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Health & Fitness

Over 1/3 are Overweight or Obese

If your child is in a class of 15 children, at least 5 of those kids are likely to be overweight or obese. Help change this!

Not us (adults), our kids!  That's right, according to the CDC, in 2010 over 33% of children and adolescents were considered to be overweight or obese, and the trend is not declining.  We NEED to change this, drastically.  And you and I are the only people that can do it!  If we don't do something about this problem, health costs are going to continue to soar and quality and length of life of our future generations is going to be less than our own.  Some experts anticipate that the life expectancy of the next generation will for the first time in recorded history be less than that of their parents.  But to change this we cannot attack weight as the problem, but merely a symptom of an underlying problem - an unhealthy lifestyle.  

So how do we change our kids unhealthy lifestyles to help them achieve a healtheir weight and a healthier life, without going to war with them?  

It's not easy, but it's not as hard as you think either.  Here's three things you can start out doing today!

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  • Buy fresh, organic (preferably locally grown) produce and meats and make that the foundation of your families diet. Garbage in, garbage out, step #1 is stop buying garbage.  Take your kids shopping with you and get them involved and have them help out with the food prep (FYI - If you don't have to prepare it at all, it's probably not that healthy).  It's good physical exercise too - walking, cutting, peeling, chopping.  Let them pick out fruits and vegetables and things that they would like to eat or at least try.  Try new things, over and over again - research shows that it may take your child up to 10 tastes of a new food before they get used to it and start to like it.  Check out some of the different farmer's markets around Milwaukee.  There's always Brookfield Farmer's Market; May through October on Saturdays from 7:30a - 12:00p. http://www.brookfieldfarmersmarket.com

 

  • Find and encourage physical activity that your child enjoys.  Kids are physically active to have fun, make friends and learn new things.  Throwing junior on the treadmill, bike, or making him swim laps with you probably accomplishes none of those three things and will likely result in your child disliking physical activity.  Heavier kids tend to be stronger than other kids, encourage them to try strength training (with proper coaching and supervision for safety and good mechanics).  It can boost their confidence, burn calories and develop muscle to burn more calories and they can have fun and make friends doing it.  Check out your local gym or YMCA for kids programs.  Let them try different sports, don't force them into the ones Dad or Mom used to play.

 

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  • Replace soda and sweetened beverages with purified water.  I don't typically recommend people cut or restrict things form their diet.  But if your child is overweight or obese, I have no problems saying that there is no place in his/her diet for soda.  Juice can be good, but most canned and bottled juices are so far altered and removed from their natural state that most of the good stuff is lost, leaving just concentrated sugar and calories.  Fresh juice is awesome, it's packed with antioxidants and nutrients and I am loving the juicer we picked up last month, so are my kids!  Stay away from canned and bottled

 

Here's some useful "Do's and Don'ts" as suggested by the ACA (American Chiropractic Association). 

DO:
•Trust your child to listen to his or her own internal cues about eating
•Encourage your child to eat when hungry
•Serve a wide variety of food
•Allow your child to stop eating when he or she feels full
•Teach your child to love his or her body
•Facilitate physical activity for pleasure
•Help your child to deal with boredom or negative feelings without using food

DON’T:
•Use food as a reward
•Force your child to eat foods he or she doesn’t want
•Forbid any foods, such as sweets
•Restrict the amount of food your child needs to satisfy hunger
•Criticize your child’s or your own body size
•Promote dieting 

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