It's no secret that obesity in the United States is a problem. American society struggles and has become branded by an environment that promotes a sedentary lifestyle with T.V., video games, computers, dishwashers, and microwave ovens to name a few. Complementary to a sedentary lifestyle comes increased food intake and communities oversaturated with drive thru fast food restaurants.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention(CDC), during the past 20 years there has been a dramatic increase in obesity in the United States. What is worse, according to the CDC, results from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) indicate that an estimated 17% of children and adolescents ages 2-19 years are obese. Obese children and adolescents are at more risk for health trouble during their youth and as adults. For example, the Bogalusa Heart Study indicated that during their youth, obese children and adolescents are more likely to have risk factors associated with cardiovascular health such as high blood pressure, high cholesterol, and type 2 diabetes than other children and adolescents. Although there are many contributing factors to adult and child obesity changing a sedentary lifestyle to an active one can reap some immediate benefits!

So how can you and your family get the recommended 1+ hour of daily exercise when it seems like in this new technology driven age, pulling your son or daughter away from Yo Gabba Gabba is like pulling teeth and stepping away from the computer gives you withdrawals? The answer lies in changing your mindset for exercise altogether. It's great to be able to pump some iron and run laps around the track but that requires setting aside chunks of precious time. Ever think that chasing your little one at the park might burn some of those extra calories? That's right, you can choose to have an active lifestyle and choose to have that healthy lifestyle with your kids! So let's rethink exerciseand calorie burning while making it a family affair. Below are some family activities to get in that 1+ hour of family exercise and the best part of it all is that you don't have to search far and wide because these are activities that are in your OC backyard!

1)New Life Fitness

A family friendly gym where families can come and workout together, learn about nutrition together, and meet great people while having a blast!

2) Mommy Makeover (but Dads can come too!)

An organization dedicated to promoting healthy families and fun too.

www.meetup.com/hotmommymakeover

3) Go for strolls after you finish eating Dinner

After finishing dinner, take the family out for a brisk walk to catch up on how the day went and keep metabolisms active.

4) Between your family's favorite show sneak in exercise (Commercial Breaks)

Make it a family ordeal to sneak in sit-ups, push-ups, or taking turns for an active game of Simon Says (for example: Simon says jump, or Simon says hop down the hall). You can even dress up the names. For my son I use Nick Jr's, Dino Dan- Dino Dan says run like a dinosaur...

5) On Rainy days you can set up an indoor obstacle course

On rainy days at our house I'll set up an obstacle course where we take turns running, jumping, hopping, and skipping and set a timer to finish. (This can get competitive!)

6) Go to the Park

Our family loves Irvine Regional Park located in Orange! This is a huge park with a lake where you can do all sorts of activities such as feeding the ducks, family paddle boating, walking, hiking, train rides, visit the animals at the zoo, there are even slides and swings!

7) Play sports together

We have a basketball court in front of our house so sometimes after dinner we all play basketball together.

8) Play in the backyard with your dog

My dog Po loves it when we all go out to the backyard to play a game of fetch with him. Not only that, my son goes nuts when I hold him and run while our dog chases after us.

9 ) Play a game of Tag or Hide and Seek

This can be done indoors or outdoors.

10) Go for a family Hike

My family and I love to hike. A great family friendly hike is Oak Canyon Nature Center located in Anaheim Hills.