Overweight kids

I watched The Biggest Loser last night, and the segment where the nutritionist came in with Allie I found most interesting. In particular the pime spent with Vicky and her husband, talking about their eating habits and that of their children. Like most families they started to rely on fast foods for good reasons, and now that is all their kids will eat. I think so many of us can relate to that problem ! It starts for a good reason, and sadly the additives to the food make it so palletable to kids that they no longer taste real food tastes. First step on that slipperey slope is often that infamous bloue box of mac and cheese and the golden archways happy dappy meal.

We fell into that trap, and changing the course was perhaps the hardest part of the journey. To be honest , the first week was almost world war 3 in our house. In the past I had tried gentle persuasion, suggestion, sneaking in healthy items, education, incentives, making healthy food fun, and none of it worked at all. What was nessisary to make the change was to toss out ( actually donate most of it) the bad food, replace it with only good food, measure out the portions and turn a deaf ear to the complaints. Hard enough, but the hardest thing was turning a mirror on myself. Who was buying this food in the first place ? Who was making the meals ? Children may go to an occasional fast food resturant with friends, but they are not the ones doing the grocery shopping or paying for the purchases. We are. They are not the ones who get too busy to plan a menu, do a little advanced prep of meals and find meals that work within our lifestyle, buget and health needs. We do. They are not the ones who have decided that the world is a scarry place filled with strangers and weirdos who lurk around every corner so that neignborhood play is a thing of the past and the only activities that are possible are group sancioned ones that take place someplace that requires auto travel. We are. The did not convince the world that things like Playstation, DVD's and computer games were the must have items. We did that to ourselves. ( Children do not create ad campaigns).

Hard truths. Our children are living the life and the lifestyle that we created for them. And guess what ? We are the only ones capable of making them healthier. No goverment policies, no educational mandates, no fancy campaigns. Just we as parents refusing to let the junk come into our homes, living healthy lifestyle ourselves that serve as role models and engaging the whole family in a more active lifestyle. It really is as simple as that- we ourselves have to value it , model it and facilitate it to make it so.