These life-changing habits can be learned, and as a society we need to stop and take stock - and ask ourselves, "Why is this not an absolute priority in our educational system?"
What our kids need is "physical literacy" development and healthy eating programmes.
So why don't we institutionalise such education for our kids, and for the future of our society. Let's make it standard practice, an expectation that at school our kids will be equipped with the knowledge, skills and routines, to look after themselves physically, and live a healthy active life . . . forever!
We need to implement a system, a system where we know our kids are learning what they need to be doing, and when they need to be doing it - i.e. stage by stage as they grow and develop, they are being educated and developing the necessary physical movement competencies, and associated healthy eating habits.
Not only as a parent should we be comfortable that our kid's nutrition and physical education is being taken care of, but also as a society, we should feel satisfied that we are taking the responsibility to implement the best possible system for our innocent children.
So rather than continually treading water and putting out fires, we need to fix the problem, and get it right with a long term programme.
Physical literacy is about establishing the necessary foundations for a lifelong involvement in health-enhancing physical activity and sport, and involves the development of fundamental movement skills and fundamental sport skills.
Physical literacy will underpin the future of a healthy and physically able society. Developing physical literacy is fun, rewarding, confidence boosting, and motivating! Therefore alongside it, we can entwine vitally important healthy eating programmes.
Physical literacy has more than just a physical focus, it's the work habits, the self-esteem from achieving physical tasks, the confidence to forever continue engaging in activities, and the fun! Therefore the critical link is obvious, the link between developing physical literacy, and establishing healthier lifestyle habits to combat the increasingly prevalent (and healthcare costly) rates of obesity and physical inactivity that our society is burdened with and which are higher in Hawke's Bay than the national rates.
Combating such adverse health statistics in our community will only become more of a challenge. In this modern digital world, where technological entertainment devices are everywhere, and thus increasing amounts of human playtime have become completely inert.
For people involved in promoting physical activity, they are competing against massive corporations which are determined to brainwash our kids into video and computer games. And so we need to be pre-emptive and find ways to set our kids on the right path from an early age, it's with them that we can get the easiest gains, as they are still in the process of developing their lifestyle habits.
Physical activity of course also includes recreation, which is as accessible as ever, and even breaking into the mainstream with canoe slalom - already in the Olympics, and rock climbing which will be at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics.
Developing fundamental skills such as run, jump, throw, catch, swim, can have a lifelong impact on one's ability to participate in sport and physical activity. So promoting physical literacy in kids sets them up to be "Active for Life" - which for most of us will be general healthy participation, and for some will enable involvement in competitive, or even high performance, sport.
And that is what a physical literacy and long term athlete development is all about - providing a system for all ages to confidently engage in sport or activity for life, aligned with healthy eating programmes, healthy food shopping, and healthy cooking, as they progress through the developmental stages.
Ideally all kids regardless of social or economic background would have access to physical literacy and healthy lifestyle programmes, developing the necessary fundamental skills and healthy eating habits, enabling them to engage in any sport or activity they choose, at whatever stage in life they choose.
Marcus Agnew leads Talent Development and the Pathway to Podium for AUT Millennium Hawke's Bay. He is also a lecturer in sports science at EIT.
