Obesity
Overweight
Children
How did this disease grow to such epidemic proportions.
There are many reasons people give, however, there are
two which count “bad eating habits” and
“lack of physical activity”.
Our “techno” society has made us all very
lazy. In fact, I just saw a study the other day about the
bad effect suburbia is having on people. No one walks
anymore, everyone drives everywhere.
We have lazy boy chairs that have refrigerators built
into them. I am going to use a often used phrase by Jay
Leno, “How lazy are we getting when we can’t
even get up to get the snacks we want”!
Anyone over the age of 50 remembers their mother making
breakfast for them, getting a balanced lunch in the
cafeteria at school; or your mother gave you a balanced
lunch to take to school. When you came home from school,
you got a snack of fruit or were told, No, you
can’t have something to eat, it is too close to
dinner. Dinners consisted of meat, vegetable, potato and
glasses of milk (not soda, juice; these were treats, not
a part of the diet). You ate everything on your plate. Or
if you didn’t you didn’t get dessert. You had
to at least taste, or try something before you decided
you didn’t like it. Dessert was eaten after dinner
(cake, ice cream, pudding, Jell-O). However, the portion
sizes of all meals were moderate, not JUMBO.
Children went out to play when they got home. They
didn’t go watch TV, play video games or get on a
computer! They rode their bikes, played baseball, t-ball,
softball, kickball, hide n’ seek, and a plethora of
other games and activities. Yes, we had some children who
were “husky”, however, not
“obese”.
We have all these diets today, “no carb”;
“low carb”, “low fat”,
“South Beach”, I could go on and on. You get
the idea. Think about people back in the 50s, 60s and
70s. Yes some had weight problems, but they had them
because plain and simple “they overate”. They
knew it and so did their friends and family. No excuses.
However, the majority of us ate balanced meals and
walked, and were active enough to burn off the food we
consumed.
Today’s obesity problem is due to “lazy
people”. We no longer take the stairs, we take the
elevator. We no longer have to get up and turn the
channel, we have the remote.
The majority of us sit all day long. We are either
sitting in our car, bus, train, plane, or desk at work.
When we do have the opportunity to walk, we ride!
In regards to our diets, I constantly hear I don’t
have time for breakfast or making up meals.
Yes, you do, get up a half hour early and eat breakfast.
Rather than sitting in front of the television set
vegetating, try cutting up vegetables and eat them
instead of chips, cookies or whatever else you grab for.
Get a crock pot and make up stews. They are nutritious
and filling, and eaten in moderation not high in caloric
intake.
Just making up the meals is not enough, next you have to
eat moderate portions. One of the best ways to see how
much you are eating is to keep a food journal. If
everyone logged everything they ate every day, they would
be able to see where all the weight is coming from. Next,
you need to start cutting out the extraneous stuff and go
from there. Is it easy, no it isn’t. But nothing in
life is.
This is one of the biggest reasons why we have an obesity
problem today. We all want the easy way out, the fast
way, the “I don’t want to be
responsible” way. The decisions adults are making
are effecting our children. Childhood obesity has
increased exponentially over the last 20 years. If
nothing else, we need to change our eating and physical
patterns and change them quickly. Obesity is a killer
people. It causes diabetes, breathing problems, high
blood pressure, heart attacks.
Is this the legacy we want to give to our children.
Remember, we are role models for our children and what
they are seeing is it is OK to eat, and eat and just sit
around. I have actually seen commercials that portray an
overweight child, lying on a bed, stuffing his face with
chips, and clicking the remote, while an adult is asking
him to get the phone and he is ignoring her. I was
appalled and you should all be too!
Let’s make today the start of a healthy plan for
all of us, and most importantly for our children.
To see how check out our guide, Keep Kids Fit Quick Start
Guide: How To Get Your Family To Eat Healthy And Stay Fit
at http://www.keepkidsfit.com If you are a parent who
wants a healthier and fit family, this guide can help!
Copyright 2006, DeFiore Enterprises