Making Hawaii a Healthier Place to Live…One Kid at a Time…
 
The nationally syndicated Kids TV series, now heading into it’s 10th year on the air has cooked up another recipe for fun and fitness.  Cookin’ With Cutty’s “Keiki Fitness Challenge” was a three month long event which challenged kids to improve their health by following a simple and effective exercise and nutrition program suggested by Cutty and the merry gang of dedicated health care professionals who participated in the development of the program. Hundreds of Keiki participants from around the state were assessed both at the beginning and the end of the program for changes (hopefully improvements) on key health indexes such as eating habits, blood pressure, body mass and body fat index and other key measurements relating to strength and flexibility. The kids with the most significant improvements in these areas will be rewarded handsomely with prizes, scholarships and one lucky (OK hard-working) Kid will even win $1000.00 cash. 

The episode and program are products of an HMSA Foundation obesity initiative designed to affect our most at-risk keiki.  It was a great experience, said Cutty, who not only hosted and produced the accompanying Cutty television episode, but also showed up at several of the testing sites to help out with the actual assessments.   In addition to several participating community health centers throughout the state, assessments were performed at schools in Hilo, after school and A+ programs in He’eia, athletic events such as Lava Man Keiki Race in Waikoloa, Tutus House in Waimea and more.  “It was really cool to be able to see first-hand how the kids have progressed over the months.  I was so excited for them.  I think they really got it.  Many of them grew stronger, more flexible and really had improved their eating habits.  Some of them even improved key health indexes such as blood pressure and body mass and body fat index, in spite of gaining height and weight as kids this age do on almost a daily basis.  I hope they were motivated in part by the awareness that our Keiki Fitness Challenge brought forth” adds Cutty.
 
“Since the kids were pretty serious about the Challenge, we thought it might be fun to mix it up and inject some humor into the episode” states producer/host Barry “Cutty” Cutler.  An old friend of Cutty’s known as Johnny Lobstar shows up on the set one day looking very out of shape and unhealthy.  The cast of kids decide to put Johnny to the “Challenge” and share all the great information they learned while participating in the program.  Little did they know how hard that would be until they could barely even wake him out of bed on the very first day of training. The gang is also “fed” healthy habits like how to stretch, warm up and workout properly as well as how to make healthy ingredient substitutions in a recipe as part of the “Cutty codes of exercise and nutrition” .  They also learn positive actions they can take on a daily basis such as avoiding too much sugar and fat, eating their 5-a-day fruits and vegetables and outlining a plan to stay healthy…all packaged as the “Cuttymitments” in the episode.  In the end, the kids still learn some very valuable lessons about taking good care of themselves as well as those around them and Johnny learns about setting and reaching goals, perseverance, patience and focus.  As usual, it’s all packaged up in an entertaining little ball of kids TV known as Cookin’ Wth Cutty.
 
The credit on this one is definitely spread around.  “It was a grass-roots effort by a group of very big-hearted people and businesses” states Cutty.  KTA Super Stores, West Hawaii Community Health Center, Kama’aina Kids, Maui Gold Pineapple, HMSA Foundation and of course OC16 all played pivotal roles in seeing this whole project through from start to finsih.  Tune in to Oceanic Time Warner's OC16 or www.oc16.tv starting Wednesday, December 26 at 6:30pm and show your support for a Healthier Hawaii too.