It is truly a sad state of affairs when the truth causes a controversy like this. The State of Georgia has taken the bold step of making some videos stating the truth about childhood obesity. The truth, it’s no fun being overweight.
But what is happening? People are complaining about the videos! Yup, drawing attention to the problem is considered politically incorrect. No solutions offered is the cry.
If it were easy, and solutions were just a matter of snapping your fingers, no one would be over-weight. but it does take work and it does take dedication AND IT TAKES EDUCATION.
I say bravo to those who have boldly gone where no one else has dared. Obesity is a problem, and not just for adults.
As to the first step, it is being aware that there is a problem. Now that the conversation has started, we as a society can move forward. For those of you in the Ottawa area, come to our Ultimate Detox this January 29 and take charge of your life.
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. ……… Bumpy Boobs
– A blog of a young woman who has just discovered she has breast cancer. Her writing is therapeutic for her, and is a help others going through this trying ordeal
The Intention Experiment with Lynn McTaggert
When I was a child, I was fortunate to live in a country where physical education was mandatory. Between the age of 7 and 8, I preferred to spend my recreation time reading under a tree instead of running around on the playing field. However, starting at the age of 9 and through mandatory Phys Ed classes at school, I learnt skills needed for long jump, high jump, trampoline and tennis, while learning the pleasure and value of team sports such as rounders, net ball, field hockey, cricket and soccer. At that time, only 5% of my classmates were considered overweight/obese compared to today’s statistic of 30% of children in North America. I was so short and skinny back then, my nickname was “small fry”. Yet now, in my middle age, I am overweight even though I enjoy working out with my personal trainer, JP Brunelle, twice a week. With 30% of North Amercian kids considered to be overweight/obese, I shudder to think of what their health will be like when they reach middle age.
The ads about childhood obesity are important so that people realize that we need to act now to help our children improve their health.
I would like to see our schools make Phys Ed mandatory, but with a twist; find activities that are fun (e.g., trampoline). If I hadn’t been forced into physical activity as a child, I would have never learnt how much fun it is to be active.
I would also like our schools to have mandatory cooking classes, so that children learn how cook simple, nutritious food instead of them relying on fast food outlets which are huge contributors to the overweight/obesity problem.
Current North American sedentary lifestyles, misleading claims on “healthy” pre-packaged foods and poor eating habits are detrimental to our health. The Detox workshop is a useful start to those of us who want to learn more about leading a more healthy lifestyle. I now pay more attention to the foods I eat based on a better understanding of the importance of the health of my liver, kidneys, heart, digestive system and brain to my wellbeing.
Some great ideas there Francoise. And as the current ads say in Ontario, your child needs to exercise everyday! That and a change of diet.
I really like the Ontario ads which say that children need 60 minutes of exercise every day.
What’s important is to make it fun. When tennis was introduced in my high school, my classmates and I would run down three or four flights of stairs as soon as the bell rang for our lunch hour in order to grab a spot on the two available tennis courts (4 players to a court for each half hour). So in addition to our two 45-minute Phys Ed classes a week, my friends and I played at least a 1/2 hour of tennis every day, 1 hour of tennis if we were lucky. I was the fastest runner down those stairs since I would fearlessly jump two or three steps at a time to be the first one to secure a tennis court. A lot of us were addicted to tennis, so one hour of exercise a day was nothing to us. Unfortunately these days, most kids are addicted to virtual games on the Internet.
I often laugh when I think of how I loved to run down or climb up stairs two or three steps at a time, since now whenever JP makes me climb steps two-at-a-time, I groan with exertion. Having JP as my personal trainer really works well for me because:
1) he makes the exercises fun to do;
2) he knows how to correct my body position so that I work my muscles and joints properly;
3) he pushes me harder than I would push myself;
4) he knows when I have a little bit of effort left to give or when I’ve reached my limit – this mystifies me; 5) he’s good at providing me with mental imagery to keep me motivated – “Make rainbows with your knees”, “Jump quietly and lightly like a cat”;
6) he teaches me routines I can do at home.
I hope I get to the point where one hour of exercise a day will once again feel “like nothing” like when I was a kid.
And the kicker to all of this, we adults should also be exercising daily! The old 3X/week is old school and doesn’t stop one from slowly deteriorating with time. Since we have to do it or get old fast, find something you like,