Biggest Loser Transformations

Short and sweet this Monday morning.

I'm not a huge fan of the show The Biggest Loser (I've only seen one show and that's all I needed to see) but these pictures of before and after of various contestants on the show are pretty amazing and impressive. Losing over 100 pounds in a short 14 weeks is just incredible. Good job to all of them and I would hope they would inspire others to do the same thing.

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Simple Exercise Routines for Kids

The most important thing when it comes to creating exercise programs for kids is that it HAS to be fun.

Kids will get extremely bored if they have to do set after set of jump jacks, squats, lunges, etc (even though most adults SHOULD find those kinds of exercises "fun"...).

So here's one routine that they can do.

Most neighborhoods have fire hydrants about 75 yards from each other. Have your child just do a short jog between those fire hydrants for 3 laps just to get him/her warmed up.

Do about 10 squats and then do 5 forward lunges on each side just to get some dynamic work in there. Repeat this 2 more times.

Then, the child should stand at the edge of where one fire hydrant is, and then sprint all the way to the other fire hydrant. Sprint at full speed, not jog.

After reaching the other fire hydrant, have the child stop and walk back to the first fire hydrant. It should be a walk, not a sprint, or a jog, but a walk.

Once the child reaches the first fire hydrant, he/she should immediately turn around and sprint once more to the second fire hydrant again. Once reaching that second fire hydrant for a second time, walk back to the first fire hydrant.

Continue doing this for a total of 10 times (to start, try to add one each time you do this routine).

It really shouldn't take more than 20 minutes to do this workout.

Try doing this workout 3 times a week.

It's a short workout but very efficient and effective at reducing some of that body fat.

Oh, mom and dad, don't forget, it's okay to join in with your child on these sprints. Make it a competition as to who can get to the second fire hydrant first.

Losing body fat is a team effort when it comes to kids, so show your child that you are fully 100% supportive in what they need to do.

Have a nice weekend everyone.

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Simple Healthy Eating Tips for Children

I've had three days of writing about how the child obesity issue is starting to increase at an even more alarming rate than what has previously been thought.

What can we do to 1) for kids that are not overweight or obese yet, stop them from becoming so and 2) get kids that are overweight and obese from changing course?

Today I'll talk about some things that we can do on the eating part and tomorrow some suggestions on the exercise front.

First, parents, your kids are going to follow your lead. If you are eating junk, they are going to eat junk. If you eat healthy, they are going to eat healthy. So you HAVE to lead by example.

You can take things in small steps though.

1. Go through all the cupboards in you house and throw out all the junk food.

2. Throw out all your regular soda.

3. If you and your family are eating fast food on a weekly basis, stop.

Those are the first steps. If you can eliminate those three items, you're going to see some vast improvements in your waistline as well as your children's.

If you take all of those out, then at this point I don't even care about portion sizes of the other food you are eating.

I don't care if your kids have an extra helping of pasta, or mashed potatoes, or another piece of chicken or another homemade hamburger, etc. We'll worry about portion size later. All I'm concerned about at this point is getting rid of the junk from your diet.

Will the kids complain? Sure.

I noticed something recently with my dog. I've got her on some special medication for a little bit of time and the vet told me that her appetite would increase while being on the medication.

Prior to putting her on the meds, she ate her food, but was always picky. I would have to spice it up with some cheese or something and then she'd eat it.

But since I've had her on these meds, it doesn't matter. i put that food in her bowl with nothing added and she eats it like she hasn't eaten in a week.

Moral of the story is, your kids might complain about eating food without all that "junk food flavor" in it and may even pout and say they aren't going to eat at all if it's not going to be "junk food." But at some point, they're going to get hungry, and they'll eat what you give them.

Now this doesn't mean you can't give your kids junk food ever again. You need to make sure when you do, that it truly is a treat. Maybe after a week of not consuming any of the junk, you take a family for a walk or bike ride (stressing walk or bike ride, not drive) to a local ice cream place for that treat. But that's it. It's only a treat to be used very sparingly.

Start out with those three changes and don't worry about the rest for now. If you start with those three, then you've created a nice solid foundation for other improvements later on.

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A Postive Story on Childhood Obesity

This was a great article on a kid who realized he had to lose weight, and did it.

But that's not even the best part: he survived leukemia first.

Doctor's told him after he beat leukemia that if he didn't lose some weight, there was a higher chance that the cancer would return.

So far he's dropped from 320 pounds to 240 pounds. Granted, he's got some more to lose, but to drop 80 so far is a great success story.

Here's an interesting quote from the article:

Programs that involve the whole family, and encourage and support healthy eating habits and plenty of physical activity, stand the best chance for success, health advocates say.

It continues:

Once a week, for six months, the teens meet with one or more of the team members in individual or group sessions. They also participate in regular physical fitness sessions at least once a week or up to three times a week.

Parents have a schedule of their own, attending individual and group sessions every other week during the six-month period.

The sessions are aimed at teaching the whole family to build healthier habits into their lifestyle.

more...

Since Nick began the program, his mother, 53, a child care worker, lost 17 pounds. Nick's dad, Tony, 57, lost 20 pounds and their son Josh lost 30 pounds.

finally..

Nick Lieto says the family support, the accountability demanded by the weekly sessions and the encouraging staff members when he weighs in weekly, are most responsible for his success.

The point I see, is that the getting the ENTIRE family involved in this is what helped this young man lose this weight (and also the main contributor for the weight loss of the other members of the family).

Think of it this way: How hard is it for an adult to quit smoking, if there's another adult in the household that is continuing to smoke? If someone is trying to quit drinking, isn't it going to be more difficult if another adult continues to keep beer in the refrigerator?

Granted, some people are able to quit smoking and drinking if another adult in the household continues these habits.

But I don't see how a child who is overweight or obese would be able to lose weight, stop eating junk, etc., without the other people in the household doing the same thing. Children eat what they are given, they follow what their parents do, etc.

Bottom line, when talking about the child obesity issue, we can't leave out the issue of obesity in the adult population from the conversation. If the family is the biggest contributor to the problem, it could also be the biggest piece of the solution.

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Delayed Gratification and Childhood Obesity

To stay with the theme of childhood obesity that I've kind of rolled myself into this week, this article talks about a study where it found that children that were able to delay gratification were less likely to be overweight or obese.

From the article:

In the study, a group of 4-year-olds was asked to choose candy, animal crackers or pretzels as their preferred food and left alone with two plates of different quantities of the food.

They could eat a larger portion of chosen food if they waited until the examiner returned. If they could not wait until the examiner returned, they could ring a bell to summon the examiner back into the room, at which time they could eat the small quantity.

Almost half (47%) of the 805 children failed the test, either by ringing the bell before a seven-minute waiting period elapsed, spontaneously beginning to eat the food, becoming distressed, going to the door or calling for a parent or the examiner.

The conclusions:

Children who had difficulty delaying gratification were about 30% more likely to be overweight by age 11 than those who could delay gratification, says study coauthor Dr. Julie Lumeng, a developmental and behavioral pediatrician at the University of Michigan Health System.

The correlation of the parents:

The weight of the mother made a difference in the child’s ability to wait to eat, Lumeng adds.

“Moms who are overweight themselves have kids that are less able to wait,” Lumeng says. “No study like this one can prove causation, but there’s an association.”

This really makes sense. If you have a mother that is overweight, then there's a good chance that she doesn't have the ability to delay gratification when she's hungry. This easily passes along to the child where mom just instinctively gives the child something to eat when the child complains about being hungry.

This is interesting in light of my review last week here of Eat Stop Eat. You hold off eating for 24 hours. After some time, this helps you hold off eating when not fasting and you start to feel a little bit of hunger. By fasting, you learn to control those hunger "pains" and not instantly go reach for a donut.

I'm NOT suggesting we start getting 4 year olds to follow intermittent fasting. But, if adults would start following this type of protocol, they would learn themselves how to delay instant gratification and thus would be more readily able to tell their kids "no" when they whine about being hungry and telling them that they need to wait until their next meal.

The behavior of parents is what is going to stick with their children, so maybe if we start changing the shape of how parents view instant gratification, we can change that same behavior in children. Something to think about.

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Chilhood Obesity Getting Worse

This article I found was pretty alarming.

A new study found that one in five American 4-year olds are obese. That's OBESE, not just overweight.

Here were the breakdowns by racial groups:

Almost 13 percent of Asian children were obese, along with 16 percent of whites, almost 21 percent of blacks, 22 percent of Hispanics, and 31 percent of American Indians.

The article goes on to talk about why there are the bigger disparities between the racial groups:

Flores cited higher rates of diabetes in American Indians, and also Hispanics, which scientists believe may be due to genetic differences.

Also, other factors that can increase obesity risks tend to be more common among minorities, including poverty, less educated parents, and diets high in fat and calories, Flores said.

One tool that a Native American tribe is using to help with the problem is setting up camps that focus on exercise but also follow in a Native American tradition:

To address the problem, her clinic has created activities for young Indian children, including summer camps and a winter break "outdoor day" that had kids braving 8-degree temperatures to play games including "snowsnake." That's a traditional American Indian contest in which players throw long, carved wooden "snakes" along a snow or ice trail to see whose lands the farthest.

The hope is that giving kids used to modern sedentary ways a taste of a more active traditional American Indian lifestyle will help them adopt healthier habits, she said.

Although I can appreciate the concept of keeping with a tradition within a certain racial group, I have to say, I hope they have those kids doing something more than just throwing something.

We need to get these kids exerting themselves more. How about a game where one kid throws the snowsnake and another kid sprints after it and retrieves it, kind of like playing fetch with a dog?

This is something that I think we all need to really be concerned about because if we don't get this under the microscope and come up with a plan to fight it soon, we're going to have a whole generation of youngster where it will be normal to have high blood pressure, diabetes, joint problems, cancers, etc., then to not have those health issues.

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Home Opener Today

Today is blog free because I'll be spending it down at the ballpark watching my beloved Detroit Tigers in their home opener.

Have a good weekend everyone and enjoy your Easter.

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