LAGUNA BEACH — Local trainer Knute Keeling wants people to know teaching children about fitness at a young age is important.

The Laguna Beach resident and father of two recently collected his fitness tips for families in "Family Fun and Fitness," a book that encourages nutritious meals and an active lifestyle.

Q. Why did you become a writer?

A. I felt I had a great message to deliver along with the fun and spirit of my family, inspired the vision for this book.

Q. 2. What is your background?

A. I own and operate a fitness training and lifestyle consulting business at the Laguna Health Club in Laguna Beach. My training business encompasses general health, disease prevention and rehabilitation therapy, as well as training for athletes of all age groups and skill levels — youth, college and professional. I have been recognized as one of Southern California's top trainers by Orange Coast Magazine.

I also deliver corporate health and wellness lectures designed to give employees tools for staying fit and healthy, even when traveling. I can be found most mornings and afternoons at the Laguna Health Club with my wonderful clients. However, I consider this to be my second job; my first and favorite job is that of an involved and passionate parent. I have been married for nine wonderful years to my wife, Nikki; and have two beautiful daughters, Cameron, 8, and Kianna, 6.

Q. Who do you consider your audience?

A. I consider my audience to be every parent that cares about the health of their children and their own health.

Q. Tell us about your book.

One of the most important jobs parents have is to pass healthy eating and exercise habits on to their children. But parents are up against some formidable adversaries conspiring to keep their kids — and too often themselves — from getting the physical activity and nutritious foods their bodies need. As a result, one in three American children is overweight or obese. This isn't too big of a surprise, considering that more than half of adults in the United States are overweight or obese as well.

In "Family Fun and Fitness," I show how to flex creative muscles and start taking control of your family's health. My approach to healthy eating and fitness, in this easy-to-use guide suited for moms-to-be and parents of infants through elementary school children, focuses on cultivating an early love of physical activity and wholesome, healthy foods…Your kids will never want to stop making those healthy choices.

The Fit Family Plan is packed with fun ways to make nutrient-dense whole foods and exercise a central positive aspect of the family life. The plan focuses on the formative years when the stage for optimum nutrition and fitness is being set. At each stage, I tell parents what food and nutrients to promote and which to avoid, what age-appropriate activities to encourage and which to limit, and what roadblocks to expect and simple strategies to use for getting around them. For Parents, I include nutritional advice and easy, full-body workout routines with photos to help pregnant mothers, new moms, and busy parents stay fit and energized — and best of all teach their children by their own good example.

Q. What are you saying in your book? What message are you trying to get out?

That American children — and adults — are getting fatter and unhealthier with each passing year. Parents have to set the example for their kids if they're to eat healthfully and stay fit. Children can't change sedentary lifestyles, poor exercise habits, or eating habits on their own. They need direction, encouragement, and strong involvement from parents to be successful in moving toward better habits. The equation for "Family Fun and Fitness" is simple: healthy, active parents equal healthy, active kids.

A. What do you hope readers take away from your book?

I know readers will take away an opportunity to be inspired and make better choices for their family. It also gives families the power to create a home environment more conducive to healthier lifestyle. I hope readers also take away the importance of taking more time enjoying one another together as a family. I think "Family Fun and Fitness" will give readers ways to be active that are so much fun and satisfying, energizing, and enriching that the activity becomes a part of the family's traditions and habits, not something done just to try to lose weight.

Q. Where can people get your book?

A. You can purchase the book from amazon.com, barnesandnoble.com or you can visit my Web site at fitnessforfamilyfun.com

In the context of the current health care debate, I note with pleasure that my friend Knute Keeling has written a splendid and timely book. It's called Family Fun and Fitness: Getting Healthy and Staying Healthy -- Together, and its sub-subtitle is Eat Your Best, Be Your Fittest: How to Hook Your Family on a Plan for Lifelong Good Health. Hmmm. I guess it doesn't sound like something you'd immediately grab for from the bookstore shelf, but believe me, what the title lacks in zappy shelf-appeal, it makes up for in honesty and clarity. This book is exactly what it says it is -- including the fun part.

Absent in good part from the health care debate (a notable exception is the comedian Bill Maher) has been any sustained talk about personal responsibility. The media have in recent months made a lot of the fact that we're a tubby and sedentary nation--well, more truthfully, obese--and that we have been getting tubbier and more sedentary by the decade. Even President Barack Obama, in what I thought was an otherwise brilliant speech to both houses of Congress on the urgent national issue of health care reform, did not take the opportunity to issue a rousing call to Americans to stop smoking, lose weight, eat better, and exercise more frequently. He and his wife, Michelle, have certainly made efforts to set the good example, particularly with their much-publicized White House organic vegetable garden and their public concern for the health and well-being of our nation's children. (I wish Obama were able to announce categorically that he has overcome his addiction to cigarettes, but all I've heard on that front is the cautious suggestion that he only sneaks one here and there ... ) We know that if we were all, as a nation, to take personal responsibility for getting and staying healthy, the costs of health care would soon cease to skyrocket as they have been doing, and the additional cost of covering our millions of uninsured would surely be covered by the savings.

Which brings me back to Knute's book. In the interests of full disclosure the author is--as I noted--a friend, and I have been among the many grateful clients of his training services at our local gym. As a former athlete and a trainer, he knows a lot about the human body and how to keep it fit. With Family Fun, he makes his expertise available to anyone who will listen--and I hope that many people will. His message is an important one: in an initial chapter on "Kids in Crisis", he offers a frightening and well-documented analysis of the state of our children's health, along with a persuasive argument that there are constructive, do-able ways in which this crisis can be addressed. (Take a look at that impossibly beautiful and healthy family on the cover. It's Knute's. The guy with the blond, Viking good looks -- that's the man himself. The fun those children are having as they romp with their parents on the beach is surely genuine.)

Okay, about the content. I was impressed with the breadth and depth of knowledge that the author shares with us. He is up-to-date with the relevant information and statistics in the fields of medicine and social sciences, and he draws on that knowledge to underscore the urgent need for families to change those ways that are proven to be destructive of not only health but happiness. Knute understands the psychological and emotional implications of good health -- and the lack of it -- and argues for a program that will benefit not just the body, but the body-mind. Can there be any doubt but that children who are healthy, secure in their homes, and loved by those around them will do better in school -- and later, in the course of their lives -- than those who lack these early benefits?

Knute starts at the beginning, writing about pre-pregnancy, pregnancy, and the earliest days and weeks of life. With two little ones of his own to have observed, nurtured, and loved, he understands the needs of small children and how they are best addressed. Prime among his concerns, of course, are what goes into the body, how it gets processed into energy, and how that energy can be used for beneficial ends. He makes it all not only very practical but also very practicable. What he proposes can be done by any family with the commitment to a healthy life.

I'm no expert on exercise and nutrition, so I'm not going to attempt a synopsis of Knute's regimen. He takes a good look at the quality of food at the family table, with an emphasis on whole foods and offers some sound, sympathetic advice on how to approach the issue of junk foods with children who are exposed to the daily assault of advertisement and peer pressure. His chapters on exercise underscore the importance of flexibility as well as strength, providing easy-to-follow instructions for practices that can be followed without adding to the burdens of a busy, stress-filled day. The accompanying illustrations work nicely as visual aids to the text. I'll confess I have not tried any of the recipes included in the appendix as healthy and tasty alternatives to the fast food habits to which so many of us are addicted.

We are reminded forcefully by the current heated debate about health care that we are, as a nation, doing a generally pretty poor job of taking care of the bodies we have been given to inhabit for the course of our earthly lives. And we know, don't we, that it all boils down to a matter of choice. We can respect our bodies and live healthy lives, or abuse them, and succumb to the life-shortening ill-effects of overweight, lethargy, and disease. This book holds out the opportunity for the better choices, and makes the bad ones inexcusable for any truly loving family. One of its more delightful aspects is that, beyond being a simple how-to tome, the book is a lovely testament to the author's devotion to his own family. And while it is expressly written for those with young families, its content offers invaluable advice to people of all ages and conditions. I'm personally looking forward to the sequel ... for grandparents, like myself!