Statistics:

1) According to American Heart Association in 2013, about one in three American kids and teens is overweight or obese, nearly triple the rate in 1963.

2) The Arab Health Blog on the other end in its article “Childhood Obesity: Much more than a UAE Government Agenda” states that “Kelly Scott, in her survey on Teachers’, Parents’ and Students’ Perceptions of Childhood Obesity in the Middle East focuses on the issue of childhood obesity.  Based on her findings suggesting 30% obesity rates among UAE children between 6 and 16 years.”

Now thats becoming a universal affair. Those above mentioned statistics are worrisome and eye openers. Dont condemn anyone just look within. We have impaired our habits tremendously. Why not be conscious about our kids health and amend our habits first, to have indirect impact on them? The question arises how? I found the solution by liking 4 tips given by the First Lady Michelle Obama in an article “Michelle Obama gives weight loss advice” written by CNN’s Ashley Killough which are stated below. [Link to the article: http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2013/03/04/michelle-obama-gives-weight-loss-advice/]

4 tips to handle the children weight:

1 Firstly, do not go for looks and appearances.

2. Secondly,  “We should really talk to kids about how they feel, how they feel inside so that we are not just dealing with the physical manifestations of the challenge but we are really tapping into what is going on inside that head of that child,” she said. “And then we want to talk about ways to make it fun.” Stated by Michelle in that article.

3. Thirdly do not discuss the weight issue at home.

It is my perception that the more we recall about things the more conscous we get and sometimes things go further out of hands. If this issue is avoided in front of kids they wouldn’t feel bad about it. If kids are getting obese its we who are providing them will all the wrong options. Why not manage ourselves.

4 Lastly,  Michelle was facing similar challenges when the kids were little so this is what they did. “We just started to make changes. And we made changes in a way that didn’t make them feel badly about themselves,” she said. “It didn’t even make them feel any ownership over it because truly kids that age can’t control what they eat.”

These steps are very much easy to understand and implement. Adding healthy foods in our meals, doing exercise and physical activity and refraining from TV and on the couch games should be focused first to initiate. Then most of all, always let your children know that you love them. Tell your kids how much you care about them and want to help. Let them acknowledge that you want to see them healthy and happy in their life.

Recommended Reading Books:
 

]]> https://letsshareknowledge.com/parenting-the-first-lady-michelle-obamas-tips-on-children-weight-management/feed/ 1 https://letsshareknowledge.com/a-dieting-strategy/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=a-dieting-strategy Sun, 10 Feb 2013 16:00:51 +0000 http://www.letsshareknowledge.com/?p=302 The purpose behind all my posts is to share any self improvement knowledge that i come accross with my fellow readers.  Diet issues are one of the most prevalent these days. According to the World Health Organization statistics of 194 countries, 12 % of world’s population (1.2 billion people) are obese. This agony of being overweight can only be felt by those who carry it. Like millions of surfers i also look for the ultimate solution. Though every now and then we are endeavoring a new dieting strategy, which just remains a trial until the next weekend.

I came accross this interesting dieting strategy in a post and thought of sharing. It was written by Shazia Khan on www.ny1.com, titled “Eating Schedule could affect one’s weight loss, study says“. This study was actually published in International Journal of Obesity. It was a 20 week study of 400 obese men and women in Spain which were divided into two groups.

The post classified the two groups as “One who ate their largest meal of the day before 3 [o’clock], the other group ate their largest meal after 3 [o’clock]. They found  that the group who ate later had a slower rate of weight loss and a significantly lower amount of weight loss,” says LaBonte.”. Both these group were taking same diet, same calories, same sleep and same amount of physical activity.

Now not all diet plans suit everyone. On the other hand there are some diet plans like Weight Watchers, Atkins Diet, Bread Diet and so on which are used by many and instilled in their lives for complete life style transformation. They are doing well and maintaining it well. We all have to look for such a criteria that can be accomodated in our way of living. The above mentioned diet is not particularly stopping us from any food, just control the portion intake and adjust within the timings. Below mentioned are four points that i overall gathered from this particular diet.

Four key points of this diet strategy were:

1 Eat small portions every 3 to 4 hours.

2. Eat all your heavy meals before 3: o clock.

3 Do not skip breakfast (if you take heavy meals late in the evening you tend to either skip breakfast or eat less ). Our metabolism is in conservation mood when sleeping, therefore taking proper breakfast helps boost our metabolism which keeps us active the whole day.

4 Chose healthy food options.

In my case i cant eat heavy meals before three as most of my heavy meals are actually dinners and that too on weekends. I will try to implement 1 and 3 atleast by eating small portions of those heavy meals and having a breakfast with regularity. Now how to measure small portions? I have derived to count the number of bites i normally take, if i am having 30 spoons of food, then why not make it 25 for a month and reduce further the next month till i dont figure out the small portion that suits me and helps me in reducing more.

 Let me give you an example, if my 1 spoon is 15 calories, and i reduce 5 spoons each from breakfast, lunch and dinner then i am taking 225 less calories in a day, which makes it 6750 less calories a month. 6750 calories become 81000 calories a year. When we divide 81000 a year by 7700 (number of calories in 1 kg) we get an approximate 10 kg reduction in 1 year.

This is just a minimal change that can bring stupendous results. Eating slowly and taking water sips in between assists us getting full in this reduced portion incase still hungry. Its better to make small changes rather then taking big steps. Budging even 1 percent a week would help us change more then 50 percent by the end of the year.

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