Dieting - Travel & LifeStyle - Should I put my child on a diet

We are becoming a nation of overweight people. Adults who were never overweight as children are now overweight or even obese. The epidemic of childhood obesity is starting to worry parents, as they hear of more and more children developing type 2 diabetes, heart problems, or other serious medical conditions. Many wonder if they should put their children on a diet.

Unless your child’s doctor has recommended a diet for an obesity-related condition, a restrictive diet is not a good idea. Children are not miniature adults. Their dietary needs are far greater since their bones and muscles are still developing. What they DO need is a lifestyle change.

Most children (and adults) today watch too much TV, play too many video games, and get far too little exercise. Too much fast food and too many sodas or too much juice adds calories and fat.

Overweight parents owe it to their children to improve their own lifestyles so that they will be around to see the children reach adulthood. They also owe it to their children to control their environment in order to protect their health. Restricting TV, computer, and video games to no more than 2 hours a day may not make the kids happy at first, but replacing them with family activities that involve exercise will be a great bonding experience as well as improving everyone’s health.

Get the whole family outdoors for at least 30 minutes a day to play together. Ride bikes, go on a nature walk, shoot some hoops, toss a Frisbee, play with the dog, or whatever your family enjoys. If the weather is bad, put on some music and dance, play with a hula hoop, or jump rope inside. The kids will love the attention!

Get rid of the junk foods in your house, and only have them on special occasions outside the home. Encourage everyone to drink water instead of soda or juice.

Limit fast food to once a week and enjoy more meals at home. If you are too tired to cook, your local supermarket produce department will have pre-washed, bagged salad greens and veggies, and pre-cut fruit.

Frozen veggies need only to be steamed in the microwave for a short time. Chicken breasts can be wrapped tightly in foil and baked at 400 degrees for a few minutes until done inside. Fish can be grilled quickly. Meat loaves or other beef products can be purchased already prepared and just need 5 or 6 minutes in the microwave.

Make sure your family always eats a healthy breakfast. Let the kids set the table for breakfast while you clean up from dinner. Quick-cooking oatmeal takes 1 minute to prepare. Cold cereals such as shredded wheat biscuits or other cereals that are high in fiber and not pre-sweetened are nutritious and quick to fix. Hard boiled eggs can be prepared the night before and refrigerated for a quick breakfast. Whole wheat toast with natural peanut butter offers fiber, vitamins and minerals, and protein. A piece of fruit or a small glass of natural fruit juice and a glass of fat-free or low-fat milk will help children and adults be more productive all morning.

By making these lifestyle changes, your children will grow into their weight as they get taller, and their results in school should improve. Step up to the plate NOW, and start your family on the road to better health! They’re counting on you!

Bev Grey is founder of Grandma's Healthy Kids Club, an in-home program to motivate children to improve their eating and exercise habits or lose weight safely. She is also author of "The Project", a fictional story for children, as well as educators or medical professionals who work with children.

Bev Grey may be contacted at http://www.grandmashealthykidsclub.com or info@grandmashealthykidsclub.com

How To Maintain Your Weight Loss
by Christopher Guerriero

Once you have started losing weight, it is crucial to think of how to maintain that weight loss in the days ahead.

It may seem hard to believe, but taking the weight off is the easy part. Maintaining weight loss for good is where the real challenge lies. If you are like me, you have tried countless diets, only to gain the weight back. People lose lots of weight on diets everyday, but 95% of them gain it back because they have focused only on the weight loss. They follow the diet until they get to a particular number on the scale and then, shortly after, they go back to the old lifestyle that made them overweight in the first place. Over time, of course, the weight comes right back.

The truth is, almost everyone can lose weight but only 5% keep it off. These are the Weight Loss Registry's figures, not mine. The WLR followed highly successful dieters and came up with seven reasons why people were able to keep the weight off.

Here are the seven reasons the dieters were successful.

1. The dieters accepted failure and kept on trying.

2. The dieters did not deny themselves--they indulged from time to time.

3. They weighed themselves often.

4. They exercised one hour a day.

5. They added little bits of activity into their daily life.

6. They followed a high carb and low fat diet.

7. They ate 5 meals a day.

When I compare my own weight loss success to the list above, I would say I learned how to maintain weight loss due to the following: I do the best I can with what I have available. Sometimes I am not always in a perfect situation with the healthiest choices, but I make do with what is there and I stick to the plan. If I make a not so healthy choice, I don't beat myself up for it.

I eat YUMMY and whole foods. Using the finest ingredients makes the most delicious meals and has helped me stick to Living Well. If I wanted to indulge, I would make it from scratch using the healthiest ingredients possible. To me, indulging does not mean eating junk.

I use a tape measure to keep tabs on my weight and occasionally weigh myself.

I really struggle with exercising regularly and I have NEVER exercised for one hour a day consistently. I will do heavy housework and other activities around the house to get my heart rate up and I try different forms of exercise all the time because I get bored easily.

I think it is vital to get moving every day, somehow, and it doesn't always mean you have to be in an aerobics class or on some sort of machine to get your heart rate up.

I eat organic whole foods and healthy oils. I am not sold on the idea that low fat and high carb is the way to go. High fat is not the answer either, but healthy oils are not the enemy. The rights oils will actually speed up the metabolism.

I eat only 3 meals a day and rarely snack. I do better when I don't snack or graze on food all day. BUT, you may be different. You have to do what works best for you and your unique body.

This is the MOST IMPORTANT OF ALL: I think of the health I have now and my future health EVERYDAY. I really want to enjoy my older years and I want to be healthy. I don't want to sit in a rocking chair, talking about all my symptoms and the things that ail me when I am in my golden years.

The Weight Loss Registry tips and my maintenance tips are not the only path for everyone, but instead are some ideas you can use to come up with your own way to keep the weight off once you have lost it.

Ultimately, I think it is crucial to focus on your health when changing over to a healthy lifestyle. So many people are in a hurry to lose weight. They spend their entire lives putting on the weight, losing the weight temporarily on diets and just wanting to get rid of it as fast as possible, not taking into consideration their state of health. I know you have heard this many times before, but if you don't have your health, you don't have much. Being thin will mean nothing to you if you compromise your health along the way.

Even if you are losing weight slowly, good for you! The idea here is to take off the weight and keep it off for good. Even just a couple of pounds a month adds up over the course of a year. And for those that were doing everything they could and continuing to gain weight, just stopping that weight gain is a measure of success.

With these tips, you now know how to maintain weight loss. Give yourself time to adjust to a new and healthy lifestyle and enjoy yourself along the way. A year from now your body will be thanking you for it!

Christopher Guerriero, is the founder of the National Metabolic & Longevity Research Center and a best-selling author, speaker, and coach to millions. He is creator of the award-winning 'Maximize Your Metabolism' system. To learn more about this step-by-step program, and to sign up for FREE how-to articles and FREE teleseminars, visit: Maximize Your Metabolism

Christopher Guerriero may be contacted at http://www/MaximizeYourMetabolism.com