Celebrity couple Doug Kramer and Cheska Garcia are making sure to take extra steps in caring for their health and body; adopting it as a habit and rubbing it on their three children - Kendra, Scarlett, and Gavin.
During the Heart Month event promoting “Let’s Make Heart Health a Family Affair” spearheaded by the Philippine Heart Association and the Department of Health, the former basketball star admitted how he had always been a health-freak.
This after he suffered a mild stroke in 2016 that was triggered by a congenital condition, a tiny hole in his heart.
"It was such a big event for me, because who would have thought that at my age, I would be able to experience something of this kind of event in my life," he said.
"At that time, I was still playing in the PBA. And at the peak of my health, di ba, I suffered a stroke. And when they discovered what really happened was I had a hole in my heart and a clot entered, and it caused the stroke. And it became an awakening for me," he added.
Doug sees it as his "second chance."
"Because, you know, I staggered and fell to the ground, and I lost my balance. And it was just, grabe, when I recall it, my kids were beside me. And I just couldn't believe that right after doing my first set of exercises, that happened," Doug, 38, said.
Since then, he vowed that a lot of things were needed to do, to be changed. Thankfully, he recovered in three months.
"And, of course, diet was very important for me to transition to the next phase of my life because whatever triggered that stroke, or that thing that happened to my heart, I needed to make some changes."
So among those "changes" is making sure that their kids consumed well-balanced meals.
"We are very hands-on, in fact, the term that my wife and I use, we're very intentional in guiding our kids and molding them into the children that we want them to be di ba. And part of that is discipline exercise, diet - all of those things. They have to be well rounded," he shared.
"And to think that they still have their home school - they've been homeschooled for four years - and they have a lot of activities, they have a lot of things that occupy their time - and for them to have all of these activities - they have to be well-fed di ba. And it starts out by making sure that they have a well-balanced meal, they have to eat a lot of fruits."
Good thing, their 12-year-old Kendra, 10-year-old Scarlett, and eight-year-old Gavin love to eat.
Doug also talked about their children's daily exercise regimen.
"Our kids, they have a lot of activities. And I think that also starts from the parents because we set an example. I've been a professional basketball player for 12 years. And they see the discipline and responsibility that it goes from doing all of this training and infusing it in your time. So even at their age, time management is very important... So they have arnis every Monday. Tuesdays, for Kendra, she has swimming and ballet. Wednesdays, they have jujitsu. Scarlett has taekwondo. And Gavin has this basketball training two to three times a week," he revealed.
"So it's a very, very busy week always for us. But we make sure that exercise is part, because not only is it good for your health, the discipline and responsibility is very important to teach our kids."
Any tips on how to make kids discover the joys of physical activity instead of being glued on the tube and the benefits of eating smart?
"You know, to all mommies and daddies out there, let's not make gadgets like a pacifier, di ba," he advised. "We've seen so many times, where umiiyak yung baby or yung bata , para lang tumigil na sila ang ginagawa ng madaming parents, 'O ito na yung iPad mo, ito na yung phone mo.' Parang, don't enable them."
"So for our kids, like, I said, we're intentional parents. So we have a proper schedule for all of their activities. And it does wonders for them... they need to see the value of time and how time management plays an important role in developing your children's capacity and responsibilities. So it's very important to show these things to our kids."
Doug said they expose their kids to different physical activities.
"I remember Gavin, he tried out taekwondo. But because we have such a good relationship with our children, they're able to tell us 'Papa, I like basketball more than taekwondo. Is it okay if I focus on that?' And that came from Gavin. So, you know, as parents, it's nice to expose them to different sports. We even allow them to try soccer. And it came from them. 'I think I really enjoy taekwondo,' 'I enjoy basketball,' 'I enjoy swimming,' 'I enjoy jujitsu,'" he maintained. "So how will you know what your kids like if you don't expose them? So it's important to invest in these sports for your kids, for them to discover also the talents that God has blessed them with. So that's a very big plus for your kids' development."
He added the importance of teaching the kids about being physically active and eating properly as early as possible.
"It's a must for your children to start off kasi we don't want to start off our kids with bad habits," he related. "Mamaya they might grow into getting used to those bad habits that when they grew up - that's what they've been accustomed to, that's their norm. So if you train them early, then they will probably follow that. And that's biblical, di ba - 'Train the child in the way they should go. And when they grow, they shall not depart.'"
Doug shared their "house rules" and other "musts" to ensure a "healthy" home.
"So the kids, they have their difficult schedule, they wake up at 7, 7:30, 8. They do their home school at 9 a.m. and then they finish around 3 p.m. and then they have their activities. I think it's very important that when they have their free time, we allow them gadget use," he said.
"Like, for example for Fridays and Saturdays, we allow all our kids to have limited gadget time. In fact, all of their iPads and their phones, it has a limit. And you can put that under screen time on the settings. And you can program it for one hour or two hours. And I think for me, that's fine - one or two hours a day, on the days that we give it to them, that provides them a little escape, they can play their games, they can watch a few videos. And it's always important to regulate those things."
He reminded parents that sometimes kids might see things that they're not supposed to. "So you can limit that also.''
"And with all of these limitations, our job as parents is to also inform our kids of a lot of things. We don't want our kids to get informed from social media only, or YouTube, di ba? A lot of the things that the kids actually see and experience - it actually comes from us because we inform our kids of what's out there."
As for eating junk foods, his wife is a lot stricter when it comes to that.
"But usually we have our junk food time every Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. You know, they're very disciplined in eating their vegetables and fruits. So they have to have sort of that enjoyment also to enjoy chocolate or chips, like that, but always in regulation. So that's it!"