Tackling the Obesity Epidemic One Household at a Time

*In recent years, media sources around the country have been awash in stories chronicling the rise in childhood obesity statistics since the 1970s. Basically, these statistics have more than doubled! More than two times the number of children have been diagnosed as overweight or obese in the United States than there were when these children's parents were children! Double the figures in a single generation's time span.

This is not something we can simply wait to ebb. Action needs to happen and it needs to happen now.

There's a lot more to this obesity epidemic than expanding waistlines. Excess weight in children, like adults, leads to chronic health issues; specifically, heart disease, diabetes, stroke-----and that's just a few of the plethora of ills that can and do befall children and adults that cannot maintain a healthy weight. These problems can lead to organ damage, organ failure, blindness---even death. With children, though, their organs are still maturing, so the incidence of damage is higher.

So, what do we do? Schools, under constant pressure to produce higher academic achievement statistics are doing away with daily recess. Budget concerns have limited physical education to only a few times a week in some cases----in others, it's been done away with altogether, despite national grassroots initiatives to reverse this trend. Families where there are two working parents, or even single-parent families struggle to meet the basic needs of the family, let alone trying to incorporate fitness into the mix, whether by paying for private physical classes or paying a family gym membership. How do we nudge this trend in the opposite direction?

While I am no "expert" in this area, I have dealt with being overweight throughout my childhood and am struggling with being a borderline obese adult. This is something that has affected me my entire life. I don't remember a time when I was a healthy weight, although I've seen pictures that have shown me to have been a healthy, average sized toddler.

Now, I am a parent of a healthy, average-sized toddler and a growing pre-teen and am facing this epidemic not just as someone who's trying to reverse the trend in their own body (and slowly succeeding), but as a parent determined to raise healthy, well-adjusted children with proper habits that they can use throughout their lives to remain happy and healthy. Looking back over the almost thirty years it took to amass my bulk, I realize now that there were things that could have been done by my parents to help me help myself. My hope is that through sharing these little tidbits of realized wisdom, there may be families out there that can benefit from what I didn't-----at least until now.

Exercise cannot be thrust upon one member of the family and ignored by the rest: My parents, grandparents and other adult family members were always talking about how I needed to lose weight, but no one was ever really willing to do anything with me to encourage me at all. The usual scenario involved my mother shooing me out into the front yard to "go play" and closing the door behind her, usually muttering something about my being too fat.

Never really being a child that took to team sports very well at all, going out to "play" was akin to being told to go jump into a crocodile's mouth. I just wasn't into running around like other children are wont to do. So, instead of going to "play", I would slouch under a tree and indulge in a bit of daydreaming.

In a manner of speaking, this behavior isn't really unlike children today. Let's face it, your child comes home from school, grabs something to eat and plops down somewhere to crank out the night's homework assignment. Once they've hashed that out, they flip on the television, video game system or computer and let their minds go wherever they may. They may come out of it long enough to eat supper and maybe take a bath, but they're basically sedentary until bedtime. This is the routine at least five days out of the seven day week.

Parents, you all go through the same style routine. Come home from work, fix something to eat, feed the family, then plop down in front of the television to "unwind" after a long, stressful day. You're off to bed after the children and are generally up at least half an hour before they are every single day.

Am I right? Everyone's dealing with more stress than ever before and they're all dealing with it the same way: plopping down in front of something and doing nothing. So, why not have some fun as a family to relieve that stress and unwind a bit before bedtime? Some things I've implemented over the past two years that seem to be working are:

1.Buy the Dance, Dance, Revolution game kit for your X-Box: This is a cardio video game that is nothing short of cool! The "controller" is an exercise-style mat that a player stands on. The screen shows a little "video person" standing on an identical pad and the player mimics what they see on the screen. The player's feet hit the arrow on the mat that corresponds with the one that lights up on the screen. You're jumping around to techno-style music and having a blast. Our family sets this up and we take turns playing. Just think, your kids would have the neatest video game in the arcade and you're not shelling out a dollar per play, plus gas to get to the arcade......

2.Take an evening stroll around the neighborhood: Okay, this one might be a bit tougher, especially if you live in either a rural setting or in a very urban setting. But, most of us can find some place to take the family for a walk after supper. It's important to go as a family, because this is time to just talk about things. And, if you have children that aren't too keen on having to participate in exercise to begin with, it's more bearable if you're being supportive and actively participating, too. Take a few laps around the high school track (cross country trails are even better), or a local park------or just walk in a several-block circuit until you're back home again. As everyone's fitness level improves, you can go for longer walks, on more challenging terrain. Make a game of "I Spy" out of it to include the younger children and keep the older ones engaged as well.

3.Dust off your wheels: Yep, time to bridge that generation gap and show the young 'uns how it's done! Heelies may be the 'in' thing right now, but a trip to the roller rink will use more muscles and have the added 'cool' factor of a DJ spinning tunes to roll to. Don't skate? Try some of those old-school style scooters. They're very budget-friendly and both the kids and the adults love them. They fold up and store away easily enough and you can take them virtually anywhere.

4.Make weekend activities family activities: Even if it's chore weekend in the yard, get everyone involved. Those little household activities add up to calories burnt. Younger children might be excited about helping to plant a garden, or helping Mom dust the living room. Older children and teens might be inclined to help dig the garden, or mow the lawn (especially if their MP3 player's loaded, charged and ready) and at the end of the day, the family has worked together to make their home better. How's that for bonding time?

In the event that you are lucky enough to not be working on the weekend, then take the
opportunity to go somewhere different and try something new. A nature trail in a state park, or a
cavern tour? Many of these can be as short as a quarter mile loop or go on for several miles and can also be an opportunity to have an educational experience with your children. Hey, we have to get what we can, when we can, right?

While increasing physical activity is certainly a big part of resolving weight issues, diet is just as important. Please, don't think of 'diet' as the "four-letter word", because it really means "what we eat". I've never really done well with the word "no". Someone tells me I can't have something and I'm all the more determined to have it, just to prove I can. So, when I made the decision to improve my health, I promised myself four things: I would not deprive myself of anything. I would not eat more than it took to ebb the hunger pangs, even if it meant eating more times in a day than three. I would not use diet pills, but vitamins were a must. I would be reasonable with myself.

Yeah, I eat pasta. I love it. Would probably go insane without it. My youngest child hates bread, so without pasta, I'd never get grains into her at all. Saying "no" to everything I happen to love was not going to happen. Instead, I sat down and wrote out a reality check. The average adult person needs between 1800-2500 calories a day (depending on activity level and other factors) to remain healthy. The FDA's food pyramid details the breakdown of those calories into daily servings. I was reasonably sure that a 'serving' of pasta wasn't the huge plate I had the night before, so I actually sat down in front of a clean kitchen table and measured out what 2000 calories looked like, using the FDA food pyramid figures and I was shocked at how much I had been eating compared to what's really needed to be healthy. No wonder we're in an obesity epidemic! We're overeating every single day!

So, I started paying attention to how much food was served at each meal and I realized something else: what was needed to be healthy wasn't necessarily enough to stop the feeling of being hungry. I did some more reading and found out that processed food doesn't fill the body up as well as whole grains and foods in a more natural state. I had been curious about these new, fortified, whole grain pastas, so I bit the bullet and tried it one night. My kids didn't really know the difference, but I noticed that for the first time ever, we had leftovers on spaghetti night and no one was clambering for a heaping dish of ice cream half an hour after supper. So, I started finding sneaky little ways to alter the preparation of our favorite foods to make them a bit healthier. Here's some more tips you might find useful. Again, all road tested by yours truly:

1.Veggies are your friends, cooking them to moosh is your enemy: My kids have always been veggie eaters and I count myself blessed to have children that don't turn green at the mention of broccoli, Brussels sprouts, beans, spinach or squash. My mother, on the other hand, absolutely hated vegetables of all kinds until she took home economics in school and learned the meaning behind the phrase "fork tender" (and it does not mean 'so tender they fall off the fork into a pile of moosh'). I have used the age-old standby of "put cheese on it" as well and have never had a bad experience. I make my own cheese sauce, using lower fat cheeses and lowfat milk. Not only does it taste better, but you can tailor it to any cheese you please. Of course, you can also just sprinkle a little grated or crumbled cheese directly onto your veggies right before serving. It's just enough flavor to make it interesting to young palates. Don't feel like cooking them? Serve mini carrots, broccoli "trees", snap pea pods and cauliflower "trees" as a relish tray with ranch dip. Trays: not just for parties anymore.

2.Candy, chips, cookies, cakes---not staples: While I promised I would not deprive myself, I certainly wasn't going to sabotage my efforts to reform my habits, either. I removed all the "junk foods" and soda pop from the house. If I was going to have a candy bar or a swig of soda, I was going to have to walk the four blocks round trip to the convenience store. I started walking to the local produce market every Saturday morning with my children and we'd pick out some fruit that looked good to us and the fruit became our "sweets". Yes, I'd also get the desire for a cookie to the point I'd whip out the cookbook and make a few dozen, but that certainly beat buying them from the store. Our grocery bill's much more manageable and we're not constantly noshing on foods with little or no nutritional value. I've also discovered that soda pop does not quench thirst. At all. Without it being at the ready in the fridge, I don't drink it unless I'm out somewhere, and even then, I'd rather have a glass of ice water or iced tea without sugar. If I only have 2000 calories in a day to play with, I don't want to drink them.

3.Cook with the skim milk. They won't notice, really: Honestly, if you're making mashed potatoes to go with that crock-pot pot roast, do you think they'll notice if you used the whole milk or the skim? Skim milk has less than ½ of one percent of milkfat. Whole milk has as much as four percent! If you're trying for healthy, which would you use? Another area I found myself stuck over was the whole seasoning issue. I tried the fresh herbs bit, but I'd forget I had something and it'd go bad before I'd get around to using it. So, I keep a store of dried herbs and spices for use in pretty much everything. I can add really incredible flavor to food without having to do a whole lot to it. And herbs are very low-cal. At least cooking with lower fat ingredients means you can serve a little extra and not feel too bad about doing it.

4.Make the kitchen community property: How else can you really get your kids to want to eat healthy unless you're willing to get them in the kitchen and cooking? If making healthy food is fun then nutrition becomes a game. And kids are more likely to try something that they helped create.

5.Incorporate some kind of new fruit or veggie every week: If you've ever really stopped to see the produce department of your local mega-mart, there's probably a good portion of it you've never sampled. Kiwano melon? Jicama root? Ever try rutabagas? You don't have to go overboard and buy several pounds of anything. Just get one or two pieces and use them as an appetizer on a Friday night before a favorite meal. See what else is out there to try. You'd be amazed at what you can be missing.

Bottom line, families need to work together to improve habits overall. This is not something we can remedy by tossing the kids outside, charging them to "go play". We all need to move more. We all need to be more aware of what we're eating and how much of it. There are ways to be sneaky about being healthy and it's perfectly okay to be a little sneaky. We need to teach by example. That's why I find it so important that fitness be a family-wide priority, even if not all the family members are exhibiting weight issues. Children need that degree of support. They need to know Mom and Dad are willing to go the distance with them and they aren't judging them.

Besides, it's fun to play with your kids!

*June 2002: NIH Word on Health