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There are no shortage of reasons to admire and be inspired by Michelle Obama; her poise, her style, and her steadfast determination to make a change in this world, one soup kitchen at a time make her a strong role model for men, women, and children everywhere. But while her husband Barack has been championed as the all-star orator, Michelle herself is no stranger to the power of words. Beliefnet.com has put together an uplifting list of some of Mrs. Obama’s most encouraging words. Below are our favorites.

On being the First Lady and Mom-in-Chief:

“My first job in all honesty is going to continue to be mom-in-chief. Making sure that in this transition, which will be even more of a transition for the girls…that they are settled and that they know they will continue to be the center of our universe.”

On the importance of self-care:

“Women in particular need to keep an eye on their physical and mental health, because if we’re scurrying to and from appointments and errands, we don’t have a lot of time to take care of ourselves. We need to do a better job of putting ourselves higher on our own ‘to do’ list.”

On dealing with stress:

“Exercise is really important to me–it’s therapeutic. So if I’m ever feeling tense or stressed or like I’m about to have a meltdown, I’ll put on my iPod and head to the gym or out on a bike ride along Lake Michigan with the girls.”

On staying true to oneself:

“One of the lessons that I grew up with was to always stay true to yourself and never let what somebody else says distract you from your goals. And so when I hear about negative and false attacks, I really don’t invest any energy in them, because I know who I am.”

And on making a difference:

“And in my own life, in my own small way, I’ve tried to give back to this country that has given me so much. That’s why I left a job at a law firm for a career in public service, working to empower young people to volunteer in their communities. Because I believe that each of us–no matter what our age or background or walk of life–each of us has something to contribute to the life of this nation.”

What do you find most inspirational about Michelle Obama? How have her words and/or actions made an impact on your life?

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The event brought many smiles and happy emotions to a lot of people who are passionate and devoted to the Let’s Move! campaign.  Signing this act means by helping provide healthier, more nutritious school meals to more children, this legislation is an important step toward ensuring that no child goes to school hungry and every child has the basic nutrition they need to learn, grow and pursue their dreams.

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Here are 3 reasons why The Healthy Hunger-Free Act Is Good For Our Kids

• 115,000 more students will have access to school meal programs.  This bill will also cut red tape and paperwork, making it easier for parents to enroll their children in these programs.

• Nutritional standards will help ensure that our kids have access to healthy food options.

• Communities and schools will receive assistance in setting up local farm-to-school networks to ensure that more fresh local foods are used in school meals.

Our beloved First Lady also stated, “Getting the proper nutrition has a major impact not just on our children’s health, but on their performance at school.  Students who get the nutrition they need perform better in the classroom and miss fewer days of school.  And lunchtime is a great time to teach our students important lessons about healthy eating that will last them a lifetime.”

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Kudos to the First Lady and President Obama for joining millions of concerned Americans who believe we all can make a difference!

VIA THE HUFFINGTON POST:

It really is true. Barack Obama can staff himself better on nearly all fronts than those who staff him — even comedians.

Barack Obama so outdid Jay Leno, more by accident than by design (I think), at the White House Correspondents Dinner that next year the WHCA should just let Obama do the President’s remarks and the follow-up humor. And yes, I know Leno was not “staffing” Obama, but still. . .

Morgan Freeman, one of the few actors at the White House Correspondents Dinner who expressed interest in political blogs and think tanks, told me that he thought that it was a mistake for Jay Leno to follow President Obama.

Leno just didn’t hit his groove during his routine — but President Obama said preemptively that night that everyone knew what happened to those who followed Leno’s time slot — and well, he wasn’t gonna take any chances.

Obama, whose material was put together by Jon Favreau, Ben Rhodes and Jon Lovett, was hilarious. As I watched him perform, I remembered the self-conflident line on Obama that Ryan Lizza captured in a piece when the President remarked that he could do better than any of the people working for him in their jobs. As captured by Lizza, Obama said:

I think that I’m a better speechwriter than my speechwriters. I know more about policies on any particular issue than my policy directors. And I’ll tell you right now that I’m gonna think I’m a better political director than my political director.

It’s totally clear now that President Obama can and should be his own White House Correspondents Dinner comedian.

Read more here

VIA THE WASHINGTON POST:

First lady Michelle Obama brandished a paintbrush Thursday to add a little color to a mural at an elementary school in Northwest Washington and demonstrate the value of community service.

Obama joined a group of congressional spouses at the Marie H. Reed Community Learning Center in the Adams Morgan neighborhood, where they painted murals of butterflies and flowers around a courtyard and helped plant a butterfly garden and a vegetable plot.

The event came a day after the Congressional Club’s annual luncheon.

“It’s so good that everybody has made a commitment to step out of our tea dresses and away from the crystal and to roll up our sleeves and be ready to paint and to get a little dirty,” said Obama, who arrived wearing canvas low-top sneakers and with her sleeves rolled up.

Read more here

VIA THE WASHINGTON POST:

Michelle Obama on Tuesday called on corporate food giants such as Coca-Cola, General Mills and Kraft Foods to step up efforts to produce more healthful food and then market that, rather than junk food, to children.

Speaking at a meeting of the Grocery Manufacturers Association on Tuesday, Obama said she hopes to see a fundamental shift: “We need you not just to tweak around the edges, but to entirely rethink the products that you’re offering, the information that you provide about these products and how you market those products to our children.”

Obama has made the fight against childhood obesity, whose rates have tripled over the past three decades, her signature issue. Last month, she launched Let’s Move, a federal initiative designed to end the epidemic within a generation. Since then, she has wooed parents, children and policymakers, but this was her first public appeal to the food industry.

Parents, teachers and government officials are all responsible, she said, but the food industry has a special role to play.

“We can build shiny new supermarkets on every block, but we need those supermarkets to actually provide healthy options at prices people can afford,” she said. “And we can insist that our schools serve better food, but we need to actually produce that food. And we can give parents all the information in the world, but they still won’t have time to untangle labels filled with 10-syllable words or do long division with these portion sizes. And that’s really where you come in.”

Obama applauded the industry’s early efforts in reformulating its products. Last year, for example, Campbell’s lowered sodium in 90 soups by 25 percent to 50 percent. But the first lady warned that future action must also be substantial. She warned against tricks such as replacing fat with another no-no such as salt or adding a gram of fiber to a product already laden with calories.

“This isn’t about finding creative ways to market products as healthy,” she said. “As you know, it’s about producing products that actually are healthy — products that can help shape the health habits of an entire generation.”

Some corporations already have voluntarily committed to limit their marketing of junk food to children. In 2006, leading foodmakers pledged that at least half of their advertising directed at children younger than 12 would promote healthful foods or contain messages that encourage active lifestyles. But Obama cited studies that 70 percent of foods marketed to kids is still among the least healthful. She called on the industry to use its marketing muscle to make good food cool.

“If there is anyone here who can sell food to our kids, it’s you. You know what gets their attention. You know what makes that lasting impression,” she said. “You know what gets them to drive their parents crazy in the grocery store. And I’m here today to ask you to use that knowledge and that power to our kids’ advantage.”

Despite the tough love, Obama received a warm welcome, including a standing ovation from the several hundred who listened to her keynote remarks. In his introduction, Rick Wolford, GMA chairman and chief executive of Del Monte Foods, said his industry is “an enthusiastic supporter” of Let’s Move.

An industry-sponsored alliance, the Healthy Weight Commitment Foundation, plans to announce new pledges to reformulate many of its member companies’ products as early as next month, said Sean McBride, GMA’s vice president of communications.

“We have not ever had this kind of leadership from the White House. Changing the way we make and market food isn’t enough to end childhood obesity in a generation,” McBride said. “Now we have a leader to help make the cultural change that is required.”

Source

VIA DCIST:

Plenty of local love from Michelle Obama, as the White House announced today that two out of three commencement speeches the first lady has agreed to make this year will be right here in the District.

The biggest news from the local perspective is that Obama will address graduating seniors at Anacostia Senior High School on June 11. This will mark the second time the first lady has chosen to deliver a speech at a D.C. public high school. Last year, she spoke at the commencement ceremony for the Washington Mathematics Science Technology Public Charter High School.

Before she goes to Anacostia, Obama has also pledged to address graduates at The George Washington University on May 16 — but only if they complete 100,000 hours of community service before then. GWU students have been working toward fulfilling the first lady’s service challenge all year, and we seriously doubt they’d let her down.

Obama will also speak at the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff on May 8.

Source

VIA REUTERS:

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Alarmed that nearly a third of U.S. children are obese or overweight — and likely to stay that way all their lives — President Barack Obama launched an initiative on Tuesday to roll back the numbers and put his wife in charge of promoting it.

Obama signed an executive order setting up a task force to include Interior Secretary Ken Salazar, Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, Education Secretary Arne Duncan and other cabinet officials.

“I have set a goal to solve the problem of childhood obesity within a generation so that children born today will reach adulthood at a healthy weight,” Obama said in signing the order on Tuesday at the White House.

He asked first lady Michelle Obama to head up a national public awareness effort.

“She will encourage involvement by actors from every sector — the public, nonprofit, and private sectors, as well as parents and youth — to help support and amplify the work of the federal government in improving the health of our children,” Obama said.

“Obesity has been recognized as a problem for decades, but efforts to address this crisis to date have been insufficient.”

He assigned his cabinet officers to meet within three months and come up with “a comprehensive interagency plan.”

Reports on the U.S. obesity epidemic have recommended such an approach.

The independent Institute of Medicine has found in several studies that Americans will have to exercise more, eat less fatty and sugary food and eat more fruits and vegetables to overcome obesity and the heart disease, diabetes, cancer and other health problems it brings.

But the independent Institute has also recommended policy changes to help people accomplish this — changes in zoning to encourage exercise, changes in school lunch programs, policies to encourage grocery stores to open in areas where healthy food is hard to come by and better public transport to get people out of their cars.

“Without effective intervention, many more children will endure serious illnesses that will put a strain on our healthcare system. We must act now to improve the health of our nation’s children and avoid spending billions of dollars treating preventable disease,” Obama said.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has found that 68 percent of U.S. adults are overweight and half of these are obese, with a body mass index of 30 or higher.

Obesity rates were relatively stable between 1960 and 1980 but have risen rapidly since 1980.

Source

President Barack Obama, First Lady Michelle Obama, and their daughters, Malia and Sasha, sit for a  family portrait in the Green Room of the White House, Sept. 1, 2009. (Official White House Photo)

Photo by Annie Leibovitz/Released by White House Photo Office