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First Lady Michelle Obama: Hi, Patches and Lisa, thank you so much for the question.
The inspiration for starting Let's Move really came from my
own experiences as a mother.
Before moving into the White House,
the President and I were working parents,
we both had jobs outside of the home, our kids were young,
we had very busy schedules, and we were finding that we were
having trouble preparing nutritious meals.
And our kids were snacking probably more than they should
have, we were eating out more often than we needed to.
And our pediatrician pulled me aside when the kids were pretty
young and said, you may want to watch their body mass index
levels, because he saw a little uptick that was concerning.
And I had never thought about this issue at all.
And I knew then and there I needed to make some changes.
And we made some very minor changes in our household,
things like eliminating sugary drinks,
getting the kids to eat -- to drink more water and to eat more
vegetables, and replacing sort of the fun snacks with healthier
snacks that were just as good.
My kids were always active, but really finding the time to cook
a good meal once, twice, three times a week was essential,
and we saw changes right away.
And I sort of thought, well, if I'm having this kind of problem
and, you know, I'm probably as informed as anyone is,
what's going on in communities where parents don't really know
these trends are happening, how are they dealing with these,
and I thought then and there that I would, you know,
take on this issue as First Lady,
really believing that parents, we all want to do the best for
our kids, but if we don't have the information and we don't
understand that the issue is real,
then it's very difficult for us to focus on it.
So my goal through Let's Move is to really engage our nation in a
conversation about an issue that is really impacting the health
and future of our kids, and to inform parents to give them the
power and the resources and the information to make good
decisions about how their kids eat.
So that was really how we all started.
And the goal has really been to elevate this issue so that
everybody understands that it's real,
that one out of three of our children are now overweight or
obese, and we're going to see those health effects,
not just on the cost to our nation as a whole,
but on our children's lives and their futures,
their ability to engage actively in the world and pursue their
dreams in the future.
And I know I want the best for my kids,
and I'm no different from any other mother out there or father
out there who wants the best for their kids.
So with the power of information and the help of a nation,
I think we can really stem the tide and really change the
trajectory for the next generation of kids.
So thanks for the question.