Assessing the Health of Your Child

Before you make any personal or environmental
changes in your teen’s life, take a few minutes to
survey what your home life is like. Do you allow
them to lead a sedentary life, and are they given
plenty of chances to over eat at any time? If you
do, then it is important that you bring any changes
in to these areas of their life gradually.
First, look at just how many hours your teen spends
either watching TV, or sitting at their computer.
A teen can spend up to 24 hours a week watching TV.
Log any time that they spend doing either, watching
TV or on the computer, and try to reduce this by
half.
When you have meals, does your family gather around
a table, or do you eat most of your meals sitting
in front of the TV or computer? If you do, then
try and make it a family rule that, in the future,
all food (including snacks) will be eaten in the
kitchen or in the dining room at a table. Such a
small change has been shown to significantly reduce
the amount of over eating that takes place in the
home.
Next, you will need to take a close look at your
fridge and food cupboards. Which foods do you have
that you are most likely to eat when hunger hits
you? If the foods are high in fat, sweetened or
low in nutritional value, then why not try to find
healthier alternatives instead, such as fresh fruit
and vegetables?

Do Not Shame your Child into Losing Weight
Neither adults nor children can be shamed into
losing weight, and an overweight teen will know
that they weigh too much. But what a teen does not
know, is how they can achieve a normal weight, as
well as increase their self esteem. Teens like to
know that their parents love them unconditionally,
whether they are fat, thin or normal.
For any parent, mastering the fine art of loving
our children just the way they are, while helping
them to achieve a healthier body can be difficult.
Any parent must learn to “give time” and believe
that the lessons we teach them will one day come to
fruition.
This means that we can teach our youngsters to
visualize that healthy plate (one which is half
salad or vegetables, a quarter of starches and the
remainder are made up of protein such as fish,
meat, poultry or soy). But you also know that at
some point, they will sneak either sweets or
cookies into the home, and upset the balance that
you have achieved.
A parent can persist in teaching their teens to see
their plate before any food is put on it. This is
helpful, as it creates a sense of portion control
that is helpful when the parent is not around to
monitor what food they are actually having. This
portion control can also be practiced not just at
home, but when visiting a restaurant as well.

Take up some type of Physical Activity as a
Family
The recommended amount of physical activity to be
done by an adult is 30 minutes, and 60 minutes for
children, which should be done several times a
week. However, if you are looking to lose weight,
then more physical activity may be necessary.
A great way of breaking the pattern of the lives
that many families lead is to arrange activities
that involve plenty of movement for the whole
family together. Not only do these types of
activities burn calories, they can also serve as a
setting for parent and child communication. It is
especially important in a child’s teen years, when
such opportunities for a parent to interact with
their teen are at a premium.
Also, there is little or no financial cost involved
in going for a walk or having a bike ride, and many
communities now have either indoor or outdoor
swimming pools which do not cost to much to use.
Just taking the family dog for a walk in the
evening not only makes the dog happy, but will help
to increase the family’s metabolism.

How to encourage the right sort of behavior in
your teen
The best way to help an overweight or obese teen is
through your own behavior. Too often, teens will
do as an adult does, rather than what we tell them.
No parent can ask their child to turn off the TV
when we are actually watching it in another room,
or to stop using the computer when they are
spending hours themselves surfing the net. Nor
should they restrict the portions of food they eat,
when they, themselves, do not watch what they are
eating. Why would any child want to drink water or
munch on fruit or vegetables, when they see the
adults around them drinking sugar laden soda or
having a bag of potato chips?
When looking to lead a healthier kind of life
style, it should be done one day at a time, and the
end result will be well worth the effort.