I won't give you a bunch of statistics and numbers that will mean very little to you. I have lots of thoughts on obesity, since I have been overweight and later obese for most of my 52 years. As a child my size was a major issue for most of the adults in my world. Unwittingly they did lots of damage to my self esteem. I am sure they only wanted me to be healthy and happy but it became very obvious that I did not measure up to what they wanted. I was cajoled, forced and encouraged to go on a wide variety of diets. Yes I lost weight but I also gained it back and much more. Climbing ever higher through the years.
Unfortunately, my weight was a symptom and while the adults thought they knew what the problem was, they were way off on much of it. Yes I had been traumatized by my mother's death when I was three, but I doubt many, if any considered how responsible I felt for her death or how abandoned I felt when my father had other family members stepping in to help the young widower. Even more abandonment issues followed when he quickly remarried and his new wife had no desire to be my mother. In my eyes, I was always shoved to the side. I didn't feel loved and that was all I wanted. I ached inside, coupled with the actual hunger I felt from the diets my stepmother put me on, I began to develop a serious emotional attachment to food. As a child, since the extra food I was able to obtain helped with some of the pain, I felt, I figured, I just needed more food to get rid of the additional ache, I felt. I tell you this, because this sudden panic, the media has brought on about the growing epidemic of obesity among our children is likely only to compound the problem, as parents rush to find a solution rather then cure it.
If your child is overweight or obese you must be very, very careful how you deal with it or you will destroy their self esteem and create emotional issues with food where none originally existed. Once these things are in place it only grows worse and you may not be able to control your child's weight despite your efforts. As young as four, I was eating dog food to get food. At five or six I was eating out of garbage cans on the way to school or peeling candy off the floor of the theater near my bus stop. Later I went on to steal other kids lunches and graduated to shoplifting. All the while hating myself, what I was doing and the weight, that I carried. All I wanted was to be loved. All to often these days we have throw away kids, although many would never admit it. Failed relationships and divorces, with ex-partners and spouses hated, and the kids feeling unloved and discarded. Children are left to fend for themselves while mom or dad try to reclaim a social life never considering the emotions that are building in their precious children.
Diets are not the answer for anyone regardless of their weight, whether they are 5 pounds over weight or two hundred pounds over weight. This is because diets only work short term. Think about it, the goal most have in mind whatever diet they adopt is achieving their goal and then returning to "normal" eating. It is this normal eating that got them obese in the first place and is why most dieters regain their weight. Ah, but there are weight loss pills of all types and varieties... again a temporary fix and often damaging the persons body and metabolism, providing they don't die from any side effects or complications. Then of course there is gastric bypass surgery, I apologize to those of you who have opted for this procedure but I have very strong feelings against it. Our bodies are amazing in how they function and perform, it makes no sense to me to mutilate your body in an effort to be thin. It will never function the way it was intended again, not to mention the possible complications and severe dietary restrictions for those who don't continue old habits, rendering the procedure ineffective.
It took me a very long time and getting very ill before I began to realize what the answer was. While the causes of being obese can vary a great deal from emotional and physical trauma, to some heredity, to medications and illnesses there are some common sense things anyone can do. First we as a society, if we really wish to see obesity actually decrease, need to rethink the way we live. We are a busy people and demand much of our lives to be simplified and made easy and fast. With our ability to process and preserve food, we have made ourselves fatter. In processing our food we remove many of the natural vitamins and minerals and don't think that just because our foods can be fortified that that is the same or as healthy. Processing also can destroy taste and in an effort to replace it, the food industry uses sugars, fats and salt all things we don't need and contribute to our obesity issues. Fast foods often fried, deep fried with double meat and cheese and super sized has only compounded the problem.
With our increased technology, our jobs have become less physical in nature and we have passed this along to our children with all the internet games and X-box, Nintendo etc. The decrease in physical activity leaves us unfit, sluggish and tired. Our bodies need exercise in order to properly function and they need high quality foods. Oh I can hear the excuses formulating right now, in part because I used to make those same excuses.
So for just a moment humor me, consider you dream vehicle. Now consider that you own said vehicle, its yours, the color is your color and everything is just as you have always dreamed. It will of course need fuel to run...in most cases some form of gasoline. Many of you would want premium gasoline, only the best for your dream transportation. Male or female, I imagine most of you are aware of what the consequences would be if you were to substitute a five pound bag of sugar or perhaps a gallon of vegetable oil (maybe a combination of both ) for your gasoline. Your dream vehicle would run very poorly and soon not at all. It would be senselessly destroyed. Yet daily people stuff similar garbage into their bodies with the justifications that it tastes good or is cheap or quick, never considering the damage they are doing to their bodies, or how they are effecting their function.
It is not pleasant to be obese, it's hard to find clothes, it is harder to move, many places of business do not accommodate a person of larger size. There are many stereotypes applied to the obese, such as we are jolly, dirty, stupid and lack value as individuals. We are supposed to be lazy, doctors often discount our medical complaints...after all, we are fat. We are often made fun of and ridiculed in public. Not to mention our increased risk for many diseases.
Four years ago I was miserable, I could not breath when I got up to walk or move, I was over 500 pounds and very close to becoming bedridden. My quality of life was extremely poor. My doctors could not help me, they assumed it was all my own doing and any help they might offer would be wasted. I decided I had to cure myself, I had to find a way to breath and a way to get healthy. I began with some very small steps, but as I found success, I also found hope which drove my quest for health. After about a year I decided to tackle my obesity. Dieting was NOT the answer. I had to change my whole relationship with food. Again I started with small changes, just eating more healthily. Avoiding processed foods and eating fresher foods, more fruits and vegetables. I made no food taboo but as I cleaned up my diet I found I no longer wanted the junk food, when I would eat something, that I had previously really enjoyed, I found it no longer tasted as good as I remembered it. I also had to come to the realization that exercise was going to be part of getting healthy, it doesn't matter what you do as long as you move. The more you enjoy it the easier it is to do and keep doing.
In the four years since I began my quest to get healthy, it hasn't always been easy, especially including exercise ( I hate to sweat) but I have made my health a priority...I deserve to be healthy, have a body that works and functions as it should and is strong enough to do the things I want to do. I have gone from being a 48 year old woman who could not walk half way around her full sized bed without sucking air for five minutes, who weighed 524 pounds to a 52 year old woman who can walk up to five miles a day and is under 290 pounds (sorry I can't be more exact but I weigh in only every 45 days). Yes, I am still obese but I am much healthier and fitter and my journey is not over. I have done this slowly, without a diet or a gym or extreme exercise (to the point of vomiting). None of us get fat over night and it isn't going to go away over night. Instead of considering some expensive, extreme diet or work out plan I suggest making small livable changes, increasing them as you go, changing your way of life slowly toward a healthier lifestyle. Those small changes have added up to dramatic changes for me.
I would not wish obesity on anyone, but we have to look at what we are doing to ourselves and yes our children with the poor choices we make and examples we set. I would suggest that you embrace your child, whether they are obese or not, let them know you love them and then instead of fast food offer them healthier options to eat and then get involved with them and the activities they enjoy. Take them to the park, swing on the swings with them ( hey its awesome, I know because I am doing it now). Take them bowling, play a game of catch or whatever. Both of you will benefit, by being healthier and fitter. If you are obese you may find your blood pressure lowering as well as your cholesterol, illnesses such as diabetes can be better controlled and in some cases reversed. So if you are obese there is hope and there are ways to make small changes and improve your health, its a matter of giving your body the fuel it needs and deserves and then exercising it. Just start slow and if you have medical issues check with your doctor.