Snow,
I just saw an episode of Oprah. I hope you got to see it.
It was exactly what we talked about earlier about obesity.
She did the show in stages so they could get at the root cause of the obesity for these teenagers. Some of it was too painful to watch for me, seeing them and their parents talking about the discrimination and the pain of their day-to-day lives at school or even at hom. I only caught part of it but very sad the reasons they over eat and part of it was lack of activity as well so like everything else there is no one answer-- it is complex.
However, there were some kids who actually had medical problems that made it difficult to lose weight too.
They talked about healthy portions which is my method and they talked about healthy choices, the author of eat this, not that was on talking about the healthy choices. Honestly, I did not get all of those answers right either.
Dr. Oz was there to explain the medical end of it and the author of the eat this not that handled the nutrition part of it.
Very good show.
if you go to oprah.com, you can catch snippets of it.Well first of all we had gym class every day. I think it's important to instill in kids that daily exercise is good for the health. It also helps them to burn off excess energy so they behave in class- but gym is only a couple of days a week now unless you have health that semester when it is none.
We had our share of cookies, tastycakes, sugary cereals, etc. but going to McDonald's was very rare. There were very few fast food chains- now there is every kind under the sun! People use them in place of cooking dinner on a regular basis. The portion sizes are huge and you can easily eat all the calories you need for a day and a half in one meal.
My son's doctor was insensitive to his weight issues. Plus he was always in need of losing at leat 15 lbs before Pop Warner football season if he wanted to play. He always did it but not without a real struggle. Football practice is hard exercise and practices were 2 hrs 5 nights a week. He also had to cut way bavk on food and it never looked like he really ate all that much. My other son who is slim ate the same and was really almosy under weight. One off the charts; one barely in the percentiles. My son who was/is heavy was just diagnosed with hypothyrodism. I don't know if he had it all along. He was never massive- but he was obese according to the charts. The doctor used to ask him what he ate but he didn't look like he believed him when he told him. I never heard him being ridiculed but today it's hard to catch wind of things because so much social activity is through cyberspace.
I myself feel pressured by the images I see. My doctor tells me I am not overweight but I feel like I am. The media always shows "perfect" women. The computer enhancements are so good you cannot tell that what you are looking at is not real. The "Stars" get so much plastic surgery or spend so much money on personal trainers none of them grow old anymore! It's a tough road we ladies in our 40's & 50's have to tow these days! Gee by now I was hoping I could say- who cares!
Ditto a lot of what WTB said.
Yeah, I think it's a combination of things, lack of activity, genetics, fast food. Even with the genetics or medical issues if you take away the fast food and increase activity, you may be still be ahead of the game.
I don't have kids but I remember when I was a kid, we played all the time. I raced a lot, played tag, hide and seek, marbles, dodge ball, hop scotch, double-dutch rope. I was always sweating from playing so hard. also played in the snow cold didn't matter to us back then. In school we played a lot during recess time, kick ball, climbing on tires, jump rope, etc.
As a teenager, we didn't have computers or cell phones, when we were bored we played catch or walked long distances to the park to sit in a swing and talk or walk around the block. or usually someone had a basketball hoop out back, volleyball, rode the bike, badminton, etc., I remember a lot of walking.
Grandpa grew a vegetable garden, so we ate what we grew,, and I developed a love for veggies, grandma had a friend that went fishing, sometimes she went along, but he always had some for grandma, we sat at the dinner table, said grace. It was a routine. Grandma made pound cakes, tea cakes, stews, veggies, no cookies but pies, like blackberry pie or cobbler, peach cobbler, rice pudding, bread pudding, banana pudding. fattening things but made at home from scratch. Every now and then grandma would decide if we ate at KFC or a fast food place but that was rare. By the time I started to develop and exercise a lot less, I started to put on some weight, 20 pounds, mostly to my butt, bottom heavy, I think that was genetics, not a problem these days with so much muscle mass lost, but I put myself on a diet at that point, so I could be thin like everyone else, so I would say the peer pressure was an issue even then, magazines, trying to be like the people in the magazines. I went down to 128 pounds and that's where I stayed (with management) for my entire adult life until RA and prednisone showed up.
Shelly,
I started to watch Oprah, I watched for 5 minutes and turned the channel, my heart hurt for the children, they are so young and to be displayed on National TV was more than I could stand. I assume the show was done in good taste, and was accurate, I just felt for the kids. I would of probably watched if it was the PARENTS sitting on the stage and not the children. I don't know it's just made me feel uncomfortable in my living room, That is why there are buttons on that remote I guess.
Tink
Yeah Tink,
I couldn't watch it all because I was sitting there crying my eyes out right along with them, what little tears my eyes produce, that is. (They get watery and turn beet red but no real tears come out.) Oprah puts the kids on all the time so I am used to seeing that and she is very protective of the children so it was done in good taste. I think it was all a part of some type of camp or therapy they were in. However, the parents agreed to it and actually felt they were being helped to communicate better with the children, mostly teenagers. I am just a wimp when it comes to human suffering. Besides childhood is supposed to be fun. Yeah Snow, It feels like it is a combination of that to me. Some are more judgemental about the weight. Parents of the overweight and their loved ones are more concerned with the health. the doctors say they are concerned about health but hearing about what happened to your husband and one of my experiences with a friend from the past makes me wonder about that. Well. I was a friend to her. I dont' know about her being one to me.but she was trying to have a baby. I worked in the GYN department as an AdminAssist. and while talking to her doctor one day about how this friend really wanted to have a baby, the doctor abruptly said well she needs to lose weight. and that she was not going to conceive until she did. I talked to my friend gently about her weight and that her doctor says she would have better chances at conceiving if she shed a few pounds. The friend sounded as if this doctor had already been hammering away to her about that.So I don't know maybe they are concerned about health and think they have to get tough like a drill sergeant or what.
But people can be rude about anything different from the norm. even about being disabled, or in wheelchairs, etc.