MRS. OBAMA: Lord, it’s like, how do I get to TV? (Laughter.)
SYBIL WILKES: But you are making history in terms of — in your legacy, because now you’re celebrating the anniversary of your physical fitness program.
MRS. OBAMA: Yes. We are kicking off the third-anniversary tour next week, Sybil, thank you for asking about that. But we are three years into our Let’s Move initiative, and while we still have a lot of work to do, we have more gains to make, we’re starting to see some improvement in the trend lines over these past few years, which gives us reason to hope; that these small incremental changes that we’re encouraging people to have a shift in the culture in terms of what we eat and how much we move is slowly but surely beginning to have an impact.
So we’re going to spend two days on the road. We’re going to be in Chicago, my hometown, and we’re going to be in Mississippi, we’re going to be in Missouri, and we’re going to be celebrating some of the successes that have happened. We’re going to be highlighting some new initiatives around physical fitness. And we’re constantly trying to figure out how to keep this momentum going, because it is a generational goal.
It’s too soon to measure whether we accomplished it because this is something where the kids born today, we need to be looking at them when they’re on their way to college, wondering has there been an improvement in how they think about their health and how they manage their health.
So we’ve still got a lot of work to do.
SYBIL WILKES: What do you think your biggest accomplishment is as far as the program?
MRS. OBAMA: There are many, but the improvement in the schools, nutrition standards is key. That was — we haven’t seen improvements in school nutrition and the lunches and breakfasts served in public schools in several decades.
So the fact that kids in schools all across the country are getting more vegetables and whole grains and fruits in their lunches, they’re learning to like wheat pasta over regular pasta — we’re really starting to push physical fitness, finding ways to get that back into the schools. Because I don’t know if you know, but fewer than 10 percent of the schools in this country have PE or recess. And that’s a far cry from where things were when we were all growing up, and everybody had recess, everybody had gym.
TOM JOYNER: Yes. That’s the only class I got an A in. (Laughter.) No, not gym, not gym — recess. (Laughter.)
MRS. OBAMA: Recess. It was recess. Well, a lot happens in recess — you’re — had my first kiss at recess.
SYBIL WILKES: And so did Tom, yes. That’s where he makes his best moves — outside.
MRS. OBAMA: Recess is a highly important part of the day, but fewer than 10 percent of our schools have it. And we know that sometimes that is the hook that keeps kids motivated academically.
So we’re going to be doing some of that over the course of this week, and we’re going to keep –
TOM JOYNER: What was his name?
SYBIL WILKES: The first kiss.
MRS. OBAMA: Theodore Ford (ph).
SYBIL WILKES: All right, then. Teddy Ford, wherever you are –
MRS. OBAMA: Teddy. Young Teddy. (Laughter.)
TOM JOYNER: She called my name? Did you hear that? (Laughter.) Did you hear that? She called my name! (Laughter.)
SYBIL WILKES: We’ve heard the story before. We know about Michelle Robinson. Yes, yes, yes. (Laughter.)
MRS. OBAMA: Give Teddy a shout-out.
TOM JOYNER: Happy Black History Month.
SYBIL WILKES: Keep up the great work, Mrs. Obama.
MRS. OBAMA: Absolutely. It’s always great to talk to you. And we’re going to be doing some partnering, too, coming up. So I’m looking forward to it.
TOM JOYNER: All right. Good.
SYBIL WILKES: Excellent.
MRS. OBAMA: All right, you all take care.
TOM JOYNER: Tell The Big Chief I said hello.
MRS. OBAMA: Okay. Absolutely.
TOM JOYNER: Bye-bye.
MRS. OBAMA: Bye-bye.
Michelle Obama Talks Black History, the ‘Let’s Move’ Campaign and Her First Kiss on the TJMS was originally published on blackamericaweb.com
