September always feels like a fresh start to me. The mornings get a little cooler, the calendars fill back up, and families everywhere are finding their rhythm again. It's a season of new routines, and I think that makes it a wonderful time to pause and ask how we're caring for ourselves and the people we love.
This month, we're focusing on our kids and teens. The truth is, the young people in our lives are always watching and learning from us, not just from what we say, but from how we eat, how we rest, how we move, and how we talk about our own bodies. That's a big responsibility, but it's also a beautiful opportunity. Small, gentle changes at home can shape habits that last a lifetime.
As you read this month's articles, I hope you'll be kind to yourself. None of us gets this perfect, and that's okay. Health isn't about getting everything right. It's about showing up, one small choice at a time, with patience and love.
We're also kicking off a new Q4 Gleaning Challenge and invite you to help us glean food to feed the hungry families in your community.
Thank you for being part of our community. I'm so grateful we get to take this journey together.
Warmly, Yon
In this issue:
Shift the Spotlight From Looks to Abilities
Retire the Word
"Diet" at Home
Improving Teen Body Confidence
Watch Your Mirror Talk
Featuring our Q4 Non-Profit Partner: Forestr
Healthtek Gleaning Challenge
Building the +Health community.
Join the Q4 gleaning challenge, and your steps, hikes, walks, bike rides, and more can help feed families in need. What is gleaning, you ask? Forestr.org gleans fresh fruits and vegetables year-round. The produce is delivered directly to food banks, pantries, and, in some cases, individuals in need. Together, our donors and volunteers form a powerful partnership—helping to feed your community while reducing food waste. A simple act of sharing can make an extraordinary impact on someone’s life.
Here's a thought for back-to-school season. Kids learn how to feel about their bodies long before anyone gives them a health class. They learn it at the dinner table, in the car, and in the bathroom mirror when they catch you sighing at yours. This month we're tackling two topics that often get handled separately: teen body confidence and childhood weight, because they're really the same conversation. The question isn't "How does your body look?" It's "What can your body do, and how do we take care of it?"
Will your teen listen? Most do, even if they give you a "not now, Mom" type of response.
Teens are growing up in a hall of mirrors, except the mirrors have filters and a comment section. A 2026 meta-analysis found that greater social media use was significantly associated with poorer body image and eating disorder symptom outcomes among adolescents, and boys aren't immune, with one study finding that boys and girls in their sample did not differ in attitudes about their bodies. The antidote isn't telling a fourteen-year-old "you look fine," which lands about as well as "because I said so." It's shifting the scoreboard. Celebrate the legs that made the soccer team, the lungs that got through choir tryouts, the hands that finally nailed that guitar chord. The research backs this up. In one study of teens, participants in both leisure and competitive sports reported greater body appreciation, higher self-esteem, and lower body dissatisfaction than non-participants. And it doesn't have to be varsity anything. Pickup basketball, dance class, or a weekend hike all count. When a body becomes a tool for living instead of an object to be judged, confidence has somewhere solid to stand.
Sources: Relation Between Social Media Use and Body Image Concerns and Disordered Eating in Adolescence: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis, What a New Study Reveals About Selfies and Teenage Body Image, and Examining Body Appreciation and Disordered Eating In Adolescents of Different Sports Practice: Cross-Sectional Study
Retire the Word
"Diet" at Home
Now the harder number to talk about.
The CDC reports that about 21.1% of children and teenagers ages 2 to 19 are living with obesity, the highest on record.
It's tempting to respond by putting a kid "on a diet," but singling out one child tends to backfire, feeding shame instead of health. And this was never just about willpower, since obesity prevalence increased as family income decreased, which tells us access, time, and stress play huge roles. Movement is part of the picture too, with only 20% to 28% of 6- to 17-year-olds getting the recommended 60 minutes of daily physical activity. Screens aren't helping. Among teens, regular physical activity dropped from 70.4% for those with two hours or less of screen time to 54.4% for those with four hours or more. The better play is changing the environment, not the child.
One easy win is the dinner table. A study of more than 155,000 kids across 43 countries found that having family meals every day is associated with a lower likelihood of excess weight or obesity compared to never having family meals. So make the whole household's defaults healthier with shared meals, family walks after dinner, a fruit bowl that's more visible than the snack cabinet, screens out of bedrooms, and sleep treated as non-negotiable. Nobody gets singled out. Everybody gets healthier.
If you want more ideas on how to approach your kids around this difficult topic, we invite you to visit the Resiliency Network for a complete library of tips and helpful articles to choose from.
Take five minutes to reset your mind. Our interactive breathing, mindfulness, relaxation, and meditation activities make it easy to reduce stress, recharge your focus, and improve your emotional well-being. Just a few minutes each day can help you feel calmer, more centered, and ready for whatever comes next.
Improving teen body confidence - The teenage years bring physical and emotional changes that can affect how teens feel about their bodies. Building body confidence can encourage self-compassion, healthier habits and a more positive self-image.
Many of us have kids, and our kids are recording everything they hear and observe.
Every "I can't eat that, I'm being bad" and "ugh, look at my arms" becomes part of their script. And it's not only how we talk about ourselves. Researchers found that when mothers engage in fat talk about individuals with higher weight, their adolescents are more likely to experience body dissatisfaction and less likely to have positive body esteem. Teasing is even worse, with one study finding weight-teasing by family members was the strongest and most consistent correlate of problematic weight-related outcomes, even when it's meant as a joke.
The Good News
The good news is that positive input works too: one study found that exposure to body-positive content reduced body dissatisfaction and the tendency to compare appearance. You are your kid's most-followed account. Talk about food as fuel and fun, not good and evil. Talk about exercise as something that makes you feel strong and clear-headed, not something you "owe" for last night's pizza.
The Key Takeaway
Healthy kids aren't built through lectures, weigh-ins or clever reverse psychology. They're built in homes where moving is fun, meals are shared, sleep is protected, and bodies are appreciated for what they do. Start small, start together, and start now. That's what intentionally actioning your health looks like, for every generation under your roof.
I hope you can connect with your kids on topics important to their health in a way that resonates with love and good intentions. Even the most difficult conversations can be conveyed with positivity and care.
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