Get active for Healthy Me Week

Canadian Olympian Mark Oldershaw and Freggie, the Fuel Up! mascot.

Earlier today I attended the official kickoff for this year’s Healthy Me Week (June 2-8), for which Best Health is a media partner. It’s the third year for this initiative, which aims to promote healthy active living among Canadian families.

Leading an active lifestyle is something that Canadian kids are getting a failing grade in. The 2014 Active Healthy Kids Canada Report Card, gave Canada’s overall physical activity level a D-. According to the report, only 40 percent of Canadian kids (age 5-17) get at least 60 minutes of physical activity at least three days a week.

At today’s event I saw approximately 250 enthusiastic kids from schools in the GTA, which shows me that kids are more than happy to engage in activity play but sometimes they need the encouragement.

"Today, for Healthy Me Week, we’re teaching kids some new activities with the hope that they will continue to do it themselves and also teach some other kids," Dr. Kellie Leitch, Minister of Labour and Status of Women, told me at the event. "If you develop a habit young you usually carry it throughout your life."

Also at the event was Olympian Mark Oldershaw, who led the kids through a grocery shopping challenge at one of the stations.

"Obviously sports are important to me as an Olympian, but I think it’s more than that – just being active should be important to everyone. You don’t have to pursue it at a competitive level to enjoy sports or be active. That’s the message that I’m trying to get across," he said.

Will you take the Healthy Me Week challenge? Visit healthymeweek.com for more information.