By Rick Osbourne, MS, Special for Healthy Kids’ Catalog

Johnny was a kindergartner.  His cousin Jamal was a senior in high school and a star running back on the football team.  Johnny always looked up to Jamal and hoped one day that he too would be a star athlete, with his picture in the newspaper, and people talking about him on television.  Everyone thought Jamal was really cool – especially Johnny.

One day after supper Jamal and Johnny were wrestling around on the living room floor. When the action slowed down and they were each catching their breath, Johnny said. “I want to be just like you when I grow up Jamal.  Do you think I will be?”

Jamal thought for a moment before he answered.  Finally he said “Johnny, if you really want to be strong like me, it’s up to you!" 

Johnny looked at him quizzically.

“If you play your cards right, you’ll be strong in all kinds of ways.  And if you play your cards wrong, you’ll probably be weak.  Now which would you rather be Johnny, weak or strong?”

Johnny just smiled and said “I want to be strong just like you Jamal.  But I don’t understand what you mean about the cards.  What do you mean when you say I have to play my cards right?”

With that, Jamal offered his eager brother these four pieces of advice on how to put together a strong “winning hand”:

“Well, for starters, you have to eat right, which is the first and most important part of developing a ‘winning hand’,” replied Jamal.  “We first need to talk about the things you eat, and then how ‘much’ you eat.  That’s really important too.” 

“For example,” continued Jamal “If you eat lots of junk food like chips, soda pop, fries, and candy you’ll be depriving your body of the nutrition it needs to get really strong – you know, the vitamins and minerals we hear mom and dad talking about sometimes.  Not only that, junk food is also one way to gain unwanted weight.  And, the more you weigh, the harder it is to pull your own weight doing exercises – even those that can easily be done on a playground, such as pull ups, for example.  So it’s really important that you eat the right foods if you really want to get strong.  But, not too much!  East just enough so that you’re no longer hungry – but do not overstuff yourself.  Understand Johnny?”

“Yah, I understand Jamal,” said Johnny.  “So I should eat healthy foods – but not too much - and I’ll get strong just like you, right Jamal?"

“Almost,” replied Jamal, “But there’s more.”

“You have to set a goal and practice to be really strong,” Jamal said. “One way to achieve this is by setting a goal of what you ultimately want to accomplish, and practice, practice, practice until you achieve it! Than, set an ever harder goal and work towards that new one.”

“A lot of friends in my school hate doing things like pull ups because they can’t do them well – if at all.  But, I love pull ups because I’m strong, not too heavy, and I can do lots of ‘em.  You could say I’m a ‘star on the pull up bar’,” said Jamal with a cool smile.

“One of the reasons I’m strong and light is that I’ve practiced doing pull ups twice a week ever since I was in fourth grade when I decided that I wanted to be able to do more than anyone else in my class…which I accomplished because I was the only one who practiced them.” 

“Now, eight years later, after I’ve made little slices of progress every week, every month, every year, I look back and see that all those little bits of progress have added up to a great big pile of progress, especially if you compare me to others who have never practiced pull ups at all.” 

“Many of my fellow students think I’m just a natural.  What they don’t know is that anyone can be really strong on the pull up bar if they just practice regularly over a long period of time.  It’s that simple.”

“So” Johnny said, “if I eat healthy foods in appropriate amounts and practice my exercises regularly, I’ll get strong like you. Right Jamal?” 

“Close,” replied Jamal.  “But there’s more.”

“You also have to get your rest.”

“As important as regular practice and good eating habits are, it’s also really important to get a good night’s rest if you really want to get strong and healthy.  Your body needs time to recover from exercise, which is why you only practice pull-ups twice a week…three times at the most.  If you do more than that your muscles won’t recover enough to get stronger.” 

“Not only that, but you have to get to bed early enough at night to get enough sleep.  Lots of kids try to stay up too late and get up too early, and are not getting the rest their body needs. This makes it difficult to build the muscles necessary to be strong and fit. Got it?”

“Got it Jamal.  But you said there’s one more thing, right?  What is that?”

“Indeed there is,” replied Jamal.  “One more thing.”

“You must avoid tobacco, alcohol and drugs at all costs. The last thing you need to know is that, even though some kids today think they’re cool by using things like cigarettes, alcohol, and drugs, these things will most definitely make you weak in a lot of ways – and certainly not strong and fit enough to do pull ups.”

“So, if you eat right, practice regularly over a long period of time, get your rest, and stay away from things that make your body weak and unhealthy, you can be a star at almost everything you do, Johnny.”

“You mean I’ll be strong at everything?  Will getting strong on the pull up bar make me better in other stuff, too, Jamal?” Johnny asked excitedly.

“Good question Johnny” Jamal replied. “And the answer is that the same habits that make you strong on the pull up bar can help make you strong at anything else that you really want to do.  You just have to decide what’s important in your life – adults call them ‘priorities.”

“So now do you understand what I said about playing your cards, right Johnny?  And, do you understand that whether you become strong is pretty much up to you?  And do you also understand that it’s up to you to choose those things that’ll make you strong and healthy – like good food and exercise, and to avoid those things that’ll make you weak and unhealthy, like not getting your rest and using dangerous substances? The better you are at making these choices, Johnny, the stronger you’ll be in everything.  Understand?”

“Got it” said Johnny with a great big smile.

“Now,” Jamal said “Tomorrow I’ll show you how to handle that pull up bar and you’ll be pulling your own weight and developing a winning hand of your own before you know it.”

Rick Osbourne is the Executive Director of Operation Pull Your Own Weight (www.pullyourownweight.net), a program dedicated to immunizing kids against obesity naturally and functionally, and is a contributing writer for Healthy Kids' Catalog (www.healthykidscatalog.com). His blog can be accessed at www.pyow.blogspot.com.