The Alliance for a Healthier Generation, sponsored by the American Heart Association and William J. Clinton Foundation and dedicated to battling childhood obesity, has issued eight ways families can get fit together. We list those eight ways below and go one step further, suggesting specific ways you can make this happen NOW! Meaning this week now.

• Take a walk. Stroll together after a family meal or walk around the mall when it’s cold or raining. Just walking in your neighborhood is great exercise; as we mentioned yesterday, living in North Carolina means your neighborhood may be a little more interesting than you think. And if your kids think walking is boring, bring along some props to liven things up. When our kids were smaller, we’d often set out for a neighborhood “walk” with skateboards, rollerblades, a Ripstik and a Trikke, swapping toys along the way.
• Choose an outing. Spend a weekend afternoon going to a pool, skating rink or basketball court. Right now, with winterlike temperatures, a good bet in this part of the country is a visit to your local North Carolina State Park. At Crowders Mountain near Charlotte, for instance, you can scramble about at The Boulders access area. In Wilmington there’s Carolina Beach, where there’s a unique collection of carnivorous plants. The Triangle has miles of hiking at Eno River and Umstead, while the Triad has great views from atop Pilot Mountain and Hanging Rock.
• Take breaks. Try to fit in 10 to 15 minutes of rigorous physical activity several times a day. At our house, we call it, “Hey kids, let’s go play in the street!” time. We live at the end of a cul de sac, the perfect arena for kickball and Whiffleball and, more often, a combination of the two.
• Team up. Have the family sign up for a group run, walk or car wash. You don’t have to run a 5K, you just need to finish it. And even if you don’t think you can walk 3.1 miles, odds are that once you get caught up in the pomp, pagentry and comradery of a typical 5K, the miles will pass before you know it. Upcoming 5Ks around the state (we’ll give you a couple weeks of training to get ready): 4th Annual Sweetheart 5K and 1-Mile Family Fun Run, Rocky Mount, Feb. 4; 32nd Annual Run for the Roses, Raleigh, Feb. 11, Frostbike 5K, 10K and 1-Mile Family Fun Run, Hendersonville, Feb. 19, St. Leo’s School 5K, Winston-Salem, March 17, Winter Classic 8K and Kids Run, Charlotte, January 28.
• Limit TV. Select which shows kids will watch ahead of time and limit screen time to just those programs. A good first step: No screens in your kids’ rooms.
• Join a club. Buy a family membership to a town recreation center, YMCA or health club. Better yet, join a family-fitness-oriented Meetup group. And if you can’t find one in your area, start one. Start the process here.
• Learn something new. Have family members take a lesson in an activity, such as martial arts, fencing or gymnastics. Opportunities abound at your local parks and rec department. In Raleigh, for instance, you can learn the above as well as how to scale a mountain or right a flipped kayak, among a myriad of other things. Track down your local parks and rec department here.
• Chores count. Working together around the house or in the yard is another way families can stay active. Yes, kids, it’s true: Working around the house can be good for you. And parents, you can use this as an alternative if the kids balk at taking a hike or a Whiffleball break.

Scrub the toilet vs. playing kickball? We’re guessing you won’t have a problem.

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Today is National Start! Walking Day, deemed so by the American Heart Association. Today, over your lunch “hour,” the AHA wants you to get up from your desk and take a 30-minute walk — a 30-minute walk-a-day being the AHA’s prescription for better heart health (in addition to yielding a host of other benefits). And if the boss raises an eyebrow and says, “Whoa! Bumstead! Where do you think you’re going?”, the AHA has a succinct elevator speech for you to deliver:

Poor diet and lack of exercise are responsible for at least 25 percent of health care costs incurred by working adults. Is it any wonder, then, that investing in the health of employees is one of the best decisions a company can make?

By the time Mr. Dithers can come up with a response, you’re out the door. And if he tries to corner you upon your return, tell him to go here.

Heart disease, the AHA points out, is the nation’s No. 1 killer. They have a simple equation to combat that statistic: Walking more + eating better = living a longer, healthier life.

To help ensure that today’s walk isn’t a one-time deal, the AHA has created a Web site, startwalkingnow.org, offering various tools to help you incorporate walking and eating better into your daily routine. For starters, there’s a community where you can chat with other folks trying to live healther lives. There are maps of walks in your area that others recommend (you can recommend one, too). A tracker helps you keep tabs on your progress. There are a slew of helpful resources on nutrition. And if you need a goal in addition to feeling great, there’s a rundown of nationwide Heart Walks (there are 10 in North Carolina) to raise awareness of, and money for the fight against heart disease. (And if you want even more incentive along this line don’t forget about the March of Dimes March for Babies walks.)

So take advantage of your free pass from the American Heart Association and take a 30-minute walk at lunch today.

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A study presented at the American Heart Association‘s recent Nutrition, Physical Activity and Metabolism/Cardiovascular Disease Epidemiology and Prevention 2011 Scientific Sessions underscores what shouldn’t be surprising: added sugars contribute to weight gain. Data accumulated as part of the 27-year-long Minnesota Heart Survey, a surveillance study of adults ages 25 to 74 living in the Minneapolis-St. Paul metropolitan area, showed a relationship between added sugars and body mass index. Seven surveys of the adults, ages 25 to 74, participating in the Minnesota Heart Survey were taken over its course, beginning in 1980. Here are the key findings:

• Added sugars intake increased along with BMI levels in both men and women and in all age groups.
• In the 2007-09 survey, the last conducted, men consumed about 15.3 percent of their daily calories from added sugars, representing a substantial 37.8 percent increase from 1980-82. (The American Heart Association recommends that no more than half of your daily discretionary calories be derived from added sugars.)
• Among women, added sugars intake changed from 9.9 percent of total calories in 1980-82 to 13.4 percent of total calories in 2007-09.
  Women consumed less added sugars than men, while younger adults consumed more added sugars than older adults.

Added sugars are sugars and syrups added to foods during processing, preparation, or at the table (for types of added sugars, consult your U.S. Department of Agriculture, here). Reducing them can be relatively simple, since they must be included in the nutritional labeling required for most foods. While the amounts of added sugars aren’t specified, ingredients are listed in descending order, by weight (more on that here from our friends at the Harvard School of Public Health). Thus, if you pick up a bottle of ketchup, you’ll likely find that after the main ingredient of tomato products, you’ll find two or three different kinds of sugars. Note, too, that just because a bottle of ketchup may boast that it doesn’t contain high fructose corn syrup, it may make up for that absence with more sugar — and in fact may have more calories and calories from fat.

Tricky stuff, this checking for added sugars. But with a little diligence and help from the sources cited above, you can work this week to limit these intruders in your diet.

For more on assorted health concerns created by added sugars, here’s what the folks at the Mayo Clinic have to say.

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But what if you’re not a runner? What if a nice, long walk is more your pace? Are there any events where you can walk for a good cause?

Truth is, most charity runs have — and embrace — walkers. The Komen Race for the Cure is an ideal marriage of easygoing and going for gold. Held in early June (June 11 this year in Raleigh), the event is a target race for spring 5K training programs, yet the vast majority of the tens of thousands of Komen participants walk. And the folks who finish at the rear of the pack after a nice walk get the same T-shirt as the podium aspirants who won’t settle for anything less than a PR.

Still, sometimes you want a walk. You want to avoid the competitive air that accompanies most 5Ks, the stampede at the front of the pack, the aid stations where the fleet-of-foot before you have left a spray of crumpled paper cups, the hard bodies who look like they train in their sleep. You want a more serene, settled, slower experience.

You want an event such as the March of Dimes March for Babies.

Perhaps because it’s not a run, the March for Babies has a lower profile. Yet there are more than 900 MFB events annually (including 31 in North Carolina) that draw 7 million participants. Since 1970, the marches have raised more than $2 billion, according to March of Dimes. Which brings us to those two good causes worth walking for.

One, the cause itself. In the case of March for Babies, funds raised go toward the March of Dimes work on behalf of babies. Just knowing you’re helping babies should be enough, but here are specific ways March money aides babies, according to the March of Dimes:

• Helped to identify a gene responsible for oral cleft, which has enabled MOD to work on ways to prevent the condition.
• Provide folic acid education to expectant mothers, reducing incidence of neural tube defects.
• Promote prenatal care, which can help prevent premature births and give babies brains the 39 weeks they need to fully develop.
• Help prevent vision problems, heart defects, lung issues in premature babies.

The second cause the March for Babies will benefit?

You.

Walking is the most popular form of exercise in the country and it’s healthy benefits are too numerous to mention. You don’t need special equipment (even shoes are optional), it doesn’t take much time (a minimum of 30 minutes a day will do it), and you can do it just about anywhere (remember how our friend Kim Feth started her triathlon training?).

If you’re not walking now, you’ve got time to build up to a 5K before the March for Babies events get going (most aren’t until mid- to late April, some aren’t until the fall). You can get tips on starting a walking program from the American Heart Association and the Mayo Clinic. Peer support is helpful for a lot of folks launching an exercise program. In the case of the March for Babies, you can form a family team, a school team, a company team. (If you can’t find a team, Blue Cross Blue Shield of North Carolina would be happy to have you join theirs, which will be participating in the April 30 march in Durham.)

Start training now for a March for Babies walk and you could be ready come late October for the grandmother of all walks, the AvonWalk for Breast Cancer,  a two-day event that covers 39 miles. (The Charlotte walk is Oct. 22-23 and kicks off April 30 with a training walk and spring expo.)

So start walking. Think of all the good it could do.

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Here’s a list of the 31 March of Babies walks scheduled for North Carolina this year. For more information on a specific event, go here.

Buncombe County (Asheville)
April 23
(828) 258-1234

Brunswick
May 21
(910) 452-1515

Boone
April 17
(828) 464-8905

Charlotte
April 30
(704) 377-2009

Triangle (Durham)
April 30
(919) 781-2481

Eden
April 30
(336) 723-4386

Elizabeth City
April 30
(757) 361-0000

Tri-City (Elkin)
April 16
(336) 723-4386

Fayetteville
April 16
(910) 483-3691

Macon County
October 1
(828) 258-1234

Greensboro
April 30
(336) 723-4386

Greenville
May 14
(919) 781-2481

Henderson County (Hendersonville)
September 10
(828) 258-1234

Hickory
May 14
(828) 464-8905

High Point
April 2
(336) 723-4386

Haywood County
May 7
(828) 258-1234

Laurinburg
June 4
(910) 483-3691

Lenoir
April 30
(828) 464-8905

Lumberton
May 21
(910) 483-3691

Outer Banks/Dare Cnty
May 7
(757) 361-0000

Alamance County (Mebane)
April 9
(919) 781-2481

Crystal Coast
May 7
(910) 452-1515

Mount Airy
May 14
(336) 723-4386

Salisbury
September 10
(828) 464-8905

Cleveland County (Shelby)
October 1
(704) 377-2009

Forest City
April 9
(828) 464-8905

Statesville
April 16
(828) 464-8905

Whiteville
September 24
(910) 452-1515

Wilkesboro
May 21
(828) 464-8905

New Hanover,Pender,Duplin
April 30
(910) 452-1515

Winston-Salem
April 16
(336) 723-4386

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Like a lot of guys, I was motivated years ago to lead an aerobic, heart-healthy life based on a family history of heart disease. Male family members on both sides went before their time because of heart attacks. For my dad’s generation, a heart attack was considered an almost inevitable rite of passage. I wanted to bypass the bypass, to live long and be active, so I paid attention early on. In a way, being a guy I was fortunate to have this heads-up at an early age.

Unfortunately, while heart attacks used to be a guy thing, they have, of late, become equal opportunity debilitators. Heart disease is the No. 1 killer of women 20 and older, according to the American Heart Association. One of three women die of heart disease compared to 1 in 30 who die of breast cancer, more women die of heart disease than from the next four causes of death combined, 90 percent of women exhibit one or more risk factors for developing heart disease. Not good numbers.

There is, however, one good number, according to the AHA: 80. That’s the percent of “cardiac events” in women that could be prevented through diet, exercise and abstinence from smoking.

Willing to take your chances that you’re in the 10 percent of women not exhibiting one or more of the risk factors for heart disease? Why not be 100 percent sure of that 10 percent by taking five minutes to run through this list of risk factors complied by the American Heart Association.

And if it turns out you’re not exempt, take a few more minutes and visit GoRedForWomen.org, a  site created by the American Heart Association devoted to informing the 90 percent of women at risk about how they can reduce that risk. Even if you are one of the fortunate 10 percent, visit the site anyway: there’s a 30-second video clip featuring Betty White. And 30 seconds with Betty White can only do your heart good.

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