Michelle Obama: Hold the Fries, Exercise!

Michelle Obama, intent on leading by example as first lady, is becoming a major advocate for health lifestyles. She recently held a Healthy Kids Fair on the White House South Lawn to stress the need for exercise to avoid childhood obesity. And revealed her secret favorite food.

“We don’t just want our kids to exercise because we tell them to. We want them to exercise because it’s fun and they enjoy it. And we want them to learn now how to lead good, healthy lifestyles so that they’re not struggling to figure out how to do that when they’re older,” she said at the fair.

Not that the first lady doesn’t have her vices. She admits that French fries are one of her favorite foods. But she stresses that they are  just not for everyday.

“I have a good relationship with French fries and I would eat them every single day if I could. I really would. But I know that if I’m eating the right things — and I tell my girls this — if you’re getting the right foods for most of the time, then when it’s time to have cake and French fries on those special occasions, then you balance it out,” she said.

When she was growing up, she says treats were reserved for special occasions. In her family the children would get something like pizza once each year or semester, if the the got good grades, for example.

Michelle says she also limits TV time for her two daughters, Sasha and Malia on school days. Instead she encourages them to do something active. On the weekends, they limited to a few hours of TV.

The first lady advocated healthy eating soon after arriving at the White House by planting a garden on the lawn.

“One of our goals was to focus on the importance of educating our kids about healthy eating. So it wasn’t just about planting a garden,” she told the gathering.

“It was also to begin to talk about nutrition and to highlight the little ways that each of us can add more healthy fruits and vegetables to our diet, something that I think about all the time as a mother,” she added.

About one in three children are overweight or obese nationally, and projecting five, 10, 20 years illnesses that result from obesity, whether it’s high blood pressure, or heart disease, cancer, will spike, the first lady said.