Making fat kids is a form of child abuse.

Ok, so this has been bothering me for quite a while now and I’ve only just said it to family members and close friends. It is a touchy subject and I hate to stand there and judge people, but I cannot keep quiet about it any longer.

So here goes…Just because you may be overweight or obese, it does not mean that you should raise your children in the same fashion by letting them adopt the same unhealthy eating habits.

I’ve seen quite a few parents do this with their children and I feel that perhaps not intentional, but as a reward: form of giving love/attention. I honestly believe that overfeeding your child is a form of child abuse and that these people raising children like this need to be told. I’m not advising you to feed your kids rabbit food 24/7, I’m saying that there needs to be a balance. I love my chocolate, chips and ice-cream as much as the next person but you cannot go living and eating out of a bag of crisps for the rest of your damn life.

I think the biggest indicator is clothing size (if you’re shopping seasonal), excessive height and weight gain (children who gain excessive weight develop physically faster than other children their age).  They should not have rolls of fat, eat massive portions or be breathless when walking (massive indicator of fitness level). The best thing if unsure, is to get your child checked out by a health professional such as a general practitioner and then devise a healthy eating plan with nutritionist. I would not go by BMI because you do need to take account of body shape and other things.

What also triggered my ‘need to voice’ this opinion was recently over the Christmas holidays I saw an episode of  ‘Here comes Honey Boo Boo show’ and it was a thanksgiving special. It really outraged me that a mother (my age) didn’t know how to cook greens. What I failed to understand was that if you don’t know how to do or cook something, maybe you should look it up in a book or on the internet or ask a relative/neighbour or friend. There is no excuse. You don’t even need to know how to cook to eat a fruit or a vegetable- you can eat some raw.

This site also discusses the health issues that can arise from child obesity: http://www.kidspot.com.au/familyhealth/Nutrition-Healthy-weight-Is-my-child-fat+3137+223+article.htm

I don’t want our children to be over paranoid, weight conscious children who develop the other extreme of the spectrum (anorexia nervosa or bulimia). I just want our children to be educated to know the difference between healthy food and junk food and to have some self-control whilst eating them. Eating healthy shouldn’t be a chore but a ‘lifestyle’!!!!

So people if you are overfeeding your children with junk food or you know someone who is tell them to please stop!!! Do them a favour instead of teaching the children self-loathing, self-medicating habits that leads to a short life of misery riddled with complications.

New Year? New You? Healthy, Wealthy and Wise.

For most of the New Years resolutions I made in the past they were lifestyle changing commitments and hard to keep at. Its time to be realistic about your New Year resolutions and if you are not going to do them, don’t make them. It just leaves a disappointing start to the year for you and you want the best start for yourself.

It was only till last year, that I made only one New Year resolution. It was to never say something that I was never going to fulfill. This resolution motivated me to do the things that I have been saying for the last three years and it honestly felt a huge accomplishment and it left me with a guilt-free conscious. Basically, I needed to have a plan of attack so I didn’t set myself up for failure.

I gave up smoking March this year but before that had two years worth of failure. I could always give up for a few weeks.

GIVE UP SMOKING

• Don’t give up unless you are completely ready.
• What I had to do was find out my triggers and know how to deal with them when it came around.
• For two weeks I used Champix. The course of the medication was a month’s worth. I smoked for the first 7-8 days and then stopped smoking and continued the medication for another week. I did not finish the course because of side-effects but by then my cravings had significantly lessened and I was able to use will power to continue to not smoke.
• Replace your habit with a healthy habit…a distraction. I trained with my friend or went for 5km walks with the dog. I have also taken up knitting in the past to cope with distracting my hands.

LOSE WEIGHT

Commit yourself to fitness by doing a marathon and raise money for charity

I had a friend talk me into signing up for a 14km walk from Sutherland to Surf. Our donations would be given to The Australian Cancer Research Foundation. We trained 1 day a week together and three times on our own. It’s funny when you have so much riding on training that you don’t wanna let others down as well as yourself. Plus, we made a facebook page so others (friends and family) could also follow our progress and encourage us. The bigger your support network, the better.

Download:

• My Fitness Pal: The food diary is where you can enter your meals and it will calorie count that keeps you on track, nutrition has calorie breakdown and progress shows your weight loss.
• Footsteps: is a pedometer app that helps you record your steps, time and distance you have walked.

DIET

Training is only half the work, your diet has to be modified as well. I also used the body trim diet because it is effective for me in the past. It focuses more on portion control, protein, vitamins and minerals and one free-day of eating per week.

Organise your shopping list

I used this to organise my shopping list. I print and take it with me.

Click on: http://www.kidspot.com.au/shoppinglist/ShoppingList.asp

It deters you from picking up extras. Remember there will always  be ‘specials‘ on junk food. Avoid the aisle and just know that if you do have a ‘free-day’ once a week, then that’s the time to have it. Once you start losing weight, you’ll definitely rethink eating something that will set you back from your goal.

Cut down on the carbs

I tried eating carbs in the morning so I could work it off in the day. You need to know what foods work with your body and which foods don’t. I knew for a fact pasta and bread bloat me and make me put on weight very easily.In the evening I replaced rice and pasta with other alternatives. Quinoa, bed of vegetables like cauliflower (you can make cauliflower rice) mushrooms (low in carbs), string beans etc.

Cut down on sugar, salt and fat

I cut out buying soft drink and having sugar in my coffee three years and it honestly took off 4kgs off my weight. Small changes do work over a long period of time. A great replacement for soft drink is sparkling water. You still get the “fizz” but it’s a healthy drink.If you are going to have that slice of cake or that bag of chips, just make sure it’s served in a small plate or bowl, giving you the illusion it’s a big portion. It’s really hard at times to dodge a craving.Heed the warning!!! – Just remember that every time you have sugar you are spiking your bloodstream. Sugar is a drug. A silent drug. I know it sounds dramatic but the more you have it, the more you want it.

Healthy snacks:

-Nuts

-Celery

-Carrot sticks.

SMALL TIPS

• Small portions of food  and eat regularly. Being hungry is not an option.
• Drink one water before and after a meal.
• Don’t prepare a meal while hungry, if you’re one of those people who snack whilst chopping. I do this a lot.
• Don’t rush to lose weight. Think of the diet as a lifestyle change and something that is easy to stick to.

ORGANIZE YOUR FINANCES

I found this website the most helpful budget planner. You need to find out where you stand and how much you can save. It gives you an option to print out 7 pages of your current budget and the pie graphs are great.

Click on: https://www.moneysmart.gov.au/tools-and-resources/calculators-and-tools/budget-planner

WISDOM

This comes with learning life lessons. Remember, try and always think of the positive that comes from a situation. Whether its something that you don’t want to have repeated, or something that you can advise someone else on having gone through it yourself. I know I am constantly learning new things about myself everyday and talking with friends about my experiences does help at times because it gives me a different perspective and time to reflect on things. Some things are definitely better with hindsight.

• Value yourself: You have to love and respect yourself first and foremost. Don’t let anyone dictate your happiness or let anyone take advantage or compromise you as a person.
• Recognise recurring patterns of destructive behaviour: What emotions are you dealing with? How could you have handled it better? What triggers those things? Then try and remove the triggers.

• Spend time with your loved ones whilst they are around:  Stop making excuses and make the effort to meet and be with the ones you care about.
• And remember you are where you are because of your decisions: What you have right now is what you think you deserve, so don’t settle if you think you deserve better.

Hope everyone has a safe and happy New Year 🙂