Did you know that because of the childhood obesity epidemic, it is predicted that today’s children will be the first generation with a shorter lifespan than their parents?

Not only is reduced physical activity affecting children’s health, but it also affects their learning ability. They just don’t learn well unless they are getting exercise. The body and the brain work together. Teachers say that when the kids don’t get the physical release of energy from exercise, they struggle at learning. There’s a lot of scientific evidence to back this.

Last year I introduced you to Break Pal, an great application, delivered to your desktop via a Yahoo widget. This app guides you through micro workouts throughout your work day. Well now the developers of Break Pal have developed an app for teachers to use in classrooms to add physical activity throughout their school day.

Right now Break Pal is a finalist in First Lady Michelle Obama’s “apps for
healthy kids” contest. This contest has been highly publicized and is being
promoted by the White House and the USDA.

If Break Pal wins, the First Lady will help them spread Break Pal to classrooms across the country. Together we can literally helps millions of children and people who work at desks, and Break Pal’s application is the only one to integrate exercise into the day and also
teach about nutrition.

Unfortunately, Break Pal is very small organization. Just Phil Weaver and his wife, Liz. They bootstrapped the entire project and built the app without outside funding. They are competing against huge national corporations and unfortunately they are using their marketing power to garner votes for their apps and are leaving Break Pal in the dust. Some of them have PR firms working for them to get votes and Phil’s sure many ask their hundreds of employees to vote.

This is where you come in…Phil is hoping to harness the power of social media to get the word out and the votes coming in. The voting only takes about 90 seconds…you do need to register your email address to vote.

Phil is going to give out a premium version to anyone who votes for their app! You just have to contact him at phil.weaver@thesitemechanics.com and tell him you voted and he’ll give you a premium account. No catch. A free premium account and a thank you for voting. This is a win-win! You can use Break Pal to get healthier while helping Break Pal push for a win and help the kids of America get healthy too!

Easy voting instructions (this will take less than 90 seconds):

1) The fastest way to vote is to go directly to the registration page first.

https://www.appsforhealthykids.com/register

2) You’ll then need to confirm your email address (don’t worry they won’t spam you)

3) Go directly to Break Pal’s app and click vote
http://www.appsforhealthykids.com/application-gallery/break-pal

4) Bonus – Share on facebook and twitter.

Then email Phil (phil.weaver@thesitemechanics.com) and tell him you voted…and that The Mom Maven sent you!

Leave me a comment here and let me know you voted too! Thanks for voting!

The post Vote to Help End Childhood Obesity appeared first on The Mom Maven.

This tool is Break Pal. Break Pal is a new application that delivers micro workouts to your desktop via a yahoo widget. You set how often you want to do your 3 minute micro workouts, you can chose 15, 30, 45 or 60 minute intervals. When it is time to work out the alert pops up and tells you it is time to work out. Click on the pop up and it takes you to your exercise choices, click on your choice and workout with Liz.

Break Pal is also a social network where you can meet other peple who workout at their desks just like you. It adds a fun way to be accountable to others, another aspect that keeps us motivated to work out.

I know, now you are thinking, this sounds great Cindy but how much does all this cost? Break Pal costs $9.95 a month (I’ve paid a lot more than that on gym memberships that I never really used!) But… Break Pal has given me 1, 2, 3, 4, 5! A total of 5 full,  no expiration memberships! That is worth $119.40 a year!!

How to enter:

Main entry visit Break Pal then come back here and leave me a comment telling me what about having a Break Pal membership excites you the most.

Bonus Entries in addition to your main entry-leave a separate comment for each one you complete

• Tweet about this giveaway using this message “Exercise at your desk with @MomMaven and Break Pal. Enter to win here 1 of 5 memberships here http://tinyurl.com/cgcjby Pls RT”put the tweet URL in your comment
• Sign up to use Gravatar. I like to see who I am connecting with http://en.gravatar.com/
• Blog about this giveaway and post the link in your comment

This giveaway will end Tuesday 5/5/09 at 10:00pm Good Luck!

The post Break Pal Review and Giveaway appeared first on The Mom Maven.