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Sports Movies to Inspire that “Go For the Gold” Feeling

February 20, 2014 By Robin Strong Elton Leave a Comment

It’s hard to beat a person who never gives up.
―Babe Ruth

Disclosure: I’m a member of the Netflix Stream Team, and they’ve equipped our family with a streaming account to drive discussion.

So, like pretty much everybody else, we’ve been watching the Olympics. (We take the Games seriously. Check out the Elton Family Extreme Winter Olympics 2010 here.)

We think Bobsleigh is fun to say (BOBSLEIGH!!) and the double luge is insane (the guy on the bottom does the bulk of the steering, but he can’t see the track, did you know that?!), and I was only able to bear a little bit of the ice skating (I HATE when they fall, I feel so terrible for them).

I was thinking about what sets the Olympics apart from other televised sports. Partially it’s the global aspect, and partially it’s the sports we don’t get to see every day (the world clearly needs more curling). But mostly I think it’s the emphasis on The Dream, the working together for this moment, the uplifting backstories, the overwhelming positivity, versus the focus on negativity, the missed shots, the rivalries that you see in most pro sport coverage.

It’s a lovely thing to focus on: how a dream, a support system, teamwork, and a whole lot of determination and hard work can mean a moment of a lifetime, even if you don’t get the gold. And if you fail, well, your whole country feels your pain. (Probably a lot of others, too.)

After the Games are over, after the ice and snow melt so the kids can’t pretend to compete in speed skating or BOBSLEIGH!! for another year, you can still keep that enjoyment of athletic competition, perseverance and go-for-the-gold spirit going by watching some of these movies as a family (they’re all available on Netflix streaming).

I can personally vouch for the Air Bud movies; my brother loved these when he was young and my daughter has watched every one in existence. I have some issues with plot lines with holes you could drive a Peterbilt truck through, but they definitely reinforce the feeling of teamwork and anything can happen if you try. (And, of course, it’s really fun to watch a dog play ball. Any kind of ball.)

1. The Short Game
2. The Kid
3. The Pistol
4. A Mile in His Shoes
5. Winning Favor

6. The Mighty Macs
7. Like Mike 2: Streetball
8. Air Bud: World Pup
9. Air Bud: Seventh Inning Fetch
10. Air Bud Spikes Back

They’ll help inspire your kids to imagine themselves as Olympic hopefuls, whatever their sport may be.

Cass hasn’t decided yet.

Adults and older kids can extend the Olympic feeling by streaming titles like The Fabulous Ice Age (a new Netflix-only documentary that tells the history of figure skating), SEC Storied: Lolo Jones, Usain Bolt: The Fastest Man Alive, Backwards (about an Olympic-hopeful rower), and Lindsey Vonn: In the Moment.

And with any luck, the Phillies will have an inspirational season we can enjoy as a family, too!

What are your favorite Olympic events?

How about inspiring sports movies?

Bonus! Here’s a tutorial to make your own medals.

Shows to Stream During Workouts plus Fitness Tips for the Perpetually Busy

January 31, 2014 By Robin Strong Elton Leave a Comment

The secret of getting ahead is getting started.
-Mark Twain

Disclosure: I’m a member of the Netflix Stream Team, and they’ve equipped our family with a streaming account to drive discussion.

I hate running. And the elliptical machine. And the stationary bike. Did I mention I hate running?

I like CrossFit, and a large part of that is because each workout is new and interesting and challenging, with a lot of different exercises done for a short amount of time. I can do anything for 90 seconds. I can do most things for 5 minutes if I know I’m going to get a 60 second break.

But the crazy WEATHER we’ve been having lately means I can’t always get all the way into town to hit CrossFit Riverfront and I’ve learned that too many days off make returning awful. So, treadmill and elliptical and bike it is. (And the 1,000 Burpee Challenge. You’re in, right?)

The only thing that breaks up that monotony for me is something to watch on the TV to help make the time fly by. THANK GOD FOR NETFLIX. I’d be lost without it.

I love this “Exercise TV Playlist” with a breakdown of calories burned exercising while streaming your favorite shows.

Getting lost in a good show means you tend to perceive your workout as less taxing, so you’re willing to work a little harder and a little longer— maximizing the benefit of the workout and the odds you’ll keep with it over time. Pretty cool, yeah?

For me at the moment, it’s generally Sherlock and Sherlock and more Sherlock, with sides of Doctor Who, Orange is the New Black and the occasional X-Files; I’ve finally finished Breaking Bad. (Let me know in the comments what I should queue up next, I’m about due.)

The most common complaint I hear about starting a new fitness regimen is that there is no time, no time, and I hear you. I had to set my workout times in stone and adjust my life around them; otherwise I don’t think I ever would have had “enough time” to spare. There’s never “enough” time: always work to be done, dishes to wash, errands to run. You have to MAKE the time.

Here’s some more tips for those of us perpetually on a (NON-fitness) hamster wheel from celebrity fitness expert Harley Pasternak, who works with famous busy parents like Jennifer Hudson and Megan Fox:

Harley Pasternak’s Fitness Tips for Busy Parents

1. Resist: Even the busiest mom or dad can carve out at least 5 minutes to do some resistance “sculpting” exercise. Pick one exercise a day (i.e. lunge, squats, superman) and do 3-4 sets of 20 reps. Over time, add some weight and increase the sets.

2. Walk: You shouldn’t stop moving from the moment you wake up to the moment you go to bed. Use an activity monitor like a Fitbit to make sure you walk at least 10,000 steps a day. Make your phone calls as you walk around the block, park your car a little further away, take the stairs, and walk to your favorite cafe in the morning (instead of brewing your own).

3. Blend: Soups and smoothies are the perfect “on the go” meals that take only seconds to prepare. They’re a great way to get all your veggies, fruits, healthy fats and lean protein in one meal.

4. Be Entertained… But Not on the Couch: I tell all my busy parents to make sure they’re moving while watching their favorite show. Whether it be “Breaking Bad” or “House of Cards,” stream your show to your phone or tablet with Netflix and you may end up working out longer and harder!

5. Sleep: One of the most common complaints I get from parents is they are exhausted! It’s so important to get at least 7 hours of sleep a night. Parents— make sure there is no light at all in your bedroom. That means no cell phones flickering, televisions blaring or alarm clocks flashing. Studies show even the smallest amount of light can disturb your sleep patterns. Other sleep tips include avoiding caffeine after noon, wearing an eye mask and avoiding surfing the web before you fall asleep.

I wrote up some more tips for my friend Annie’s blog Mama Dweeb a while back, you can see those here.

Your turn. Best tips for fitting in fitness?

And don’t forget your streaming recommendations, you hear?

Family Movie Night

November 30, 2013 By Robin Strong Elton 1 Comment

Certain things leave you in your life and certain things stay with you.

And that’s why we’re all interested in movies- those ones that make you feel, you still think about.

Because it gave you such an emotional response,
it’s actually part of your emotional make-up, in a way.

―Tim Burton

Disclosure: I’m a member of the Netflix Stream Team, and they’ve equipped our family to stream movies for discussion.

Every weekend, we have what I call “Family Culture Night” — a movie night that involves a movie I used to love, or that stuck with me for whatever reason. Movies that have become part of my emotional make-up, that I’m hoping to also make part of my kids’ emotional DNA.

Some movies we watch because they’re funny, some because I’m forever quoting them and I’d like my kids to get at least some of my jokes, some because they had a hand in shaping who I eventually turned out to be.

This month the Netflix Stream Team was invited to watch a movie based on a book with our kids (inspired, I suspect, by the release this month of the latest in the Hunger Games series, although my older kids were more excited about Ender’s Game, which is apparently based on a book they both read and I didn’t know existed. So many games!).

I wanted to watch A Wrinkle in Time and talk about theoretical physics, as did Maverick. But I made the mistake of saying I was worried that it wouldn’t live up to the book, and I think I was sunk once I planted that idea in their mind.

Mav and I were outvoted and we watched James and the Giant Peach.

It’s funny, although I read the kids most of Roald Dahl’s offerings for children when they were novice readers, I never read any of them when I was young. Jeff did, though, so my own first experience with James and his giant peach was when Jeff wanted to see it in the theatre, back when it was first released in 1996.

It’s magical and weird, like all the movies based on Dahl’s books, but where I saw it as just plain weird at 20 years old I now see it as delightfully odd. My viewpoint has softened, having read the book and watching it with my kids’ perspective, watching Cass dance around to the songs (I had completely blocked out the fact there were songs!)

Afterwards, like with most of our “culture night” films, we talked about the movie. More etching of emotional DNA 🙂 Some thoughts we came up with:

With all truly good books, you lose something in translation when made into a film. Some of the poetry. Even when the movie is fairly true, using dialogue taken from the book’s pages, it seems stilted. Some things are so much lovelier read to yourself.
That said, some books really work as movies because the visuals add something to the story, and we think that’s true of James and the Giant Peach. It does a good job of capturing the magical and weird.
James and the Giant Peach was not directed by Tim Burton (I was sure it was!). Before, I’d attributed the common denominator of Matilda, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and Matilda to being Burton films. Turns out, the common denominator is just the fact that Dahl is weird. Matilda was directed by Danny DeVito; James and the Giant Peach by Henry Selick. Selick also directed The Nightmare before Christmas (which I also thought was a Burton film), Monkeybone and Coraline.
Remember how kids in Matilda would get locked in the chokey when they were bad?
It’s somewhat surprising that there aren’t more attempts to censor Dahl books, given how many seemingly innocent books find themselves banned from schools, and how horridly adults tend to be portrayed.
Why are there so many orphans in kids’ stories?
When are they going to make a movie of The BFG? Would it be any good?

I highly recommend your own Family Culture Night, it’s fun to relive your old favorites through your children’s eyes, to see what stands up to the test of time and what movies just don’t make any dang sense once taken out of their pop culture context. (This is especially fun around the holidays!)

Start young and your kids will keep on doing it, week after week. Even when they hit 16 and don’t really want to do much with you anymore.

Movies based on books always make for lively debate… I want to say you should always read the books first, but maybe that’s not always true.

13 Movies Based on Kids’ Books,
Available for Streaming on Netflix

What movies from your emotional make-up have you shared with your kids?

What are some noteworthy (for better or worse) movies that are adaptations of books?

Do you always read the book first? Any movies where you wish you hadn’t?