Where Did Kids’ Playtime Go?

Childhood obesity didn’t explode because kids suddenly got lazy. It rose while the daily structure of childhood quietly changed: shorter recess, less PE, more sitting, more screens, and easier access to ultra-processed food. We bring the numbers, but we also bring the lived experience of growing up in two different eras and noticing what disappeared from normal life without anyone voting on it.

We talk about unstructured outdoor play and why it used to be a built-in engine for physical activity, social skills, and plain old joy. We compare walking and biking to school, longer recess, and fitness testing with what many students get now, then we get honest about the forces pulling kids indoors: smartphones, gaming, streaming, and the very real safety fears that make modern parenting feel different.

Then we shift to nutrition, because movement and food always travel together. We dig into home cooking, early food exposure that shapes a kid’s palate, and why school lunch often loses to processed convenience. We don’t pretend there’s a one-size-fits-all fix, but we do lay out practical boundaries around phones and social media, plus realistic ways families can build healthier habits without waiting on government solutions.

If this topic hits home, subscribe for more conversations like this, share the episode with a parent or teacher, and leave a quick review. What’s one change you think would make the biggest difference for kids where you live?

TUT Radio is a podcast about weight loss, behavior change, and building a healthier life without pretending you’re someone you’re not.

Hosted by father-and-son coaches Brian and Vincent of Time Under Tension, TUT Radio challenges many of the beliefs that have made weight loss unnecessarily difficult: that you need more discipline, that your favorite foods are the problem, or that success requires following a restrictive diet for the rest of your life.

Instead, we explore the psychology behind the way people eat—the habits, cravings, environments, memories, and experiences that shape our relationship with food—and how understanding those forces can help us create meaningful, lasting change.

We’ll talk nutrition, training, obesity, metabolism, food behavior, and the science of weight loss. But more importantly, we’ll talk about how to apply that science to a real human life.

 The goal isn't merely getting someone to lose weight; it's designing the path so they don't have to abandon it once they get there. 

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Transcript

Why Childhood Obesity Keeps Rising

SPEAKER_00 0:07

Welcome to Tut Radio. All right. So today we're going to talk about a problem that I'm not sure we as a society actually know how to solve. And so what I want to discuss is how kids play differently compared to the past 50 years and how it contributes to maybe the obesity epidemic. So this show, then I think really needs audience participation. So, because you know, we really need to figure out what steps to take to at least start moving in the right direction. And I'm sorry to say, and this is just my opinion, that if we are relying on our government to fix this problem for us, I think we're in a lot of trouble. So let me kind of give everybody a little bit of information, because you know, you know, I'm 60, I'll be almost 60 years old, and so I go back a little ways. But let me kind of go back to where a lot of things started changing when it comes to nutrition and fitness. And I'm going to go back to like when I was like maybe five years old, and that is back in the early 1970s, one in 20 American kids had obesity, just one in 20. Today, it's roughly one in five. Now, think about that's a four-fold increase despite decades of health campaigns, school lunch reforms, and nutrition education. So at the same time obesity was rising, schools reduced opportunities for movement through PE and recess, while kids were also becoming more sedentary outside of school, consuming more ultra-processed foods, sleeping less, and spending more time in front of screens. So that's kind of where we were, and that's where we are today.

What Recess Looks Like Now

SPEAKER_00 1:44

So, Vin, let's talk about physical activity in elementary school and middle school, you know, students today. You're 25. So take me back and tell me your story of growing up and playing with your friends to kind of go back and think about that.

SPEAKER_01 2:00

Yeah, so in elementary school, middle school, I remember recess was attached to like it was the back half of like the lunch hour, really. And and by half I'm being generous because really I remember recess only being about 15 minutes. And again, maybe maybe it was like 20 minutes on like a good day or like a Friday or something like that, but it was recess. And it it was it was an opportunity to just go hang out with your friends. There were basketball courts we could play on. We used to play primarily just soccer, and we used to use uh like the the outer like edge of the playground was like it was like this rubber thing, and like if you hit like the soccer ball like at that thing, that was like a goal, and it was like this scuffed setup, but it was such a great time. And I remember being super sweaty going back to the classroom, so so it was it was definitely present, and then outside of school, we we would get together on the weekends and we would we would you know hang out and play like Halo and things like that. But when during the daytime, we would go out, like on our bikes, things like that, just like kind of ride around the neighborhood. There were again, you know, jungle gym in the neighborhood, whatever we would go, you know, hang out over there. But there was activity still it was still a part of our lives, even at the very beginning of when I was growing up. I mean, like I saw the iPhone like come out, like it was a big deal when like the iPhone came out, right? So yeah, sure. That was like the very beginning of like this technological like leap that like now is kind of common, right? And it's just because we've been a part of it for so long. But it again, we we we would go outside, we we would run around, it was fun.

SPEAKER_00 3:50

So we we're gonna talk about parents a little bit too, and a lot of I think they want to get into a lot of detail, but I mean some of the different constraints and and you know opportunities that parents have today versus maybe you know 50 years ago. And so it's kind of think about like I think about Gus's parents and you know Reese's parents. To me, like they were kind of really open to this idea of having their kids go out and and play. Is that what you kind of remember?

SPEAKER_01 4:14

Yeah, absolutely. It was it was always like, you know, why don't you guys go outside? It's nice out, that kind of thing. I remember Reese's parents were like, they were, I think, the most on top of it. They were definitely like, you guys gotta get out of the house. Like it's it's just it's what you do. You know what I mean? You guys should go outside because it's nice and and and you should, you know what I mean? So it was it was one of those things it was always a part of. When we were hanging out, we were we were outside. We were doing something, you know what I mean? Whether it be just hanging out in the neighborhood or whatever. It it wasn't always like super hard physical activity, but we were outside for sure.

SPEAKER_00 4:51

I remember because I had to pick you up, right? Yeah, and I and I know Reese had to pool too, so that was another thing too. That was yeah, another huge thing in the pool. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I don't know. I I I wanna I want to believe that kids are still in the pools and stuff. I just do because it would make me really upset and sad if that's not the case.

Parents Pushed Kids Outside

SPEAKER_00 5:08

But but anyway, so let me gonna go back into the 1970s, you know, and where PE was a bigger part of the school day. So daily physical education was common in many elementary and middle schools. Recess was generally longer and less restricted. And and I I want to say that less restricted part kind of hit me a little bit because I do remember once we had we all go into the cafeteria, right, to go have lunch, whether you brought your lunch or you know, or you actually ate in the cafeteria, and that was like maybe, maybe 15 minutes at the most. And then they started by table, just releasing us to the outside. And I remember when they say like when I think of that word restricted, like it was gangbusters. We went out and we did whatever. So that playground, it had basketball courts, it had the jungle gym, it had swings, we played stick ball, we played kickball, we just ran around and chased one another. I mean, and then then we'd played like you know, baseball cards, but really wasn't a lot of physical activity, but that was a hell of a lot of fun, but it's things that I I kind of remember. And so, like again, that that it was unrestricted play, and it was so much fun. Yeah, it may seem like a lot of time, and it kind of was, but again, it was a big part of our socialization and how not only was it good physically for us, it's how we met each other and how we made fun of each other and punched each other in the face and all these different things that that we did when we were when we were kids. So wanted Vin, you want to say something?

SPEAKER_01 6:41

Yeah, I it's it's an interesting point you make because it's like when you remove some of this time that kids are allowed to be kids around one another and just do all that stupid shit that you just mentioned. It I would imagine again that it that has some sort of psychological like effect on your social skills and and things like that if you're just growing up. This is a little off topic, but like it's just it's it's one of those things where it's like, yeah, I mean, you you not only are you restricting the opportunity to go move your body, burn energy, you know, digest after after lunch, whatever that looks like, but it's an opportunity to to your point, just go make some friends, you know, just go schedule something for outside of school on the weekend so you guys can all get to know each other better. And so, you know, that's just an interesting point.

SPEAKER_00 7:30

And these are some just amazing memories I have.

SPEAKER_01 7:32

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 7:33

It's people ask me all the time, like, where would you go back? Like, if you could do it all over again, what when would you go back? And I always say I would go back to middle school. That was my time. I loved middle school. But anyway, one of the other things too, now getting out of school is like, you know, we we walked, you hear the stories all the time. Parents like me say, uh, well, we walked to school a mile uphill both ways, you know. Right, yeah, yeah, yeah. But the truth is, the truth is, when I was in elementary school, my house actually was in the parking lot of my elementary school. I had my breakfast and I just walked across the parking lot and I was in school. And we all biked to school. So that was a little later, like kind of middle school and high school. So that is something that you just really don't see quite as much anymore, right? And when I had I could take the bus. I could. Now going to again middle school, I could take the bus. I there was one, but we didn't. We walked. And so I want to tell you a really great story. And I don't think you know this story. In Jersey, we would have snow days, and so walking to school, basically, you know, if there was two, three inches of snow, a lot of times school got canceled. And it was like the just thinking about it gives me this incredible feeling. It was the the the oh, and not to mention you had to listen to the radio to get this information, by the way. They don't even do that anymore.

Walking To School And Snow Days

SPEAKER_01 8:55

Do you realize that? They're like they're starting to get rid of snow days and things like that, too.

SPEAKER_00 8:58

Well, because so many damn kids had to walk to school. Yeah, that's a fair point. Yeah, I guess. So they so anyway, and and I remember too, if if you were listening to the radio and waiting to go to school and your school didn't get canceled, oh, it was like the worst day ever. You wanted to kill somebody.

SPEAKER_01 9:16

Yeah, right.

SPEAKER_00 9:17

And I remember this too. This is a true story. I would come, I would come to school on days that were so cold in Jersey, I'd go over to the the heat because we'd have like heaters by the windows, and my my teacher would be like, Are you hey Brian, you okay? And all I was doing was thawing out my eyelashes.

SPEAKER_01 9:35

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 9:35

Because they actually froze over because it was so damn cold. But anyway, that's that's getting out of the the the walking in the snowstorm. I want to tell this one because this one's a really I this is again a great memory of me because of how exciting it was to actually get a snow day. So I'm walking, and so this particular day, there was very, very, very little snow on the ground. It was just a light, a light dusting. I'm like, well, I didn't even listen to the radio. I'm like, we're screwed because there's no way they're calling off school for this. And so I'm walking, and and then here let me set the scene for you. When it snows, and you don't know this because you grew up in Florida, but when it snows, the world gets quiet. And I mean dead silent. It's weird, right? And there weren't a lot of cars on the road, you know, because it was again a light dusting. So I'm walking to school, walking to school, and then all of a sudden a cop pulls up alongside me and he goes, Hey kid, where are you going? And I'm looking at him like, Well, you know, I'm going to school. That's what we do. And he goes, There's no school today. I I'll never forget that those words. I turned around and ran all the way home. It was so exciting. Yeah. So I got a chance to have a snow. That was the single only time that ever happened, and it was awesome. Yeah. So anyway, that's a side story. So not only did I walk that day, I also ran. So those are two good things when it comes to exercise. And then, of course, you know, schools, they placed a greater emphasis on fitness. And we used to do this. This was a fitness test. I don't know, I think it was maybe once a year. And it was it was interesting because we'd be in the gym when we took this test and we'd run back and forth. They'd time us and stuff. Then it was a rope, and you had to actually climb this rope. And the rope, I mean, it was like 20, 30 feet because the gym's ceiling was really, really high. And it was the rope was tied to one of the beams. And, you know, you had to pull yourself up. You can use your feet, but I mean, you know, as a kid, I remember being able to do most of it with just my hands. And I was probably 115 pounds at that time. It's true. Anyway, so that was again, it was like it was so important that they actually tested you to see if your physical activity was okay. And so, again, you know, for for most for most students, there was always a bunch of you know, accumulated meaningful physical activity during the school day without actually needing organized sports. Okay, because that kind of came later. I mean, all of my friends, they were in on the baseball teams, like the traveling teams and stuff like that, which I always was jealous of. I know I never played baseball. And I was so funny enough, I was jealous of the hat. I wasn't really even jealous of the fact they played baseball. I thought the hats were so cool.

Fitness Tests And The PE Drop Off

SPEAKER_00 12:24

But anyway, so anyway, today, you know, the research is that you shows that we have, you know, less physical education, less recess, more sitting, get the smartphones, gaming, social media, and then streaming outlets too. And so here are some stats. The average PE time is only about 93 minutes a week in elementary school and about 152 minutes a week in middle school. So when I went to school, we had 45 minutes of recess slash lunch, which is more than double. And again, the majority of that was not lunch, the majority of that was running around. And then that doesn't include the 225 minutes of scheduled gym class. And that that was for me, that worked that was all the way through high school. So it never reached to the point where it got cut out for me anyway. It was gym. I had gym every single day of my entire school career from from kin day one kindergarten till I graduated high school.

SPEAKER_01 13:22

Yeah, that's that's that's different than I remember it. It was it was something that it was like a like a rotating schedule or something. It was not something every single day for PE, definitely not. At least in like maybe in elementary school it was like a mandatory thing, but I don't remember doing gym every day in in middle school. I don't.

SPEAKER_00 13:42

Yeah, yeah, I don't remember. And your mom mentioned to me the other day, it's like not only did she have gym every day, that she had to get changed into a uniform for gym.

SPEAKER_01 13:53

Yeah. I had to change in I think middle school. I think elementary school, they didn't they didn't even bother with it because you know it's just I had to change, but I didn't have to change into a uniform. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 14:05

That just was you just was me. And like so so we were talking a lot about exercise in school. That was one one thing. But I do want to kind of talk about this piece of it too. Cause then on the weekends when we, you know, school was out. I mean, I I can tell you, I remember I ran downstairs to watch Saturday morning cartoons, you know, I couldn't wait for my favorites, which was Land of the Lost, Hong Kong Phoei, Captain Caveman. Those were those were my favorites. I mean, and then of course you had you know all all the different cartoons that for like about two two hours I sat there and watched, and it was just awesome. But then once that was over, I headed out to my best friend Warren's house. That we played tackle football until lunch and then back outside. So, really, and and so where do we eat lunch? Depends which house we were closer to. If we're close to my house, we went to my house, we ate lunch, we were closer to his, we went to his house and we had lunch.

SPEAKER_01 14:58

Makes sense.

SPEAKER_00 14:59

So, and so all the kids in the neighborhood, we kind of all talked about it going up into the weekend that we were gonna go out and play football, and we all had our teams and we were separate, and this was tackle football, no equipment, no, I mean it. No flag football. This is nuts. I mean, I have my bottom teeth are chipped because we were playing one day and I actually was tackled and I hit some piece of concrete with my face and it chipped my tooth, and it's still chipped today, never got it fixed anyway. And so if the kids, the other kids weren't around that even still it didn't matter, Warren and I would go out and still play, and he'd be the quarterback, and I was the receiver, and we just ran routes all day thinking you know, someday we might make it to the NFL. So that was kind of like that. Was the weekends, and then it carried over into summer vacation too. That was like that weekend routine, that became an everyday seven days a week routine. So so that's that. I don't again you can look at it and go, how how does that compare to you to you? And you kind of express some of that stuff, and I think too, parents who are like now in their 30s today, they've got their younger kids, and I think it's different even than your experience. Yeah, for sure.

SPEAKER_01 16:14

There's no doubt.

Safety Fears And The Indoor Default

SPEAKER_01 16:16

I think that there's a lot to be said about just being paranoid nowadays. I think that it's just the the world's a different place than it was when you were growing up, in the sense that there's it's just there's some messed up shit that goes on. And it's like it's really, I think if you're a parent, like, okay, I can let my kid go outside and expose them to whatever it is, right? There's a bunch of great things that can happen when you let your kids go outside. They can make friendships and and form relationships and and run around and and get exercise. But then there's also the risk of I don't want to leave my kid unsupervised. I think there's just more paranoia about that stuff, maybe today, than there was back then, because I think that the world is generally perceived at this much more dangerous place to be at any one given time. And so it's really weird where you know you see something as commonplace as daily exercise when you're growing up, kind of get stripped from you based off of the fact that it's much safer to be inside watching TV or playing on an iPad. And it's a shame, but I think that that's really a part of it. I think that that's really the contributing factor. Not to say that kids don't go outside today, because I think they still do, but it's a lot easier and there are much more things to do. Whereas when you were growing up, that was that was like the peak experience was going outside to hang out with your friends. Well, now it's much more easier to come into contact with your friends. You can send your friend a text, you know what I mean? And not to say that all these kids have have all the means of you know communicating with each other outside of school, but it's it's a lot more manageable

Home Cooking Versus School Food

SPEAKER_01 17:54

now.

SPEAKER_00 17:54

So let me let's let's shift gears here a little bit. Let's talk about nutrition for a minute, because I think what we're talking about, there are two pieces of it. There's the physical education part that leads to the obesity piece for sure, and then and then nutrition, because the two go hand in hand. It's not one or the other, it's both. And so let's just talk again. You're 25. Let's talk about what you remember eating growing up, both at home and school. And now let me remind everybody, I've not always been a personal trainer and a nutrition coach. I was in the restaurant business my whole life. Tell me what you kind of remember.

SPEAKER_01 18:31

Well, it's it's funny you mentioned that because even despite the fact that you we have not, you know, been involved in the fitness space and and health and wellness forever, the the meals that we would always eat were still reflective of those kinds of principles that we would still follow today. I remember vividly, we were talking a little earlier. It was chicken, it was like riceroni, it was some sort of like vegetable, and and and that was it. And that was like that was like that was a standard meal. We would eat a bunch of different things, you know, meatloaf and things like that that I would I could remember too. Everything was always fresh, it was fresh ingredients, it was home cooked, and it was good. And I and I had no real problem eating that way growing up. And I again, we were speaking a little bit earlier. I attribute that primarily to the fact that when I was born, you guys kind of set out and said, Okay, we're gonna, we're gonna, we're gonna do away with jarred baby food. We're just not even gonna subscribe to the idea that we want to do that for our kids. We're gonna we're gonna make fresh food. And so as a result, when you're in a high chair and you're eating butternut squash, because it's it's all that you have in front of you, you kind of form a palate for it, right? And you when when when you then mature, right, you're not the kid that's going to willingly choose chicken fingers at the restaurant every time. You know what I mean? Because you're more open to it. And so that was that was a really cool part growing up as far as eating at home. When when it comes to school, what I would eat at school, again, super fortunate. I had parents that actually gave a shit about me. I would bring my lunch to school. Now, why was that cool? Because if you go to school and you try to eat the food there, you want to throw up. Why? Because it's all processed garbage that that had no really heart and soul into it, and you would just kind of cue up in the line and you'd got whatever was being served that day. And it was never really something that you were able to look forward to. It was always something that we even as kids, knowing as little as we did about, you know, whatever, we were like, this is kind of gross eating this way. And and I would much rather bring food from home. Like that was the general consensus. And of course, there were the kids who really could care less, whatever. You know what I mean? Bringing your food to school was the the option you would want to choose for sure.

SPEAKER_00 20:56

It's funny because I remember I always brought my lunch too. And that's probably the reason why you brought your lunch, because that's how that's how it was done. And you know, the cafeteria back when I was growing up, it's funny because it was Whole Foods, and there were people back there cooking foods, you know, and they were making vegetables and mashed potatoes and they were doing all sorts of chicken and things like that. But unfortunately, it was generally pretty bland, it wasn't seasoned well. There was a lot of large industrial cans of things. And, you know, in general, especially coming from an Italian background, you know, and eating at grandma's house and things like that, it really wasn't something that was overly flavorful or something I thought about. And I I, for me, you know, I'd rather bring a sweaty ham and cheese sandwich that I brought in my fat Albert lunchbox uh than eat the cafeteria food. I mean, that was kind of it. I say sweaty because there was no air conditioning in school. And so by the time you got to lunch, the ham and cheese sandwich it was pretty gross, man. Compared to so compared to that, I'd rather, you know, I'd rather eat that sandwich than eat the shit that was in the uh cafeteria.

SPEAKER_01 22:06

It's saying a lot. I mean.

SPEAKER_00 22:08

And I remember it wasn't until high school that I saw the shift, which was in the 1980s, early 1980s, where now the pizza showed up and the hamburgers kind of showed up. And you know, we never had, like I know you did because I remember, we never had vending machines. That's just a whole nother a whole nother thing. So I kind of want to talk about this because my mom, and as the way my brothers and I ate, it wasn't like she had some degree in nutrition or anything like that. So there is a difference between, I think, what my mom did, and so like she did meal planning, like not meal prep. And there's a difference between the two. What I mean by that is that she would think about okay, what am I gonna feed my kids for the entire week? And then based on that, she'd make out the grocery list and then go to the store and buy all that stuff. And so this was not like perfect macros, but here's the thing every single night we had ha we had to have salad. It was nothing on the table until there was the salad first, and that was it. Then each plate always had meat, it always had a vegetable, and it always had a starch. Always. And that salad thing I hated so much that I made it through four years of college because once I graduated high school and left my house, I made it through four years of college and never once ate another salad. And that's a true story. Never ever. People used to look at me like I was crazy. So here's the thing I I don't really know what the answer is. I'm not sure how we solved this problem of childhood obesity, and that's kind of where I started this whole thing, but just getting kids out there and moving around a little bit more, and then you know, families being able to provide their kids with some sort of nutrition that they cannot rely on necessarily at school. And so you I've heard this before because everyone picks on the parents today, and they say, you know, if if Vin, if I said to you that what if this is a solution? If you said to parents, okay, for two hours a day, you have to take the kid's cell phone away and they have to go out inside and play. Is this, in your opinion, even a real solution?

SPEAKER_01 24:25

No. I think that it's like it's it's wishful thinking and it's it's a nice thought, but I think that if you have a kid who is used to not going outside and is developing this early addiction to screens, right? It's much harder to then say, yeah, actually, we're gonna stop your habits that are in place now entirely. You're gonna give me your phone and you're gonna go outside. And we we will again, because of all of the things that are also true about today, the fact that there's less recess time, maybe not a a larger emphasis on PE, the fact that there are much easier ways you can even say to hang out with your friends, like using the internet and things like that. It's not it's it's super convenient to not have to go outside to form relationships and things like that. And so that's the appeal. I think for a lot again, if you had no friends, would you have spent as much time outside? I this is a question for you now, when you were growing up.

SPEAKER_00 25:41

Oh no, I I can't well I don't imagine what I would do. Well, so here's what I would probably do. I would get on my bike and I'd ride down to the boardwalk. Yeah, I mean, there was nothing to do inside the house.

SPEAKER_01 25:54

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 25:55

I mean, even TV was limited.

SPEAKER_01 25:57

Yeah. It's so I because again, I think this it speaks to like the greater issue. It's like there's so much to do at any at any moment when you're in your house. Like if you have internet access, man, you can spend all day doing nothing. It's just true. Because that's just how the world works now. And so it it raises an

Do Kids Really Need Phones?

SPEAKER_01 26:19

important point. It's like, do kids in elementary school need phones? Do they need them? Or is this the time for them to experience kind of what you and I experienced to a degree, you much more than I did? But like that's you know, you you you question people's parenting necessarily, but it's just like, you know, do they need to be immediately exposed to all of that stuff? And and do they need to be essentially robbed of the opportunity to then figure it out? Go outside, make friends, run around, you know what I mean? So I think that if if the the stage has already been set where they use screen time as a part of their pastime, it's hard to go backwards, if that makes sense.

SPEAKER_00 27:06

I'm not pessimistic um as a general rule. And this podcast bothers me because I don't know, like I certainly don't have a an answer to this problem. And hopefully today we were able to give some stories and some points of view that makes people think a little bit. So I do want to end it this way with asking you, Vin, if you have kids someday in the near future, what are you gonna do?

A Realistic Parenting Plan

SPEAKER_00 27:33

What would you do? I and I I think this is the best answer we can give today is just your perspective on what how maybe you would do uh as a parent, because again, there are people out there trying to figure this out.

SPEAKER_01 27:46

It's it's an interesting question because you know, I don't plan to have kids in the immediate future, but it is something that I've thought about. And I think that the nutrition thing for me will be a little bit easier, right? Because it's just something that I don't plan to stop eating healthy ever, really, you know, if I can help it, right? So for me, I would always want to kind of push the same sorts of foods on my kids. And again, we we mentioned earlier, you know, uh butternut squash in the high chair. It's like if you start them and if you set the precedent that no, the whole foods are actually good. Well, let's let's let's curate this kid's palate so they don't snub their nose at every vegetable just simply because it's a vegetable. Like, what's that about? You know what I mean? Like, I feel like kids just they understand all of a sudden that it's a vegetable, they don't want to eat it. It's like, why? So, like, you have to have like an open mind when it comes to exposing your kids to the right nutrition, especially at a young age. That would be what I would start to do, right? Because again, if you leave them no other option, well, then that's what they know how to eat. So it's you kind of have more control over it when they're young, as opposed to if you start them off where it's they're used to highly processed foods, you introduce whole foods to them and now they don't have as much rich, you know, processed flavors as like, you know, all the things that you can buy from the insides of the grocery stores do. So it's just like for the nutrition part, again, have let the kids have sweets and things like that, but like for their meals and things like that, just you know, structure them in such a way where they're getting, you know, whole foods in. And for exercise, again, I think that this is an interesting conversation. Again, it speaks to the greater issues of the world around us, right? So it's it's one of those things where you want your kids to be safe, you want your kids to have a means to contact you in the in the case of an emergency or something like that. But I don't remember when I had my phone, my first phone. I I think I was at least 10 years old, right? And I and some people might hear that and say, oh my God, even that's early. But we that was it. We had we had, you know, it was it was a similar experience growing up in the sense that, you know, you called your friends or like you made plans during the week, during school. Hey, listen, can we hang out on Saturday? Are you guys free? Or like what's going on? Can we let's meet over here or let's do this, we're gonna do this and hang out in the pool, whatever. Because it's really it was a part of what we did. And so again, I can't speak to the landscape of the world, right? But I would want that similar experience for my kids in the sense that not having to worry about limiting social media usage on my kids' phone, like just that seems like a nightmare. And there's so much horrible things that we can prevent by just not allowing them to have it until a certain point in development. So that's my that's my answer, right? Maybe limit the fact that they don't have to have the world at their fingertips at such a young age, right? Because it's there's so much horrible things you can expose yourself to on the internet accidentally, always enforcing the idea that you should be outside with your friends and you know, making sure that they, when they're eating in front of you, that they're eating things that are good for them. That's it. That's that's my answer.

SPEAKER_00 31:01

I've I figured you'd answer it like that. Yeah, and the reason why I say that is because you know, you I think you understand for you, you have to take personal responsibility for the health of your kids when it comes to nutrition and when it comes to exercise. Sure. And that may be very challenging for a lot of people based on you know dual family incomes, things like that. Yeah, but at the end of the day, the thing I can say, feel confident about, is that if again, we're relying on the government to solve this problem or the education system, way too much has changed, and I just don't think we're going back.

SPEAKER_01 31:39

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 31:39

And so I guess the message is and the best we can hope for as far as for our for our audience is that you know, you gotta take the time to try and figure out where this fits in for you and for your family. I wanted to do this podcast, and I hope that you know people got at least an opportunity to think through what's going on with their own kids and their own lives and how challenging this really this issue is, and maybe come to that conclusion that you just kind of eloquently stated that it's gotta you gotta figure out you know where you stand and what responsibility you want to take and how to make that work for you as challenging as it it is going to be.

SPEAKER_01 32:21

Yeah.

How To Share Your Take

SPEAKER_00 32:22

So again, we we appreciate everybody listening, and as always, you can reach us at Time Under Tension PT on all socials, and we really would appreciate it. If if you have an opinion, go to our page or the show notes and and just go ahead and click on the comment section and leave us a comment. So again, uh we wish everyone the best and uh we'll talk to everybody soon.

SPEAKER_01 32:45

Yeah. Thanks, guys.