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My daughter was a chunk of a baby. (See for yourself.) But she has since shed her baby fat and grown into a perfectly sized preschooler, who can outrun all the girls and all but one boy on her soccer team. When I watch her sprint after the ball I often reminisce about her former Michelin Man legs. Man, was she chubby (though, very healthy, according to her doctor).

I'm not afraid to speak about my child's hefty beginnings, but perhaps I should since these days the tide seems to be turning against baby fat. In a recent article published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, researchers claim that chubby babies are more likely to grow into obese adults.

The reason I know the article exists is because my daughter's soccer coach handed out guides on new programs designed to help beat the battle of the baby bulge. Apparently, states across the country are joining forces to teach parents and children about proper nutrition and the importance of daily exercise.

According to the Centers For Disease Control and Prevention, 12% of kids ages 2 to 5 are obese. In addition, more than half of overweight kids already have high cholesterol or blood pressure, which is why medical experts are so emphatic about getting kids to take part in regular physical activity.

Doctors say the earlier a child gets moving the less likely he or she will suffer with weight issues in the future. To help teach children about the importance of daily physical fitness a number of schools nationwide have jumped on the SPARK bandwagon. SPARK stands for Sports Play and Active Recreation for Kids and is taught at hundreds of daycare centers and schools across the country.

The philosophy behind the program is to increase movement in sedentary children. Doctors say physical activity is key to healthy children growing into healthy adults. But medical experts say parents shouldn't rely solely on these types of programs to encourage their children to get moving.

As one doctor affiliated with the program pointed out, "Children are always moving; we don't have to train them to move, we have to give them opportunities to move."

Health experts say formal weight loss programs should be left for extreme cases of overweight children. If you are concerned that your child might fit into this category you should consult your son or daughter's pediatrician. Doctors can diagnose obesity by calculating a child's body mass index or BMI.

Note: Calculating BMI for children is slightly different than for adults. BMI tables for children and teens take into account age and gender, because body fat is different in girls and boys.

To view the CDC's BMI calculator click here.

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Yes, Kids Need Exercise, We Get It!

According to new research, for people with high blood pressure, regular exercise can help save their lives.

It may sound like a dramatic statement, but experts say the information is on target and can help millions of people with high blood pressure. The study's conclusions were simple: Elevating one's heart rate for a mere 30 minutes a day can be the most important lifestyle change people with high blood pressure can make. Simply put, if you suffer from high blood pressure it is imperative that you carve out time to bike, walk, run, swim or participate in some other physical activity for at least a half hour per day to lower your blood pressure.

The other conclusion made by the new study might come as a surprise to some. Researchers say despite the benefits exercise has on high blood pressure patients, two-thirds of doctors don't take the time to tell those patients about the importance of regular physical activity.

More than 17,400 individuals participated in the study and among them were 4,686 people, who reported having high blood pressure. During the study researchers found that only one-third of the people with high blood pressure said their doctor had told them to add or increase exercise as a way of reducing their blood pressure. However, 71 percent of patients with high blood pressure said they saw a drop in their blood pressure when they increased their physical activity.

In the conclusion of the study researchers state that exercise -- as part of a comprehensive lifestyle-modification program including a low-salt diet, diets rich in fruits and vegetables and low in saturated fats -- has beneficial effects on blood pressure. Researchers also noted that doctors should do more to encourage patients with high blood pressure to participate in some form of aerobic activity.

Do you have high blood pressure? If so what types of exercise do you participate in on a daily basis?

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When I decided to run my first marathon almost a decade ago I didn't do it because I wanted to get in shape, lower my blood pressure or reduce my risk of a heart attack. I decided to run 26.2 miles because a guy I dated in college doubted that I could do it. So, I proved him wrong and lost a few pounds in the process.

It's not exactly the most inspiring story out there, but it just goes to show that there are a variety of factors that motivate people to run. If you don't have anyone in your life that you want to prove a point to then perhaps this next study will provide you with the inspiration you need to get moving.

New research just released by Stanford University's School of Medicine shows that regular running slows the effects of aging. The new study tracked 500 older runners for more than 20 years and found that not only do older runners have fewer disabilities, but also they are half as likely as non-runners to die early deaths.

Researchers followed 538 runners (all of them were part of running clubs) over the age 50 and compared them to a similar group of 423 non-runners. The runners, now in their 70s and 80s, answered yearly questionnaires about their ability to perform everyday activities such as walking, dressing, grooming, getting out of a chair, and gripping objects. Nineteen years into the study, 34% of the non-runners had died, compared with only 15% of the runners.

In the end researchers concluded that regular aerobic activity makes people healthier as they age, and in this particular case they found running helped participants live longer. Another interesting discovery the study found was that while all of the participants became more disabled after 20 years, for runners the onset of disability started later. In addition, the study found regular running (in this case an average of 76 minutes per week) was linked to lower rates of cardiovascular deaths and deaths from caused by strokes, heart attacks, cancer, and neurological diseases.

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Who among us hasn't been inspired by the amazing physical prowess displayed by the Olympians in Beijing? If nothing else I'm sure there have been times when the competition has motivated you to get up off the couch to cheer on your favorite athlete. So there--you expended at least a few calories by standing, raising your arms, yelling and cheering. Compared to how many calories the athlete is expending it might seem insignificant, but if you live a relatively sedate life it's at least a step in the right direction.

The point is: expending calories in an effort to lead a healthier life is not that hard once you find the motivation to get moving. Nike's motto is "Just Do It," but I prefer the saying, "You Can Do It," because in all honesty, most of us really can. We really can carve out at least a few minutes in our day to walk, jog, bike or swim. In fact, most of us expend calories without even realizing were doing so. Consider how much exercise you get while dusting, vacuuming, scrubbing the bathroom floor or gardening.

If you are feeling unmotivated to get up and get moving take a look at the information below. It shows the number of calories burned during one hour of physical activity. The first set of numbers illustrates the calories burned for a 175-pound healthy man while the numbers on the right lists the calories burned for a 140-pound healthy woman.

The number of calories you burn in an hour for each activity may vary according to a variety of factors, including environmental conditions. You can figure out the number of calories you would burn during your workouts by writing down your weight and then dividing your weight by 140 pounds for a woman or 175 for a man. Then, multiply this number by the number of calories burned in an hour as shown below. This will give you the number of calories YOU burn for the same activity.

Cleaning House or Playing Golf: Man = 300 calories Woman = 240 calories

Gardening or Walking Briskly at 3.5 mph: Man = 460 calories Woman = 370 calories

Jogging a 9-minute mile or Swimming: Man = 730 calories Woman = 580

Running a 7-minute mile or Skiing: Man = 920 calories Woman = 740

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I don't know how Michael Phelps is feeling, but I'm exhausted.

The live drama at the pool and in the gym during these Summer Olympic Games has kept me up later than my days as a college student (or at least since those foggy nights breastfeeding my daughter).

Olympic viewers on the East Coast have taken the brunt of it. I live in the Midwest and stayed up well past midnight watching Phelps swim to victory (some of his races didn't get underway until after 10 p.m. Central, 11 p.m. Eastern). Then, there were the nights I forced myself to stay awake to watch the gymnastics competition. It was well worth the effort, but as a mom, who on most nights falls asleep reading bedtime stories to her preschooler, staying up past 8 p.m. is an Olympic feat unto itself.

And I know I am not alone. NBC hasn't been shy about touting its monstrous ratings. According to the peacock network, record numbers of us up have staying up until the wee hours of the night watching Olympic history being made... live.

If you've spent the last week pulling Olympic all-nighters then your daily workouts might be suffering because of it. After all, who wants to run, walk or bike when they are dog tired?

But lack of energy is not the only thing being compromised when you pull an all-nighter. According to Washington, D.C.-based National Sleep Foundation, if you lose an hour or two of sleep each night for the duration of the Olympics, you stand to lose much more than just motivation to work out.

Sleep experts say that for every 1.7 hours of sleep you lose a night, your overall productivity and alertness decreases substantially the following day. One night staying up past your bedtime is not bad, but experts warn that after two or three nights you are putting your health at risk.

According to the National Sleep Foundation, Americans sleep an average of 6.9 hours per night, so if you subtract 1.5 hours of Olympic viewing you are only getting about 5.4 hours of sleep per night and experts say very few of us can function on that amount of shut eye.

Parents with young children may argue that point, but there's no debating the fact that none of us would want to be sharing the highway with a sleep deprived driver, who can't keep his eyes open because he stayed up watching Phelps add to his medal count the night before.

Have you been pulling Olympic all-nighters?

Swimming is over, but track and field is just getting underway... are you primed for more sleepless nights?

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