Childhood eating habits,

[Deleted member 995608]

My eldest lives to eat. My youngest, eats to live.



I'm an early morning gym rat 3/5 days a week. I run 5k, 2/3 times a week after I get back from the gym. I'm not in the perfect condition by any means. I eat and drink what I want.



My eldest continues to get bigger and bigger. She's not severely obecese but it worries me that if she doesn't make a change, she will become.



How do I approach a teenage girl that she's doing it wrong?

 

[fest3er]

Very, *very* cautiously and gently. Communicate clearly. Explicitly. Be sure she knows that your enquiries are only positive and certainly not to make her feel or look badly. You might try to help her explore *why* she eats so much. It's not bad; it's just not best. You could try to seat her in starvation corner (to borrow an old navy term) as a covert means of portion control.

Teenagers eat. A lot. Consider keeping less food in the house. Leave simply written articles about nutrition laying about where she might happen to see them.

Teenagers can be fragile. Especially with hormone changes. Those changes can wreak havoc on eating and retention. Be sure she knows you are a 'safe haven' on this subject. And don't forget that kids' brains grow so fast that neural connections are made, lost, found, and re-established frequently--daily, even hourly. Lapses--in memory, judgement, civility, polity, &cet. --are to be expected. (I remember those years; brain growth is the only logical explanation. The only solution is for them to be aware of it and work harder to re-connect those 'missing' synapses. I remember forgetting something that happened only minutes earlier; it took many years before I recovered that memory. )

Whatever happens, covertly work it so change appears to be *her* idea. Help her learn how to work it out.

 

[fest3er]

Very, *very* cautiously and gently. Communicate clearly. Explicitly. Be sure she knows that your enquiries are only positive and certainly not to make her feel or look badly. You might try to help her explore *why* she eats so much. It's not bad; it's just not best. You could try to seat her in starvation corner (to borrow an old navy term) as a covert means of portion control.



Teenagers eat. A lot. Consider keeping less food in the house. Leave simply written articles about nutrition laying about where she might happen to see them.



Teenagers can be fragile. Especially with hormone changes. Those changes can wreak havoc on eating and retention. Be sure she knows you are a 'safe haven' on this subject. And don't forget that kids' brains grow so fast that neural connections are made, lost, found, and re-established frequently--daily, even hourly. Lapses--in memory, judgement, civility, polity, &cet. --are to be expected. (I remember those years; brain growth is the only logical explanation. The only solution is for them to be aware of it and work harder to re-connect those 'missing' synapses. I remember forgetting something that happened only minutes earlier; it took many years before I recovered that memory. )



Whatever happens, covertly work it so change appears to be *her* idea. Help her learn how to work it out.

 

[BIGNASTY]

Mr JHaws
I dont know about all that child psychology thing. YES they take thing the WRONG way and get moody WHO DOSNENT. Our girl had the same problem her Mom/Me/and our Son can eat anything we want and as much as we want AND NOT GAIN WEIGHT. Nora on the other hand was getting bigger and bigger. She was getting to the point that it bothered her we told her to watch what she ate she didnt understand YOU GUYS DONT and we dont because we WORK and WORKOUT. We started to only keep good choices around the house she did better. We had a pool at the house but you cant swim for exercise in a home pool so she joined our fitness center and started to swim SHE DROPED THE WEIGHT LIKE MELTING BUTTER. I dont know if your child is active TODAY MOST ARE NOT. But that was the key to her loosing weight. And along with that she started feeling better about herself and although her school grades WERE NEVER A PROBLEM they got better also. I guess its she just fit in better at school in her mind.

 

[Deleted member 995608]

The weight issue came about when she started high school and quit playing multiple sports. Before, she played everything.

Now it's all about softball but that only runs for a few months and there's little cardio activity for a catcher.

A few days back, she went to an FFA conference. The night before when trying on her uniform, she could barely squeeze into any of her black skirts that's is required for girls. The day of this conference, my wife ended up driving two hours one way because my eldest daughter had split her dress. That could happen to anyone but this was because she has gained too much weight. Hopefully this got her attention.

 

[BIGNASTY]

I have got back on the Elliptically Walker that the wife and I have at the house. Thats the cardio of choice for the both of us the wife use to be a runner but her knees started barking so she got on the walker at the gym with me and its no impact but you can work up a heartbeat if you want. The weights are OK but I just get bored with lifting them. I would rather work around the place YOU KNOW what having animals is like there is ALWAYS something to lift to pull around them. We put the hay in the loft the old way pull it up and the wife pulls it away from the loft floor and stacks it then we change she pulls it up and I stack after ya put up a hundred bales or more your upper body got a hell of a workout.

 

[Deleted member 995608]

I've always worked out but I have to go first thing in the morning. If not, forget about it. I leave the house around 4:30am because my gym is about 30 minutes away. It's just a simple gym; I even have my own key to get in whenever I want.

My wife walks a lot and does her girl pushups and such. My little girl can't sit still long enough to need to workout. She's an outside person like her daddy-thank God.

And my oldest daughter just grows attitudes and pimples. She may not make it to 16 if things don't change.

 

[BIGNASTY]

I KNOW OF WHAT YOU SPEAK!!!! The dreaded 16 when parents become the blabbering alzheimer individuals that the 16 year old crowd deems them to be. Son didn't have a problem with. Daughter was the princess of the dreaded 16 she was right!!!! even if PROVEN WRONG. She seemed to grow out of it when she could not get her car to start. She T0LD me to fix it as she went to her room to lay on the bed and talk on the phone. I did I went to disconnect the phone line and battery cable and take out the battery. She came out about an hour later and asked did you fix it I need to go? I just gave her the I dont know look and walked away. She came and asked if I COULD take a look at her car and something is wrong with the phone? I fixed the phone and gave the car a look over for a week and then one day it JUST STARTED!!!! imagine that!!! if you will. She asked so this is the way its going to be? NO THE NEXT TIME THE CAR IS GONE!!! that was the end of the dreaded 16's

 

[BIGNASTY]

JHaws



So your a runner/jogger come on up and give this a try. Wife and I did the same course on X country skis last year when I had 1 1/2 good legs its a workout for sure.



http://www.cheetahherders.com/snowjoke.html

 

[jgillott]

I am, and always have been, an exercise nut, gym rat or whatever you would like to call me. In fact, I just got in from my second workout of the day... . a nice little 30 min. run.

If/when you daughter decides to do something about her health, I highly suggest contacting your local YMCA if you have one in your area. I am currently on the board of directors of the Regional Family YMCA here in western PA and know first hand the number of tools and programs that are available to the youth in our facilities. Trust me when I tell you that the YMCA goes out of their way to provide youth activities that are fun and upbeat while providing exercise and overall health benefits. Please let me know if there is any information that I can help you with. I will be more than happy to help.

 

[Deleted member 995608]

We don't have YMCA. We're a rural foothill community with only 3 stop signs. Good idea though.

BIG- I'm not up for a half marathon,..... yet. I avidly ran before I got married. Then I got somewhat fat. I started working out again about 5 years back and started seriously running about two. 10k is my max right now.