Childhood Obesity: Simplify to a Happier Life

Through their common military experience and similar entrepreneurial backgrounds in health and physical fitness, four veterans and Naval Academy classmates are on a mission to alter this trend by promoting these four tenets: re-focus, re-prioritize, get back to basics and simplify your life. By encouraging a more healthy and physically active lifestyle through Rolly Pollies International, Inc, Heroes of Tomorrow and The Perfect Pushup, John Mann, Stew Smith, Alden Mills and Joe Dondero hope to encourage individuals and families to spend more time together, live more productive lives and promote healthier eating habits all of which lead to a better, less stressful lives.

Few can argue that the pace of daily life has spiraled upward in recent years and with it, so have stress levels and financial, social and professional pressures. Coupled with a world-wide economic meltdown, unrelenting advertising campaigns and a 24-hour cycle of negative news, it is easy to see how both individuals and families alike could lose perspective and control as they strive to meet every demand, exceed every expectation and just keep up!

Seven years ago, John Mann and Joe Dondero, co-Founded Rolly Pollies, a fitness and healthy lifestyle center for children, after they decided action was needed to fight the emerging childhood obesity epidemic, increasing health issues and sedentary lifestyles brought on by lack of safe and educational physical outlets for kids, television, video games, computers and poor diet. The result was the ultimate Children's Development Center in the country offering age appropriate gym, music, creative arts and birthday party programs for children 6 months through 7 years of age. They have since opened 9 more franchised gyms around the country and continue to grow and thrive.

"We used a simple formula in designing our concept. We pulled the most effective, healthy and fun physical experiences from childhood through our military training and then broke them down into the fundamentals of running, jumping, climbing, swinging and rolling to start," explains John Mann, "then we hired our curriculum experts with doctorates in Physical Education and Early Childhood development to help quantify our programs."

Joe Dondero adds, "It is important that the parents enjoy and get as much out of our program as our kids do. If we can create this environment, we can better educate both children and their parents about our mission at Rolly Pollies: to develop children physically, intellectually and socially in order to build the self-esteem and confidence needed for a healthy and successful life."

While John and Joe focus on building a solid motor skills foundation early in children's lives, former Navy SEAL Stew Smith has been focused on fitness writing and training for adults. Stew has published six fitness books ranging from advanced military fitness to beginning weight loss programs. On his website, www.StewSmith.com, he has created a niche market for people seeking to improve their fitness for physical tests for military, law enforcement, and fire fighters. With over 40 downloadable and soft cover titles, there is something for every fitness level. In fact, a majority of the customers are people who need to lose 20-30 lbs. prior to joining one of the above public service communities.

Stew Smith adds, "People were calling me the Personal Trainer to the Heroes of Tomorrow so I created the Heroes of Tomorrow brand as one category for my workout programs." Stew has also written combined programs for parents and children centered around simple, easy and fun fitness techniques that can be performed in backyards or play grounds. He has also co-authored advanced fitness programs with his classmate and fellow former Navy SEAL Alden Mills, the inventor of the Perfect Pushup.

Where John, Joe and Stew have focused on creating fitness programs, Alden Mills has gone in a different direction by creating his own line of fitness equipment to enable a healthy lifestyle. The creator of The Perfect Pushup and Perfect Pull-up, Alden has been a leader in the growing fitness industry and has made a tremendous impact on many peoples' lives with his products. Check out his site at www.perfectpushup.com and read his motivational fitness blog for the latest on how he utilizes his fitness knowledge to help others achieve results they never thought possible. You can even take a fitness challenge and post it on the site. Alden has also created the BodyRev Fitness program and equipment line that specializes in "rotational fitness".