From Your Health Journal…..”Childhood obesity has been a major topic on this blog for years, and we know there is a serious problem facing the youth of the world. A local NBC station in Portland wrote an excellent story about one company making a difference where they combine fitness and technology. As you know, technology is one of the major components to the increase of obesity. So, integrating both fitness and technology seems like a great idea. I encourage you all to visit this NBC site to view the video on this topic, as well as some of their other great stories.”

From the article…..

From video games, to computer time to time in front of the television, technology has been blamed for our increasingly sedentary lifestyle.

Now a small North Carolina company is changing that by turning technology into an impetus for active play in children.

Sqord is a combination computer game, social network and real world exercise.

Coleman Greene is a co-founder.

“Our idea is not to say that technology is the problem, but rather embrace it, and say that it can be part of the solution,” he says.

Kids wear a practically indestructible power band that contains a 3-axis accelerometer.

It tracks their physical activity throughout the day, capturing a range of motion, duration and intensity.

“Then you swipe it over a little bay station, which plugs into the side of a computer, then wirelessly uploads to our website,” Greene explains.

On the website kids see which of their friends “Sqord” the most exercise in a day.

Although bragging rights are involved, kids can only communicate with their friends by selecting a pre-determined list of positive phrases and virtual high fives.

Sqord targets the 8- to 13-year old crowd.

Childhood obesity experts say it’s during this time period that physical activity plummets.

To read the full article and see video…..Click here