Say No to fizzy drinks! Thank you golfer Paul Lawrie.

At Activate Sport we advocate leading an active and healthy lifestyle. In modern day living do we really understand what that means? As busy parents it is often easy to take the ‘short cut’ or ‘easy win’ when it comes to our children and what they ask for or need. How damaging can that be to their health and success?

On our Academies and camps we ask children to bring a refillable drinks bottle with them each day. We know they will get thirsty and we often work them hard to get thirsty! Our venues are chosen carefully to ensure we have access to water so that we can re-fill bottles throughout the day. We supply each course with no added sugar squash for some flavour if desired.

We have written blogs before about the damaging effects of fizzy drinks and it is easy to ‘treat’ our children or give them a can of coke to take with them. Do we realise the high levels of sugar in them and how damaging they can be? Activate Sport  encourage parents to bring a refillable drinks bottle so that this does not happen. Re-filling a can of coke with water just won’t work and it tends to go everywhere!

What has this got to do with Paul Lawrie? This weekend I read about Paul Lawrie and his addiction to cola. He suffered a slump in form when tried to quit his several litres a day addiction. He yo-yo’d from sugar highs to deep lows.

 “I lost all confidence in myself. I wouldn’t say I went through a breakdown but I definitely got exceptionally emotional. It was very difficult to deal with all of the situations coming at me. Whether that had anything to do with my mental state in any shape or form, I have no idea.”

You can read the full article on the BBC website here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/golf/31478765

Thank you for speaking out Paul. Spreading the message is important by leading sporting role models and we wish you the best in returning to form. Cola free.

This weekend, my son requested water. Not squash, not juice, no fizz and “no ice Daddy – just water”. What a proud moment and all the more meaningful as it came from himself. This is what we mean by a healthy lifestyle…