny that children are becoming more and more overweight, I feel the need to comment on young children being classified “obese”.
My youngest son was classified as “obese” when he was 10 months old and we were referred to specialists at the local children’s hospital to make sure that it was not hormonal. It turns out however, that he is perfectly normal even though he was and is twice the weight of other kids his age.
He is the kicker though, at that time, he was still exclusively breastfed. He had not started Solids at all, he had not even had water. Now he is 18 months old and his weight gain has stopped but he is still nearly twice the size of other kids his age and he eats very small amounts and still mostly breastfed. My other children are quite skinny and were eating much more than he does at the same age and were nursing too so it is really his body and not what goes in that is determining his weight.
The specialists also told me that BMI should not be done for children under the age of 5 because children’s weight and height can vary so much. So the rates of “obese” 2 year olds really do not count in my opinion.
That being said, I do think that parents are feeding their children the wrong things and that there are many children out there that are unhealthy despite their weight. “Juices” and Foods that are full of sugar, sodium, food additives such as dyes and artificial flavours… foods that are overly processed and no longer taste like real food. These children are not learning how to eat at all. Parents are setting their kids up for failure, whether it be obesity later in life or just unhealthy overall.
By Russ Turley on Jun 4, 2008 | Reply
I’ll agree with you on the breast fed babies exclusion. A friend of ours had one of the fattest little boy you ever saw. The baby was like 30 pounds at 3 months, 8-ish pounds when born. His rolls had rolls. His height caught up with his weight eventually. Just like your son, completely breast fed.
I should have clarified “juice”. Kool-Aid is what I meant. Juice with no redeeming nutritional value.
By John on Jun 7, 2008 | Reply
Geocaching…what a cool idea. My wife is going to kill me if I buy another toy!!! Thanks guys
By Emily on Jul 1, 2008 | Reply
Awesome is all I can say. My husband did not believe that geocaching was real until we had our first find. Now I think he is more hoooked than I am. We when in search of a cache this last weekend and ended up on a two and a half mile walk. I would never have agreed to a walk that long thinking I could not do it. But I did it and with little problem. And we found the cache
Thanks so much for the great idea!!!
By Russ Turley on Jul 17, 2008 | Reply
@Emily: 2 1/2 mile walk? That’s why we called it a stealth calorie burner. That’s awesome. I always have to remember to enjoy the hunt and the journey, because sometimes I come away without finding the cache.
Thanks for the comment.