Overweight and Obese Children...Why Are We Ignoring this Issue?

Follow Maya Smith on her quest for better health!

In a recent article in the Washington Post, we are reminded that "for the first time in history, American children could have a shorter life span than their parents.  The cause: obesity." (1)  We often ignore this issue thinking they will grow out of it or we don't want to offend anyone.  However, these habits they are learning at a young age have a direct influence on their health later.  If we don't want our children to suffer later in life, we need to teach them now!

So, what pushed me to focus on my daughter?  Wise old advice from my observant and direct mother. 

In a letter that I received shortly after a visit to her home in Canada, she writes: 

Ala, you and Kelly do a very good job taking care of "yourselves" and you do not eat much and you exercise a lot.  Why is it that your rules are not the same for Maya?  She has a belly that is too big for a girl of 8 years of age.  She looks like she is 11 or 12, but she is not!

Do you want her to get obese?  Why aren't you paying attention? 

I suggest that you stop plating Maya's food and instead watchfully have her do it.  If she puts too much on her plate, stop her from that and tell her less is better.  Explain how much a little girl should eat and give her a comparison of the size of her plate to the size of your plate. They should not be the same, for you are not the same size. You will see that she will only put on her plate, what her eyes see. Don't force her to eat all of it if she is full.  If she is eating too fast and not paying attention, stop her and remind her to slow down to realize if she is full. 

Have her become more responsible and grow into a mature young lady who has control of her body. She should only eat when she is hungry.  You never give her a chance to get hungry. You push food on her as if she may starve.  Nobody Ala, in America, is starving, especially Maya. 

Think about what you are doing and take some time to fix this big problem now. Have her pack her school lunch and you will see that she will make better choices than you will and she will control the portion size too. 

She is such a beautiful girl, but by having her eat too much, you will change that beauty and along with it her confidence. 

Please don't be offended by my suggestions, I am old (86) and have lived a long time and have only experience to share.  I am much better at observation than executing my advice.  If I was younger, I would work harder to also be healthier and reduce how much I eat too.  

What a great push to start that which has haunted me in my parenting of my own daughter. 

My mom sent me an old proverb that writes:  "Keep your head cool, stomach empty/starved and your feet warm and dry and you will live long on this earth. "

I will cherish this motherly advice for the rest of my life and those of you struggling with ill health, or ill health of your children read this post and re-read until you too have made a decision to overcome your shortcomings. 

I look forward to Maya's transformation and together, Kelly and I will do this transformation with her.  Follow Maya on her journey for better health, and challenge your kids to do the same.

If you would like more specific advice, help, or support for you or your child as you work toward health, please call us today for a consult, we would be delighted to help you with your family's journey toward optimum health.

Maya's Health Goals:

Exercise daily

Plate her own food

Pack her own lunch

Weigh herself daily

Reduce/eliminate processed foods and candy

Lose 5 lbs.

Stay tuned to track her progress toward these goals!

Source: 

1. "How Obesity Harms a Child's Body."  Health and Science.  The Washington Post. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/health/childhoodobesity/obesityeffects.html#

Are you planning to get healthy? What are your goals? As you make a plan, consider this information we recently reviewed by Dr. M. Colgan describing the body's mechanism for healing and the time required for complete healing.

Healing time is via the cellular time clock

By Dr. M. Colgan

The principle of nutrition you need to know is physiological dynamics. Unlike drugs, nutrients do not have rapid effects, there is no quick fix. The business of nutrition is to build a better body. That has to wait on nature to turn over body cells. A blood cell lasts 60-120 days. In 3-4 months your whole blood supply is completely replaced. In 6 months almost all the proteins in your bones die and are replaced, even the DNA of your genes. In a year all your bones and even the enamel of your teeth is replaced, constructed entirely out of the nutrients you eat.

This time curse is well illustrated by the course of deficiency diseases. If I remove the vitamin C from your diet, within 4 weeks blood vitamin C will drop to zero. But, you will see no symptoms of disease at 4 weeks. You have to wait until enough of the healthy cells have been replaced by unhealthy cells. It is another 12 weeks before the symptoms of scurvy start to ravage your body. So when you implement an optimal nutrition program, don’t expect rapid results. In one of the studies at the Colgan Institute, runners were supplemented to try to improve their hemoglobin, hematocrit and red blood cell count. But after one month of supplementation there was no improvement at all. After 6 months, however, all 3 indices were significantly increased.

Think of it this way, if you take a neglected house plant and start feeding and watering it, the leaves may perk up a bit from the improved nutrition. But you have to wait for the old leaves to die off and new leaves to grow before you get a really healthy plant. It is the same with the human body. When you start feeding it better, you have to wait on physiological dynamics of your body to grow new improve cells in the improved nutrient medium.

What Happens When Dr. Ala Has a Back Injury

By: Dr. Ala Lysyk Smith

Exercise is such a brilliant thing for the human body, but there is a point of overload. Here's an experience of how exercise adversely affected my health over the Fourth of July weekend.

I like exercise that is high intensity, short duration, and gives me maximum results. I'm not afraid to work hard when exercising, but I also want to see immediate outcomes.  So, I decided to do Tabata drills. Tabata drills are high intensity interval training that include a 20 second work interval, followed by a short 10 second recovery period. You do one exercise for eight rounds (4 minutes) in one set, and you do no more than four sets, 16 minutes maximum, doing different types of exercises. If you do an exercise that uses multiple body parts with large muscle groups your success increases. So I decided to do four rounds, equivalent to 16 minutes total, of box  jumps.  So, I used a box that is anywhere between one and a half to two feet high, and began my jumps. 

Although it was intense, I completed the 16 minute high intensity interval training and proceeded with the rest of my day.  At about 3 o'clock in the afternoon, I started to notice that my gait (walk) was becoming compromised and pain in my lower back was increasing  The pain progressed throughout the weekend and by Saturday I was debilitated, not walking, changing position, or moving.  I tried everything that I would recommend to one of my patients in this situation, ice, heat, over-the-counter pain medication, tens unit electric stim, and although all of those modalities provided me a glimmer of hope for relief, they did not resolve the problem, nor was their effect long-lasting. 

Unfortunately my husband, who is a chiropractor, was up North with my daughter for the weekend and was not at home to provide me with chiropractic care.  So, I decided to bear through it.  While enduring this pain I thought long and hard about each and every patient I have ever treated for lower back pain and my level of empathy escalated.  After two and a half days of significant pain and dysfunction, my husband returned and I asked for him to assist me in reducing this lower back pain. 

We went to our office and within a 10 minutes he was able to reduce my pain level, improve my function, and improve my range of motion and gait by giving me a very specific adjustment to my lower back and pelvis. Not only was I able to get up off the table and stand erect once again, the function in my lower back and how my brain perceived it was an unbelievable euphoric sense of relief. 

My only question is why would anyone suffering with lower back pain avoid seeking chiropractic care as it truly is a diamond in the rough with respect to its effect on human motion, human stability, and human function. I am so thankful for chiropractic care and I'm so proud of each and every chiropractor who has been able to help those suffering with lower back pain find a glimmer of hope.  And...I have decided not to do box jumps ever again!