Originally posted on the Let's Move! blog, in honor of the 3rd year anniversary of the Let's Move! campaign

Since early 2010, First Lady Michelle Obama's Let's Move! initiative has been an important driver of childhood obesity prevention efforts across the nation. Through Let's Move!, leaders in business, health care, community, and government have joined educators, childcare providers, faith leaders, chefs and many others to have a meaningful, positive impact on the health of our nation's youth. This month, Let's Move! highlighted their accomplishments from the past three years on their blog.

Here's a snapshot of some Let's Move! milestones and collaborations from the past 12 months:

• Disney announced that it will require all food and beverage products advertised, sponsored, or promoted on various Disney-owned media channels and online destinations and theme parks to meet nutritional guidelines that align with federal standards to promote fruit and vegetables and limit calories, sugar, sodium, and saturated fat by 2015.
• In support of Team USA at the 2012 Olympic Games, the US Olympic Committee and several of its national governing bodies provided beginner athletic programming for free or low cost to more than 1.7 million kids in 2012.
• The Department of Defense (DOD) announced dramatic improvements to nutrition standards for the $4.65 billion worth of food purchased every year for our troops and their families. For the first time in 20 years, DOD is updating their nutritional standards to include more fresh fruits, vegetables, whole grains, lean meats, and low-fat dairy products with every meal.
• The First Lady celebrated a series of new collaborations to supports Let's Move! Cities, Towns and Counties. Organizations such as the National League of Cities and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation committed new resources to help hundreds of local elected officials advance the goals of Let's Move! in their communities. More than 150 local elected officials have committed to the goals of the initiative.
  
• Throught the PHA "Play Streets," the Blue Cross Blue Shield Association funded street-closings to increase safe places for families to play. These areas are called "Play Streets" - city streets where kids and families can run, walk, bike, or play outside freely without traffic. In 2013, at least four Play Streets per city/town in 10 cities and towns across the country will be funded.
• In August 2012, the First Lady hosted the first-ever Kids' State Dinner celebrating healthy lunchtime recipes created by kids. The First Lady, along with Epicurious, USDA, and the Department of Education, welcomed 54 young chefs from all 50 states and U.S. territories to a luncheon at the White House serving some of those healthy creations.
• The President's Council on Fitness, Sports and Nutrition updated the President's Challenge Youth Fitness Test to reflect the latest science on kids' health and promote active, healthy lifestyles rather than athletic performance and competition. The new Presidential Youth Fitness Program is a voluntary, school-based program that assesses students' fitness-based health and helps them progress over time. The new program will be implemented in 25 percent of US schools by the end of 2013, and 90 percent of US schools by 2018.
• The Partnership for a Healthier America teamed up with 157 hospitals to deliver more healthy options throughout their facilities. These hospitals have committed to work over the next three years to improve the nutrition of patient meals as well as that of the food options in on-site cafeterias. This includes more fruits, vegetables, whole grains, low-calorie options, and healthy beverages.

To learn more about Let's Move!, visit www.letsmove.gov.

Physical Activity Guidelines Midcourse Report

As we look forward to another year of robust partnerships and efforts to improve the health of America's children, the Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion, in partnership with the President's Council on Fitness, Sports and Nutrition, is happy to announce the upcoming release of the Physical Activity Guidelines for Americans Midcourse Report: Strategies to Increase Physical Activity Among Youth. This report, to be released on March 8, 2013 at the Partnership for a Healthier America Summit, highlights evidence-based intervention strategies for increasing physical activity throughout various sectors of society.

Learn more by visiting http://www.health.gov/paguidelines.

As a nation, we know that our own choices and behaviors - including physical inactivity - have contributed to rising rates of chronic disease and obesity. It seems easy enough to encourage individuals and families to engage in more physical activity. But the reality is that in many communities across the nation, making healthy choices such as getting active is not only difficult; sometimes it's not even option.

"It's not that hard," we might say. "Just go out and take a walk around your neighborhood." But what if that neighborhood doesn't have sidewalks, and is cut off from other parts of the community? What if residents in that neighborhood feel unsafe when walking around because of poor lighting or other issues? What if children can't play because of lack of space?

Confronting our nation's health crisis requires that we support individuals and communtiies in making better choices, and that we work together to address the underlying conditions and other factors - stress, poverty, social isolation, and neighborhood safety - that contribute to declining health and well-being. This is especially important for those living in communities with limited access to the tools and resources needed to attain and maintain a healthier lifestyle.

We need to make the healthy choice the easy choice by ensuring that our communities have adequate opportunities for children, families and adults to engage in healthy behaviors in all of the places where they live, work, learn, and play.

The Y, along with many other national and local organizations, is part of a growing "healthier communities" movement around the nation, bringing together community leaders and advocates to transform environments and to ensure that healthy opportunities are available to all - no matter where they live.

These collaborative efforts are making getting fit by active transportation easier by creating streets that are safe for all users whether they walk, bike or drive. They are making it easier for kids to walk to school by providing walking school buses and designated walk-to-school days. They are building or repairing parks or playgrounds, thereby providing opportunities for kids and families to play together. They are connecting communtiies by building walking and bike paths. They are ensuring that town and city plans address community design to ensure they support physical activity - and so much more.

A healthier community is a stronger community, leading not only to improved chronic disease and obesity rates, but often an improved economy. Imagine a neighborhood where businesses that struggled suddenly thrive after new street lighting makes it possible to shop at night. Imagine children playing in a new park. Imagine a new bustling town businesses district that is connected to residential neighborhoods through pedestrian and bike trails.

The possibilities are limitless, but it will take all parts of a community working together to achieve the goal of healthy communities where opportunities for physical activity benefit everyone.

What kind of barriers to physical activity might communities face? What are some things that communities can do together to overcome those barriers? Who might need to work together to help support physical activity in these communities? What ares ome of the benefits, outside of improved physical health, that healthier communities can lead to?

So many things can get between our intentions and our actions. Sometimes my desire to write—even when motivated by a firm deadline—is held at bay while I adjust the blinds, make tea, boot up and log on. Things I know I should do but haven’t fully bought into can find no end of delays and reasons not to.

So it is with exercise, for many people. But even those who know how good it feels to be physically active and who earnestly seek the health benefits of a healthy lifestyle may confront circumstances that make it inordinately difficult. I’d like to explore some of those challenges and ways to address them. The goal, as always, is to help everyone enjoy appropriate physical activity throughout the lifespan.

Perhaps you grew up in a suburban house with a generous backyard. Did you have a city park nearby? I did, and I loved to ride my bike to school—all over town, in fact, as my age and my parents’ confidence in me increased. Add schoolyard play and team sports, and I burned quite a few calories with a smile on my face. Many evenings saw robust games of Kick the Can at locations throughout the neighborhood.

What about kids who have no backyard, no nearby park and inadequate school playgrounds? Team sports aren’t an option for some, with no school leagues and no minivan to the soccer field.

Opportunities for adults vary, too. Not everyone can afford to join a health club and hire a personal trainer. Rural dwellers may live miles from the nearest facility. Membership or league fees are the barrier for some—ditto the cost of sports equipment, lessons and travel. Kids in unsafe neighborhoods may be kept indoors, snacking in front of the TV or game console.

Too often, such challenges get between healthful exercise and those who could benefit from it.

Solutions

Those who advocate for health and wellness can do much to expand opportunities for physical activity and exercise. Solutions may involve working with local officials or simple, informal collaboration. For example, can school facilities be open to the community after hours? How about pitching in to make a vacant lot into a pocket park? Neighbors, merchants and volunteers can work wonders in a day. A congregation in search of an outreach project might start a soccer league, a weekly game of kickball, or a jump-rope-a-thon.

For longer-term, larger-scale solutions, look at the impact rails-to-trails projects have had in some communities. Build paths and they will come: walking, wheeling, strolling and skating their way to fitness. Zoning laws can require sidewalks in new or redeveloped neighborhoods.

While some pursuits need costly equipment (think polo, on the high end), an active life often requires nothing more than a pair of walking shoes and your imagination.

Bottom line? Being physically active is too important to health and quality of life to let some of us go without. Let’s look at what keeps people from exercise and find ways to surmount the barriers. Now, what was I saying about writer’s block?

What barriers to physical activity confront some people in your community? How can they be overcome?