Katie Hensel | Tri 4 Schools: Mindfully Training Kids For Life

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Katie Hensel is a dynamo. She leads Tri 4 Schools and is amazing at running a successful nonprofit that trains kids to do triathlons but, just like The Rooted Family, Katie knows that the real training starts from the inside out. She does this with even-keeled elegance and grace (in running shoes) that make you sit back and take notice. 

How do you go for your dreams as a mom while supporting the goals of your family and over 13,000 kids? Katie breaks it down for us. I am honored to have her as a guest this week and even more honored and grateful that I get to call her friend and partner in crime in trying to help kids learn the skills to live and embrace their best lives. When we teach kids these skills, we all win!

Episode #7: Mindfully Training Kids for Life 

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In this Episode of The Rooted Family Podcast...

  • And the reason we kind of focus on those age groups is because we believe that if you can set healthy habits at a very young age, that that is likely to continue into your adult life and it'll kind of set you up on a trajectory where that's going to be the type of behavior that you'll pursue, (7:49)

  • While one day events can be really great catalysts for change, if you really want to foster, and like you said, sort of like layer those pathways, the best way to do that is through behavioral change through more programmatic activities or things that take place more often than just a couple of times a year.(9:35)

  • If we're training kids and we're training people, like, you know, training isn't just the swimming, biking and running, it's all the other components that you need to feel like you're healthy inside and out and you have to be able to train your brain, especially with transitioning between the end of the school day and a new activity.   (12:52)

  • We really wanted to focus on developing friendships both for our kids and for us as families. And then finding more times for us to connect with our kids individually. And then also just time for us to connect with each other and like finding time for ourselves. So then what we did from there was we kind of set our calendar by, well, what are these goals and what does connection mean? And then we built time into the calendar every month for those things.  (19:01)

  • Well it's good for kids to see their parents having goals and doing new things. Cause it's like I think, you know, if you don't grow up with that then your kids think well I don't once, once it become a grownup I don't have to like, you know, do new things, do hard things or work at anything.  (23:16)

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This Episode's Question:

How do you connect with your family in a physical, healthy-mindset way?

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If You Liked this Episode, Try this One!

Episode #8: How Mindfulness can Help Keep Kids from Making Mountains out of Molehills

Katie’s Blog

If you want to read the blog post Katie and I mention, check it out here