Kids descend on Browns Stadium to tackle healthy eating, exercise

CLEVELAND, Ohio — Eat more vegetables and fruit, get an hour of exercise or play each day — and your body will reward you.

That was the message conveyed to about 100 kids from several Northeast Ohio schools at Cleveland Browns Stadium on Tuesday, at what was billed as the “Fuel Up to Play 60″ Youth Summit. It’s part of a National Football League commitment to children’s health and fitness. The kids’ job is to take that message back to their schools.

Hearing from Browns players was supposed to be part of the program Tuesday, but the students didn’t seem too disappointed that that didn’t happen. The Browns had an extra practice in Berea and thus couldn’t provide motivation to the school kids at the stadium. (Something similar happened Sept. 22, when Browns players were unable to appear at a student session aiming at curbing the use of steroids, because the players were preparing for a game against Miami.)

But others were on hand to provide inspiration, including former Browns’ player Lomas Brown and the motivational speaker known as “Dr. Mike” Thompson, of Columbus, who told the kids that the letters in “TEAM” stand for Teach, Enforce, Advocate, Model.

“Good choice, bad choice — it’s your choice,” said Thompson. “Your job is go back to school, teach everyone to put good things in their bodies. Garbage in, garbage out — healthy in, healthy out.”

The theme of the day, structured around football lingo like “pre-game” and “charge the field,” was spreading the word on healthy eating and physical exercise to vanquish the enemy: childhood obesity. The American Dairy Association was a co-sponsor, providing breakfast and lunch (turkey, lettuce, cheese and tomato on whole-grain bread) and low-fat milk, fruit and bottles of water.

After breakfast, students got to experience the thrill of running through one of the tunnels that led to the field. Then they did the kinds of team-building group exercises familiar to adults who have been on management retreats.

They listened to a talk from Brown, who was a trombone player at his high school in Miami before the school principal talked him into trying out for varsity football. After playing in college, he was an offensive tackle in the NFL for 18 seasons. Today, he’s a broadcaster and analyst for ESPN.

“What you put in your body will affect your performance,” he said, whether you are an athlete or a student. “And you’ve got to get outside and play every day.”

At this age, he said, kids are developing habits, and Brown says he tells his 12-year-old son the same thing he told his audience: “My mom made sure I always had vegetables on my plate, and I tell him the same thing. It can be a fight every day, though, to get him to eat vegetables.”

But as a dad, he won’t give up.

Alexis Longstreet, 12, of Forest Park Elementary School in Euclid, said the message is getting through to her. “I learned that ‘filling up’ is about eating healthy,” she said. Being a cheerleader keeps her active, but she said she knows she can exercise more, too.

Emily Muffler, 13, came all the way from Fremont. She’s a member of her school’s volleyball, softball and basketball teams, and she’s learned that what she eats affects how well she does.

“Eating right really makes a difference,” she said. “Breakfast is important, and I have to make time for it.”

Toward the end of the day, the kids broke off into groups to come up with ideas for videos that will be posted online at SchoolTube in the next two weeks.

One group of boys turned a banana into a football, grunting, “Eat Healthy.”

A group of girls formed a circle and said, “It’s important to stretch,” and they leaned into backbends and yoga’s standing bow pose.

All the groups were to be assigned Flip cameras to take back to school to make more videos that will be entered into an online challenge.

Healthy Lifestyle – with Bill & Sheila