Help for Children and Obesity
Children and obesity lately has become a topic of discussion everywhere. The news of the alarming rate of obesity among children is a major topic of concern. But how do we fight childhood obesity?
Doctors all agree that overweight children are becoming an epidemic in America that could threaten the future of our country. Obesity leads to shorter lives and more health problems such as diabetes, heart trouble, high blood pressure and strokes.
Doctors are now predicting that because of obesity among our youth, this will be the first generation that will not outlive their parents.
This is a tragedy.
As a parent of twins that are also overweight, I realized that dieting cannot solve the problem because eating is one thing they love to do. Trying to get them to eat healthy food is like pulling teeth.
Since I cannot monitor my kids every meal, I found myself competing against television commercials, after school snacks, sugary drinks, soda and many other fattening foods..
So getting my kids to eat healthier is not the sole answer although it is probably the cause of the problem.
Next I tried exercise. The hard part was to find a fun and exciting exercise that my twins would want to do.
I tried forcing my kids to get active and go outside and play more. I even bought new bicycles for them to ride, hoping this would work off the extra pounds to no avail as the bicycles lay in my driveway after the first several days of riding.
Also the summer heat became a problem for outside activities.
Then I remembered an old exercise that I did as an amateur boxer that I used to enjoy--Jumping rope.
I taught my kids to jump rope every other day for 5 minutes. We would go one minute rounds and rest for a minute then resume for another minute until our five minutes were up.
This actually worked.
The first month, I noticed that my kids had lost inches in their waist. This was a total surprise because belly fat is a major problem with my kids. Not to mention that I also lost inches in my own waist.
After further study I found jumping rope is becoming popular among athletes of all sports.
It is a total body workout that doesn't require hours of preparation, and can accomplish in minutes what other exercises takes hours to accomplish.
But the best thing about jumping rope is the fat burning properties it creates. With just a jump rope and a decent pair of tennis shoes a hormone known as HGH is released that burns fat hours after the exercise is completed.
Since HGH burns fat even when they watch TV or playing X-box, we agreed that for every minute they jump rope, they get an extra minute of TV or X-box time.
This makes my twins do their 5 minute exercise without a hassle.
I feel better about my situation now because jumping rope has helped with my obese children's weight problem.
They are actively participating in an exercise that will help them lose weight and develop a healthful activity that hopefully will reward them with a longer life.
Doctors all agree that overweight children are becoming an epidemic in America that could threaten the future of our country. Obesity leads to shorter lives and more health problems such as diabetes, heart trouble, high blood pressure and strokes.
Doctors are now predicting that because of obesity among our youth, this will be the first generation that will not outlive their parents.
This is a tragedy.
As a parent of twins that are also overweight, I realized that dieting cannot solve the problem because eating is one thing they love to do. Trying to get them to eat healthy food is like pulling teeth.
Since I cannot monitor my kids every meal, I found myself competing against television commercials, after school snacks, sugary drinks, soda and many other fattening foods..
So getting my kids to eat healthier is not the sole answer although it is probably the cause of the problem.
Next I tried exercise. The hard part was to find a fun and exciting exercise that my twins would want to do.
I tried forcing my kids to get active and go outside and play more. I even bought new bicycles for them to ride, hoping this would work off the extra pounds to no avail as the bicycles lay in my driveway after the first several days of riding.
Also the summer heat became a problem for outside activities.
Then I remembered an old exercise that I did as an amateur boxer that I used to enjoy--Jumping rope.
I taught my kids to jump rope every other day for 5 minutes. We would go one minute rounds and rest for a minute then resume for another minute until our five minutes were up.
This actually worked.
The first month, I noticed that my kids had lost inches in their waist. This was a total surprise because belly fat is a major problem with my kids. Not to mention that I also lost inches in my own waist.
After further study I found jumping rope is becoming popular among athletes of all sports.
It is a total body workout that doesn't require hours of preparation, and can accomplish in minutes what other exercises takes hours to accomplish.
But the best thing about jumping rope is the fat burning properties it creates. With just a jump rope and a decent pair of tennis shoes a hormone known as HGH is released that burns fat hours after the exercise is completed.
Since HGH burns fat even when they watch TV or playing X-box, we agreed that for every minute they jump rope, they get an extra minute of TV or X-box time.
This makes my twins do their 5 minute exercise without a hassle.
I feel better about my situation now because jumping rope has helped with my obese children's weight problem.
They are actively participating in an exercise that will help them lose weight and develop a healthful activity that hopefully will reward them with a longer life.
