Happy Feet, Healthy Food: Your Child's First Journal of Exercise and Healthy Eating

Happy Feet, Healthy Food is a combination of logbook (to record exercise and diet) and a sourcebook for games, activities and eating tips. Each week features bright color illustrations, lists of games and activities to try, advice on good foods, suggestions for packing snacks and lunches, and a log page to write about the activities of each day and the foods eaten. The goal is to promote understanding of the bene-fits of exercise and healthy eating, to improve the child's reading and writing skills, and to foster dialogue with parents. Perfect for use in schools or at home.

Carol Goodrow is the founding -editor of Kidsrunning.com, a Runner's World site, which has won numerous awards for its creative and informative content. She is also an award-winning elementary school teacher in Tolland, Connecticut.

That said, this isn't a how-to book. It's more like a workbook, and it doesn't ask for much at any one time. It has weekly pages for your children to write down their exercise, fill in their healthy meals, and be creative. It offers pages full of ideas for fun, active things to do outside (you won't find a computer game anywhere in the book) and encourages parents to fill in the pages with their children. Because it is meant to be consumed a little at a time, it encourages and supports positive habits, rather than just making an argument and sending you out on your own.

If you're looking for a good way to encourage healthy habits in your children and yourself, this is almost certainly the best place to start. And if you buy this book now, you might save them buying dozens of "quick-fix," so-called diet books selling weight-loss "secrets," later in life. In that way, it's downright subversive. Who knew?