How to Eliminate Childhood Obesity

My personal experience with obesity, healthy nutrition, and an active lifestyle is directly linked to each person's awareness of themselves. If you don't realize that YOU are the only who can help your body get back to its normal healthy state would you put an effort into doing something about it? Create a challenge for yourself and make yourself feel better. Remember: if your body can't function you won't be able to fulfill what you want to do with your life. You NEED your body for that to happen! When children are involved that creates an extra responsibility because now you not only have yourself to take care of, but another person to teach. Another little lady/man to raise and help them fulfill their dreams.

Children need an all inclusive hour of physical activity in 24 hours. Children require more than adults because of their growing bodies. Adults only need to maintain, loose and sometimes gain. Be creative. it doesn't need to be all at once, but the benefits of physical activity should be enough to inspire children and parents to both get moving!!! Children are more likely to have the following 'side effects' when implementing an active lifestyle:

lower stress levels
healthier self esteem
increased their ability to learn
maintain a healthy weight
build and a strong body
fewer personality/emotional disorders
improve their sleep

Simply walking is a great way to get started. Plan fun, physically active activities throughout the day. It's easier to maintain a lifestyle change when involving other close friends so consider the following options: join your favourite sport team; baseball, softball, tennis, or Fris-bee in the park. Join fitness classes for kids (available at any community center) like swimming, martial arts for children. Check your resources and community events and activities.

Nutrition is the vitamins, minerals, proteins, carbohydrates, and fibre our bodies need to maintain their health. These nutrients come from the foods we eat, but not just any food. That's where the nutritional servings and facts come in handy on every package of food you purchase. To maintain your health so your body can keep you going you need to feed it the right kind of food as well as portion sizes. A good way to find out portion size is to look at the palm of your hand excluding your fingers. Don't skimp, or over-indulge. Eat six snacks or 3 meals and 3 small snacks a day. Fruits and vegetables are two kinds of food that have the most nutrition. If you don't like fruit and vegetables consider this method of getting your nutrition. It works great from my personal experience as I've struggled the last 10 years in finding a method to maintain my nutrition without compromising needed nutrients, portion sizes, types of food eaten. I prefer something that tastes great, doesn't fill me up, but doesn't make me feel like I over-ate and has all the nutrients without having to eat lots of stuff to get all the nutrition my body needs.

Have fun with fruit and vegetables. Try a new kind. Try preparing it a different way. Find different kinds of recipes to use. Experiment with the portion sizes on the back of food packages. The quickest snack is an apple. I like to use a slicer that slices and cores the apple all at once. I don't mind the peel so this works great for me. For example; there are over 7,499 varieties of apples in this world. Explore the world of apples and their flavours. Experiment with other fruits: make a fruit salad with watermelon, cantaloupe, honeydew, or oranges, grapefruit, apple. You can also try strawberry, peach, apple, and mandarin orange. Try making a sauce by thickening orange juice with a little cornstarch. The cornstarch box will have the right liquid to cornstarch ratio. Don't use more than 1c. orange juice to 2tsp cornstarch. Remember this is a sauce, not a gravy. Try different fruits on sale at your supermarket. Find which ones you like, which ones you do. Broaden your taste horizon.

A few tips to get more fruit in your lifestyle:

When the body has to much sugar it turns to fat. that's a worse fat than the normal fat. Use fruit juices with no sugar added. Check labels for sugar and sodium (salt) content. The lower the better off your body is. Use cereals with a higher fibre content. Add strawberries, bananas, saskatoons, blueberries, or raspberries.

A few creative ways to get more vegetables in your diet:

Make lettuce salad: tomatoes, cucumbers. Use a light, balanced, or fat-free dressing of your choice. Broccoli salad: cauliflower, sunflower seeds, cheese, raisins, onion, and bacon (grill the bacon). Use light, balanced, or fat-free mayo to create your dressing. Spinach salads: add bacon, grilled or bits, and boiled eggs. Have snacks readily available like baby carrots and celery sticks with a low-fat or fat-free dip of choice. Other vegetables for snacks or salads are: kale, sweet potatoes (bake your own fries), any color pepper, or sugar snap peas depending on the season. Experiment and share! Order veggie pizzas with toppings like mushrooms, green peppers and onions-ask for extra veggies. Try mixing vegetables into other food favourites as well. Pack school lunches with cut-up veggies for an afternoon snack-try red pepper carrots or cucumber slices.

Protein.

Protein is what feeds your muscles. Muscles are like verbs. They act by burning the fat in your body. How fast or slow your body burns your fat is what your metabolism is. Your metabolism may be fast or slow depending on genetics. A general idea of what protein is: meat, fish, eggs, cheese, nuts, and milk. Be careful with fat content, but don't eliminate it as the good fat is needed to 'lubricate' your whole system in an effort to keep it working. Your body is like a car. You need to keep oil in the engine so it doesn't create friction and blow up. Grease helps all the other little parts to work together without wearing each other down and creating a break down.

Drink lots of water.

They say drink 8-8oz cups of water a day. I say don't bloat yourself, but pick the right choice. If you're thirsty pick water. Be careful with sports drinks and sugary soda because of the sugar content It depends on your body size. Obese people can handle more water as they have more body mass. Here are some suggestions on better beverage choices to maintain your health:

1% or skim milk
choose water (even at meal time)
drink 100% fruit or veggie juice without added sugar
add a slice of lemon to a glass of water
having soda for a treat? choose a small size
Turn off the TV and video games

Limit the children's time playing video games and watching TV. Teach them how by doing it yourself. These activities that are the major cause for the obesity epidemic in our country for the ONLY reason that is does not include parental guidance. Help your children learn to surf the web and play a game and use time management to show them how. Half hour outdoors playing fris-bee and half hour surfing the web. The key is to keep them moving. Find methods to motivate them using their favourite activities, games because kids need to run and play everyday. Show them how by doing it yourself.

Help with the family dinner.

Work together. Teamwork: divide the work and multiply the success. Shop together. Cook Together. Plan the menu together. Be creative. Imaginative. Find new recipes. By following these suggestions you and your child/children will thank you as they grow up to be healthy and active adults that will have the privilege and pleasure not only gaining their goals, but living their dreams along with the wonderful chance to help another person and broaden their horizons more, making more friends. Expanding their borders.

Remember that everything takes time. It takes a body four weeks to actually understand that you're making a change. Make it a good one! Think twice about your actions because they create consequences and that becomes your future.

You are who you think you are. Nothing is impossible if you make up your mind and believe it can be done.

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