While I believed that teaching wellness-based physical education classes in the schools is a necessity, it's only part of the answer. Children also need to be raised with healthy habits in their homes. The problem is that an excessive amount of parents don't live healthily themselves. So how can they teach their children how to eat nutritiously, exercise and relax, when they don't have a clue how to do it themselves? It's a big problem that is growing larger every day. 

Our country is now facing an obesity epidemic. More and more adults and children have weight issues and the consequences are enormous. (no pun intended) Something needs to be done to break the cycle because unfortunately the kids are going to suffer. Many already are. Way too many young children today battle diseases that were once thought to be afflictions of the middle-aged and elderly. It's really a sad situation.

 In a way, we've become a nation of child-abusers... done in a very loving way, with only the best intentions. Well-meaning parents happily feed their kids all the fast food and junk food they want, sit their little ones in front of T.V's, computers and video games all day and provide their kids with  virtually no opportunities to exercise.  This has become the way of life in the United States. Unfortunately, as a result, this generation of kids is the first one who are expected to have shorter life expectancies than their own parents.  This isn't right or fair. Don't our kids deserve better than this?