{"id":911,"date":"2011-06-14T23:07:10","date_gmt":"2011-06-14T23:07:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/kidnexions.com\/blog\/?p=911"},"modified":"2011-06-14T23:07:10","modified_gmt":"2011-06-14T23:07:10","slug":"optimal-performance","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.familymathnight.com\/blog\/?p=911","title":{"rendered":"Optimal Performance"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n\n
“There’s no way I want to write down everything I eat.”<\/p>\n

That comment came from my 16-year old son, Ryan, as we were driving home from his sports medicine appointment a few weeks ago.\u00a0 Ryan is a runner.\u00a0 And recently he’s been experiencing extreme lethargy after his races.\u00a0 So, naturally, as a parent, I want to figure out what’s going on.<\/p>\n

After confirming with his pediatrician, the cardiologist, and the sports medicine doctor that Ryan is healthier and in better physical condition than most kids his age, it was recommended that he talk with a sports nutritionist.\u00a0 That’s when he was asked to keep track of what he was eating.<\/p>\n

Makes sense to me.\u00a0 So I was surprised when he made the comment on the car ride home.<\/p>\n

“Is keeping a record of everything you eat that much of a hassle?” I asked him.<\/p>\n

“It’s not that,” he said.\u00a0 “It’s just too much information.\u00a0 I don’t want to know everything I eat.\u00a0 Sometimes I eat my friends’ potato chips at lunch.\u00a0 It’s not exactly healthy.”<\/p>\n

It occurred to me that ignorance is bliss.\u00a0 But ignorance often has a way of catching up with you.<\/p>\n

“Why do you suppose she asked you to keep track of what you’re eating?” I asked.<\/p>\n

“Because that’s the only way I’m going to know if I need to make changes.\u00a0 And, yes,\u00a0mom<\/em>. \u00a0I am willing to keep track of what I eat if it means I’ll be able to run a stronger\u00a0race.”\u00a0 I could feel his eyes rolling to the back of his head.<\/p>\n

“Hey,” I practically yelled,\u00a0hoping to startle him\u00a0for the eye-rolling.\u00a0 “That’s the same\u00a0reason\u00a0why we need to keep\u00a0track of our income and expenses, so we can know if we need to make changes.”<\/p>\n

No doubt about the eye-rolling this time.<\/p>\n

But this brings up an important point.\u00a0 If Ryan’s goal is optimal race performance then the more information he has, the better chance he has of getting there. \u00a0As much of a hassle as it can be to write everything down.<\/p>\n

It’s the same with money management. \u00a0If we want our money to perform optimally for us, the first step is to figure out what’s currently happening to it. \u00a0 That means keeping track. \u00a0And even though kids don’t spend a whole lot of money, you’d be surprised at how little tracking it takes before patterns in spending behavior appear.<\/p>\n

For example, discovering that the $5\u00a0he spent each week on Pokemon cards translated to $260\/year was a real eye-opener for Ryan, who was 7 years old at the time. \u00a0He became even more impressed after we showed him how that money could grow into even more money if he invested part of it. \u00a0Knowledge is power.<\/p>\n

As we were leaving the sports nutritionist’s office, she left us with this: \u00a0What\u00a0Ryan eats the day before a race or on race day doesn’t make that much of a difference.\u00a0 What’s important to his overall conditioning and performance is how he eats every day.<\/p>\n

And isn’t\u00a0it the same with money? \u00a0It’s our daily choices with money that impact our overall financial health. \u00a0If we can begin to teach our kids to pay attention to what they do with their money, assuming they get money on a regular basis accompanied with a set of expectations, we’ll be setting them up for a healthier financial future.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“There’s no way I want to write down everything I eat.” That comment came from my 16-year old son, Ryan, as we were driving home from his sports medicine appointment a few weeks ago.\u00a0 Ryan is a runner.\u00a0 And recently he’s been experiencing extreme lethargy after his races.\u00a0 So, naturally, as a parent, I want to figure out what’s going on. After confirming with his pediatrician, the cardiologist, and the sports medicine doctor that Ryan is healthier and in better…<\/p>\n

Read More Read More<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[21,24,26,39,40,33],"class_list":["post-911","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-teaching-kids-financial-literacy","tag-karyn-hodgens","tag-kids-and-finacial-literacy","tag-kids-and-money","tag-learning-money","tag-parenting","tag-teaching-kids-money-management"],"yoast_head":"\nOptimal Performance - Karyn's Blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.familymathnight.com\/blog\/?p=911\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Optimal Performance - Karyn's Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"“There’s no way I want to write down everything I eat.” That comment came from my 16-year old son, Ryan, as we were driving home from his sports medicine appointment a few weeks ago.\u00a0 Ryan is a runner.\u00a0 And recently he’s been experiencing extreme lethargy after his races.\u00a0 So, naturally, as a parent, I want to figure out what’s going on. 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