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The Challenge
A year ago, my doctor said that my seven-year-old was obese! My husband and I have three beautiful children, aged seven, nine and 14. They are all well behaved, responsible and very polite. Our family’s regular routine is to get up and get the kids ready for school. My husband and I get home from work about two hours after the kids get back from school. We would have supper and then relax and watch TV together.
If the kids did their homework before we got home, we rewarded them with a chocolate bar of their choice from the stash in the freezer.
The Moment
A year ago, I took the kids in for their annual checkup at the doctor’s. She said all of my children were overweight and that my youngest was obese. Dr. Michaels said that there are very serious health risks linked to obesity, even in kids. I told the doctor that our whole family is big boned — they are not overweight. At the time, I thought Dr. Michaels was exaggerating. But then she showed me the Body Mass Index (BMI) chart that measures the child’s height compared to their weight. How did this happen — they’re just kids! I was shocked, scared and embarrassed. The doctor gave me a copy of Eating Well With Canada’s Food Guide and Canada’s Physical Activity Guides for Children and Youth.
The Change
As soon as I got home from the doctor’s office, my husband and I read the guides and did some research online. We decided the whole family could work together to improve our health. The first step was to develop some sort of physical activity routine. The guides suggested some activities that we could do to increase our activity level.
In the summer, when the days are long, we thought that we could play tag, frisbee or romp around the playground after supper. In the winter, we decided to take up tobogganing and ice skating on the weekends and go for a family walk after dinner on weeknights. We also made a family pact to limit screen time. This was tougher than it might sound. It’s hard to cut back on TV, and we didn’t realize how much time our kids spent playing video games. We stuck it out and were able to make some changes, but it took some time. Our next step was to improve our eating habits. As a family, we started learning about healthy snacks and meals both online and with the help of the Food Guide.
We realized that rewarding the kids with chocolate bars was contributing to our weight troubles. We solved this problem by creating a healthy snack shelf in the fridge that we load with fruits, vegetables, string cheese sticks and milk. The snack shelf has really helped to make after-school eating more healthy. When we go to the grocery store, the kids get to choose the vegetables and fruits that go on the shelf. Who knew they’d like pomegranates! Supper was the next target. We decided to all work together to make healthy suppers for the family. The kids loved helping to plan meals. Fridays are shake night — every Friday, we experiment making shakes with different flavours of yogurt and fruit.
The Best Part
Over the past year, we’ve done it together! Our family has made healthy choices a priority. It’s now part of our daily life. My favourite part is that we did it as a family. The doctor says that the kids are now back at body weights that are healthy for their age. Best of all we’ve learned to work together and have had a ball doing it!
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