A 12-Step Campaign to Help Overweight Children Lose Weight That Works
It worked for my kid.
There is an obesity epidemic growing among children in the United States. Obesity is a disease. Our children are growing fatter. According to the Centers for Disease Control, data from 2015 and 2016, 1 in 5 pre-teen children meets the definition of obese.
If you are the parent of an obese child, you need not tell the child they are fat. They already know. Their classmates have made certain of that. You must act to address their health.
As the parent, you will help your child lose weight, but not by putting them on a diet. Besides child diets being demotivating for the kids, kids who know they are on diets are rebellious and miserable. Parents enforcing the diet are also rebellious and miserable.
The techniques below work on children and pre-teens. No one is miserable.
This works. I developed it for one of my children and have passed it on to other parents. Their overweight young humans lost weight 80% of the time. The children never realized they were on a weight loss journey.
Below are the 12 steps. Implement one change every 2 to 4 weeks.
The reason you give to anyone who asks about the changes is that you are on a health quest for yourself. You are getting older and all that.
Your child’s weight is of no concern to anyone but you. It is nobody’s business but yours and your child’s pediatrician.
Explain to your son or daughter the danger you are in if you don’t change your eating habits. Enlist their help to make you better. Insist that they eat what you eat, so it does not tempt you. Your child will work hard to help you get better.
Here are the 12 steps.
1. Stop cooking unhealthy food. If you must cook unhealthy food, only cook enough for everyone to have one portion.
2. Stop buying unhealthy food. When you implement this step, don’t stop buying everything at once. One week, leave the potato chips behind. The next, cut the candy ration in 1/2. Over time, the amount of unhealthy food coming into your home will reduce.
3. Buy healthy food. The same way unhealthy food falls off the list; healthy food falls on the list. Slide one new healthy item each time you shop.
4. Cook healthy food. Veggies and protein are the keys. The melody of low carb and high protein is the background song to your cooking.
5. Assign your child chores that require movement. Wiping off a table with wood shine is work. Sweeping a floor is work. Folding clothing is work. It doesn’t matter what the chore is if it requires the child to move.
6. Go for a walk with your kid. Take the child out for a one-On-one walk with you. Talk about something successful in their life. Praise them for their good work.
7. Get the kid a Fitbit or Apple Watch. Install a running/walking game on it. As the child moves around during the day, so does the character on their device. One of my favorites is “Run, Zombies, Run.” Your physical movement causes the victim to run from the Zombies.
8. Play sports with them. Any game will do. Don’t overdo it in the first couple of weeks. If the game makes the kid burn calories, you have been successful.
“There are those that will say it is bad to trick your child. Pay them no attention. I used tricks on my children to make them into decent human beings every day while they were growing up. I used the techniques below one year when one of my children returned from summer vacation with my ex-husband looking as if someone had pumped them up with an air pump. It worked. They never knew they we thought they were overweight.”
9. Move their play room or their toys as far from the family hang-out as possible. Always have them retrieve or rerun each item to the play room. Every step counts.
10. Get an active pet for the kid. A cat will not do.
11. Stop talking about the child’s weight. Stipulate others not discuss your child’s weight. It is not a topic for examination. Put them out of your house if need be.
12. Tell no one what you are doing. Keep it to yourself. It’s like the first rule of “Fight Club,” you don’t talk about Fight Club. Slowly make the changes.
As the changes take effect, without nagging or harassment, your child will lose weight. You might accidently get healthier too. Their success will be your success.
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I can be reached at https://www.tonicrowewriter.com/
