Teenage Obesity and Teenage Weight Loss: Methods For Parents To Help Them Lose Weight

Okay, so you have a teenager and they are overweight and you are concerned for their health. You want to help them lose weight and all of your efforts have failed thus far. First off you must realize that for a person to really be able to lose weight that person must be mentally ready to lose weight. If a person is not ready to make the life changing decision then all of the nagging and complaining you do will just make the situation worse. So what you need to do is do it without telling them what you are doing. It really is not that hard.

You, as the parent are in charge of meal time and if you are not, then start. Your mealtime actually needs to start at Walmart so lets back up a bit.

The food you have in the house is what you bring home. Stop bringing home all of the crap. Let what is there slowly filter away and start to restock the shelves with low fat/no fat products. Start getting 2% milk and then go even lower. When the complaints start just say it is all they had. Yes, it is alright to lie. You are saving their life. Start baking the chicken and NOT frying it. Start to add some fish every now and then. Get some teriyaki salmon at Sam’s Club. It is pretty healthy and my fattys complained but then said they like it. Start to look in the sections of the store that you do not even notice now. I bet that when you go shopping now you are like a robot. You zip down the aisles and plop into your cart what you did on the last umpteen trips. You need to sloooowwwww down the shopping and start making healthy choices that you can integrate into your families life without being a Neo-Nazi food dictator. By bringing in healthier foods you are keeping the calories out. Stop getting the twinkies and the frozen pizza and start to have grapes and bananas around. Who does not like seedless grapes?

You need to untrain and then retrain and you need to do it quietly and without any fanfare. Also, you need to put on your emotional armor because you will be dealing with ungrateful and selfish people who really think you suck for giving them foods they never tried, really like and do nothing but complain while the actually enjoy eating it!

One very important thing you need to get at the store are some new dishes for the home. ( I don’t mean meals, I mean plates!) The one difference is that these dishes/plates will be smaller than those platters you eat on now. This way they will have less room to pile on the plate.

Another tidbit is that eating in front of the TV is over. By eating together you will SLOOOOOWWWW the process down. Ask questions. Ask questions and get them talking because if they are talking they are not eating. What you are trying to do is let there be some time for the food to get to their belly and let their brain realize they have eaten enough. Soon, they will not even notice the smaller plates anymore. It takes 15 minutes or so for food to reach the belly and to be able to tell the brain “hey, I’ve had enough!”.

A way to get them moving is to take them to the store and park on the wrong side of the mall. (OOPS!) Park out at the end of the lot at Walmart. Stop looking for the closest spot. Get them to mow your lawn. Wash the car. Anything they do is better than sitting in front of the tube all day and night. Maybe you even can get some cool exercise equipment for the home. They may even start using it and when you are not looking. You know how teenagers are, they want to be cool. You can spend a little or alot when it comes to exercise stuff.

This entry could go on and on but I will end it here. You know your family better than anyone. The key here is to not make drastic changes in a week or two…….Start off slowly and keep moving along. Soon operation flab will be full swing and all of your efforts will not be in vain. This is because if you just slow the weight gain down you have had a small victory. Gain knowledge and keep moving along. When they start to get a hint of what you are doing have a DVD and some healthy snacks on hand for a movie time diversion. Another great thing is that if you are looking for a reward of some kind, kids love comic books! A subscription that gets them reading and away from hours of video games is always a bonus. The secret is to change over time and just keep going and do not give up!!!

GOOD LUCK and GOD BLESS!!