Fattening The Children For The Slaughter
Today on my way home from work I was passing by a family walking down the street. I saw a mom with a stroller and three young children who are morbidly obese. It makes me angry to see all three of these children that will have no chance to live healthy lives because of the eating habits that these ignorant parents are teaching them.
You ought to be ashamed of yourselves if you can’t control your weight and you are feeding your kids the junk you eat!
Why are you doing this to them?
Do you realize that you are killing them?
Don’t sit there and tell me that it is hereditary, because that is a bunch of crap…. Just like the stuff you are feeding them. It is the lifestyle you are living! Do you even realize that your kids are being made fun of in school? Do you realize that all their health problems are because you are clogging their arteries with food that is so bad for them that it is sending them to an early grave?
I wouldn’t be writing this if it weren’t a problem. Just watch tv…. Oh that’s right… you are….. that is the problem and you are probably grazing on food while you are there too! Do you see all the infomercials that have everything under the sun to try for people who want to get in shape? Or do you skip those because you recorded your tv shows so you could watch them without commercials? What about Biggest Loser? Who would’ve known that we would watch tv of miserable obese people taking the first step to change their lifestyle?
Every day you can go to any mall, any grocery store, department store, church, movies…. wherever you turn you will see little fat cows! Ouch…. I know that is harsh, but someone needs to be harsh with you. Someone needs to wake you up and educate you… for your child’s sake. You can’t keep doing this to your kids!
Do you know why you and your kids are so fat?
Maybe they are eating too much processed food….. hmmmm.
Did you know that most of the processed food you eat comes from corn?
If you don’t believe me, do a little research on the uses of corn. Most of the corn that is grown in America is used for cattle feed, the rest is manufactured into just about everything that you are eating. Walk down every isle in the grocery store and all that food that is so easy for you to cook….. is made with some type of corn derivative. So when you say it’s hereditary….. you are wrong. You are eating the same food that they use to fatten cows so that they will be ready for the slaughter.
Do you realize that they can use corn in fuel? Now do you think that what you are eating is good for you? Yes an ear of corn may fine for you, but when it is changed from an ear of corn into something else…. that is where the issue lies.
Ok…. you may believe it is hereditary, you may believe that you are destined to be obese for the rest of your short life. But I am here to tell you that you need to change…. if not for yourself… for your children. They have learned to cope with their problems by eating and eating, watching tv and playing games on the computer. You have to break this habit…. otherwise you are going to kill your kids.
How does that make you feel?
I hope it hurts. But if you are reading this I know that you want to change. I know that you want to help your child live a life different from the one you may have had.
I know that it is hard to lose weight; I was the biggest I had ever been a year ago because I was eating the same foods that you eat. My wife and I were always eating out because we were too tired to cook. We would eat the crap food that we know is so bad for us…. and yet we continued down that path.
After a year of perseverance, changing my eating habits and practicing what I preach, I lost 25 pounds! If I can do it, so can you and so can your children!
We have become accustomed to the taste of good food, which can be bad for you. We have trained ourselves to believe that if it tastes good, then it must be good for you. That may be true to an extent, but the main problems are the ingredients used and the portion size we are feeding ourselves.
Portion size is one of the first things that we need to learn to control. When I started on my journey to have a better quality of life, it was all about portion control and a little bit of exercise. That is the solution to helping your kids lose their weight, to regain their life back…. to regain their self-image, their confidence!
This is not going to be an easy process. Your kids have an addiction! You have an addiction! Just like any addiction, it is going to take persistence and accountability. You have to learn to control yourself before you are able to control your children. They will be watching you and imitating everything that you do. That is the whole reason they are fat….. because you are!
You need to start somewhere and this is what I am going to suggest for you. I hope that you listen to what I have to say and implement the change. You can’t just turn this lifestyle around that you’ve created for them. You have to take baby steps….. otherwise your kids may start to rebel…. making you fail and fall back to your comfort food.
I like to write about the benefits of getting outdoors and what it does for your health; your emotional, physical and spiritual health. If you sit indoors all the time eating and watching television, if you allow your kids to do the same and sit in front of the computer all the time, eating processed foods…. eating cattle food…. you’re just encouraging them to continue on this lifestyle.
Your kids look up to you and they want to be like you, they want to do the things that you want to do. If you lead… they will follow you.
I challenge you to change, not only for yourself, but also for the life of children, your grandchildren and so on. You may only know this lifestyle, but you CAN change your family tree…. I know it can happen…. I know you can do it!
The first step in the process of change… you have already started….. you have come across this message because you know something is wrong, you were searching for hope and this is probably your last resort.
The second step will be like taking drugs away from an addict, they will probably become irate, but you have to stop feeding them junk! You have to be strong! If you have problems with it, send me an email and I would be happy to help in any way I can.
Please learn how to cook good food. It doesn’t have to be a gourmet meal, but you have to learn how to cook things that are good for them and easy for you to make. You have to implement change in the food you are feeding them a little at a time. You also have to eliminate all the television they watch, the Internet videos they consume, and the games they play. Set a limit on the amount time they spend doing these activities and fill it with something else….. like getting outdoors.
Summer is on its way, time just changed and it stays light out longer. You have plenty of time when you get home from work. 20 minutes is all you need to begin with. Take them to the park, the river, the beach, the mountains and just… play and explore the surroundings.
It will be the best thing you can start doing for everyone you love.
As I close out this message, I can’t help but picture in my mind your kid… fat and morbidly obese walking into a slaughterhouse because of you. That could be their story, but I don’t believe it will because I know you WILL change it!
You can do this; you can help your child live a happy and successful life
photo taken by robad0b on Flickr
32 Responses to “Fattening The Children For The Slaughter”
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Wow. This is strong, true, and compelling.
Thanks for speaking the truth with courage and conviction!
I’ll be passing this post along to others…
Teri
Thank you Teri. Sometimes it is hard for people to speak their mind…. the truth. Sometimes the truth hurts! I am just glad that I had the courage to post this.
Brett, great post! I couldn’t agree more. I focus on the activity of parents and their kids. Our kids (and we adults) have too many non-active activities to occupy us. I call them “sedentivities” because there’s nothing “active” about them. Back when I was a kid, besides walking to school in 2-feet of snow, uphill, both ways
I spent every morning of the summers watching game shows and reruns. Thankfully for my health, soap operas started at about noon, and my only option was to go outside and ride my bike, climb a tree, or use my imagination. No cable TV or game console to play. A little boredom will do wonders in driving our kids outside 
Brian. I am honored to have your comment here. I too walked to school in 2 feet of snow, uphill, both ways…. oh wait… that was my parents
We had Atari when I was young, but we only played it at night. We had too much fun playing around outside. I am just glad that we lived on 4 acres and my dad had enough sense to teach my siblings and I what work… manual labor…. is all about. I just wish our society wasn’t so focused on having the next best thing, and sacrificing the next generation’s health in the process.
Brett – preach it brother! You know we are a healthy, whole food family with trim kids. We read ‘Food Rules’ and cut out even more. Then recently watched ‘Food Inc.’ and cut out even more…anything with corn crap in it. I don’t see a lot of comments here yet, but your article is getting passed around. Thanks for speaking straight.
Kevin. Another good documentary that I recently watched was “Killer At Large” on Netflix. I understand the problem we have in America, but the movie really put it into perspective. I will have to check out “Food Inc.” I don’t think that I would have been able to speak the way I felt if you hadn’t recently been an inspiration for doing so.
This is convicting, but only to those who will bother to read it and do something about it. I’m going to spread it around and hope that the people I care about most will act before it’s too late.
Thanks Brett! Honored to know you and you’re heart!
James
James – you are absolutely right! you and I have both been a part of the fitness group in the Free Agent Academy for over a year now, how many people have we seen working toward a healthier lifestyle? they are making that choice and taking action. I hope that people will act before it is too late as well my friend.
Ok, you’ve gotten me to say what I haven’t said to others before, “I have an obese son!” I constantly wrestle with this one because I certainly understand the only way ya get fat is because you eat too much~it is simple, right? Well, we do eat relatively healthy, definitely could be eating even better, we do exercise, get outside all the time, limit movies/computer time. So, why do I have a fat kid? Honestly I have 7 kiddos pretty normal and healthy, my Antonio looks like I starve him and I don’t, and my Mayo is the only obese one! My husband is ridiculously strong/skinny and I wish I could just carve off like 20 pounds, but never obese.
I love him dearly and at times I feel guilty, I feel sad, I feel clueless, and other times I am embarrassed like everyone is blaming me, I feel mad at him because I don’t get why he would do this. Yes, I actually once had him tested to see if there was something else going on and there wasn’t. I am with him all day and don’t see him eat like a pig, I don’t eat out, and I don’t buy the typical “garbage”
I get what your sayin and believe it, but still haven’t found the right solution for our situation.
Carolyne
Carolyne – My heart goes out to you and I am proud of you for recognizing the problem and working on doing something about it. I thank you for having the strength to share with me what I imagine is so hard for most parents who are working toward helping their child rather than hindering them. The issues that I have had with my weight were a direct correlation with my emotional state. I NEVER share my feelings and hold them inside. The emotional release and comfort I get is through snacking on food, eating what tastes great no matter how bad it is for me, and lying around the house when I just don’t want to deal with the world. Once I recognized the issue and how I was responding to it, I could then work toward finding a solution. When I do things that I care about such as hiking, swimming, gardening, building things, it helped release that emotional state I was in and would take my mind off of eating.
Hey Carolyne,
I have a similar situation. My eldest child is overweight but my other 2 kids are very thin. My husband is also thin and I am overweight. We do not eat unhealthy, never eat fast food, lots of veggies and are very selective about our food…we even grow our own vegetables. My problem is I am not exercising enough. I will never lose if I don’t exercise a significant amount. I also have a sedentary job, so I have to work even harder. My oldest doesn’t like to move her body as much as her sisters do. I know that I could cut out some more relatively bad food items that would aid in our losing weight. What I noticed in my older daughter is that she is always thinking about food…she is also the only one that cleans her plate and she is the most sedentary of our kids. I think in some ways this is a genetic thing, so it takes extra encouragement, and role modeling (speaking to myself here!)…it is also unfair because she may have to work harder to lose weight that her sisters, but we just have to get over that. My plan is to spend more one on one time with her and get ourselves exercising regularly. We will never be skinny. No, but we will do our best to get healthy! All my kids spend a great deal of time outside, running around, playing games, swimming in the creek, etc. We also do not let them watch more than 1 hour of TV per day, if that, and no video games either (except on long car rides!). So…it is true that some kids can become overweight with the best intentions. I really feel for you because I am in your shoes also!! Hang in there!
Brett,
Great, Great, Great!! This is one of the reasons I have taken the journey I am on this year to not eat anything processed and make everything from scratch. Not scratch from the box, but literally from scratch (there are a few things I purchase to just add a few ingredients, but I read the label and make sure there are not additives and chemicals. . . just the ingredients I would add at home anyway). . . Why?? For my health AND I want to know how to do this before I have kids. I want them to eat only raw foods and meats cooked from scratch, not from a can, box or pre-made freezer department. Disgusting!!
I have found that after 3.5 months of cooking from scratch that I eat less, the food does taste 100% better and I have lost weight! nearly 25 pounds to be exact! Without much effort at all, just cutting out all processed foods, sugar, alcohol, gluten and wheat. Most people say I am crazy and that I have crazy will power. . . no. I look at it this way, get healthy, or die! I choose life!!
Something I have done is watched Food, Inc, Fresh, Food Matters — these are incredible and eye opening documentaries about our food industry and very opening on how animals are treated. What they eat, we eat. So, those cows that are fed corn (which by the way, they do not digest corn well. . . their bodies are meant to eat grasses, not corn. All animals are. That is why finding good high quality grass fed and finished beef, pork, poultry, eggs, lamb, etc. . .in imperative to our health!) We cannot expect to pick meat at the stores and it to nourish our bodies. . . we must educate ourselves further. Purchase directly from farmers who allow you to tour their farm. If they have areas they don’t want you to see, it is because they are doing things illegally and are not treating their animals as God intended. When you purchase from farms that want you to see everything all the way to the butchering process. . . you know the animals are not only fed great greens and loved daily, but are butchered with respect for our bodies. This is how I choose my meat. (also, make sure the farmer uses no pesticides or chemicals on the land an does not give the animals growth hormones or antibiotics. . . natural only — treated organic, but doesn’t have to be certified as it may not be possible with the state/fed laws)
Same goes for plants. . . if we choose non-organic fruits and vegetables, we are exposing our bodies to GMO’s, pesticides, etc. . . we need chemical free food!! Heirloom Organic Farms (or treated as organic farms, but not certified) are the best place to purchase — and locally and in season!! No more purchasing out of season food that has ripened on a truck! Am I perfect at this?? No. But I am getting better and a step in the right direction every day is a day I live longer!
People definitely need to WAKE UP!! We are killing ourselves! Not just with what we eat, but with what we do not know — Start reading, start learning and LIVE people!
Thanks! – Wendy
Wendy – thank you for sharing all the good information here. Education is definitely where we all need to start. The choice is ours to make and it is so important to do so. Just like building our business it takes patience and perseverance and the will to succeeed. The biggest step I believe is our choice… for example… last night I made a choice to stay up reading. That lead to me hitting the snooze on my alarm leaving me less time to get ready for work this morning. I wasn’t able to make my breakfast because I was running late, so I ended up eating fast food because it was convenient. I know that it wasn’t smartest thing to do, but then I made another choice…. to eat a lighter lunch and dinner. The choices were mine to make, but I am not beating myself up about it because I know that I make good choices in what I eat and how I excersice weekly.
The problem I see is that most people don’t have the time to cook for themselves or their family so they choose things that are easy to make… or so we have believed are easier to make than making the food ourselves.
Brett,
Your boldness is refreshing! I work in the healthcare industry, and see patients waddling down the hallway, seeking a quick fix for their self-induced illnesses, aches and pains. My heart hurts for their heart, trying to pump blood through veins clogged with blubber. I’ve told the two dieticians in my office that they have ‘the’ most important job in our facility. They are a hidden gem that even the physicians minimally recognize………..But, why would they? After all, they only receive about 30 mins of nutritional training in med school! They are taught to apply bandaids, not provide cures. Preventative maintenance is the only way to live. It’s simple logic – Garbage in, garbage out. Folks take better care of their cars than they do their bodies. Go figure?!?
Anne – I can’t believe that we take better care of our cars either. Your comment got me thinking how we complain about the price of gas going up, but yet we will go out to dinner and spend $30 – $50 for two on a meal that has enough calories that we should be eating in 2 or 3 days!
I have to say Brett, your post made me angry.
I very felt like writing a quick reply telling you the what for, but that’s not the kind of person I am, and through the blessing of the Internet, I can sit back and question why I’m angry before replying.
So here’s why I’m not angry. I’m not angry at you claiming that obesity is a problem. I’m not angry because you believe that too much food and not enough exercise is the problem.
I am angry at at the fear factor books you’re employing that seem solely designed to scare you into healthy eating habits. I’m angry that foods are being vilified with little to no scientific backing other than a few studies showing some correlations.
If were going to talk honestly about eating and exercise in America why must we point the finger at only one source? “It’s your own damn fault” “It’s high fructose corn syrup” “It’s saturated fat” “it’s free radicals” “It’s sitting in general”
You want to watch something that actually is helpful and realistic? Watch Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution series. Not only does he go to a town and try to address the obesity problem, but he also educates them about eating healthy. He doesn’t just give them a list of here’s what to eat, but teaches them to cook it. He doesn’t just say that there’s a problem with school lunches, he goes in and teaches them how to prepare fresh food, and that includes things like taco salads and desserts.
Take saturated fat for example. For most of the 20th century, nutritionists pointed to saturated fat as the problem. So much so that if you take a look at a graph of fat consumption in the 20th century, you can see how saturated fat consumption decreased dramatically and regularly throughout the century. Where unsaturated fat consumption increase at an almost identical inverse rate. Yet the obesity rate only rose in the 20th century. Did you know that only 26% of arterial plaque is saturated, and that more than 70% is unsaturated?
Now the criminal is corn. Corn is so bad for you that even looking at it causes you to gain weight (ok ok so maybe they’re not that bad). Still, if it’s not high-fructose corn syrup, it’s that it can be anything and everywhere in your diet, therefore since we have so much corn in our diet, it must be the cause of obesity. This is the premise of Food Inc. and I’m not And yet…and yet corn is one of God’s greatest substances. It’s versatility is amazing. It has great drought tolerance, doesn’t need ideal soil, which means it’s pretty easy to grow. Top that with the fact that it can be used for so many things. Yes it can be turned into fuel, but then so can most carbon-based things. I’ve even heard of a chicken parts being turned into bio-diesel.
We need to stop vilifying foods. Scaring people into compliance is so jonathan edwards. “Fatties in the hands of a malicious Agri-corp” Why don’t we instead focus on teaching people how to cook for themselves and how to make great-tasting food without scaring them away from ingredients. On top of that, let’s show them what fun can be had outside and by being active, instead of just telling them to hit the gym. I know I don’t enjoy spending time by myself concentrating on how much my muscles hurt.
Now confession. I’m about 295. Which is overweight for me. The BMI would claim that I’m obese, but then the BMI claimed that I was overweight when I was 200 lbs right out of boot camp (PS I was in better shape than in all of my cumulative years of existence and told that I was too thin by almost everyone I knew). A back injury laid me out and I gained back everything I had lost and then some. I got jobs that had me sitting mostly, I self-medicated my depression with food, and pre-Christmas 2010 I weighed in at 310 lbs. During the holidays I probably consumed way too much sweets and rich foods, as evidenced by my body complaining for a week afterwards. However, I don’t eat that many sweets, mostly because I have no willpower against them, so we don’t keep them in the house, and only make them on occasion.
Since then I had two weigh-ins, one near the end of January, and one in February. By January, I was 300, and by February, I was 295. So 15 lbs in about 2 months. Pretty good for me. So what did I do different? Food-wise we’ve been making more homemade, but I haven’t restricted myself on types of foods at all. It’s been especially difficult because people keep bringing sweets into work, and with little willpower, I always consume more than just one. It’s not something I’m proud of. Still, we switched to whole milk last fall, use butter regularly, and sugar when making dessert. Mostly I’ve been trying to constrain portion sizes, and….Exercise(!) by walking mostly, but the occasional jog and assisted pull-ups and push-ups.
PS: you know that whole anti-white bread thing…Did you that white bread has been around since the ancient Egyptians and was one of the things that Pompeii was known for? Did you also know that the majority of vitamins and nutrients in whole grains are mostly bound up and inaccessible to your gut?
Justin – thank you for all the information and feedback that you have left here. What I love most about writing on things I care about is what comes from people who are being honest with there feelings. My parents are overweight, I don’t know if they would be considered obese, but it saddens me because I know how unhealthy they are eating. Whenever I go over to there house, the fridge is packed full with all kinds of food to snack on. They are old enough to where I am scared that it will be a major problem for them and take their lives sooner than I would like.
My wife always comments how fast I eat my food… being the youngest of three boys, if I wanted to get enough food, I had to eat quick. This had a huge effect on me growing up because I was always larger than my classmates and they used to make fun of me. It hurt and always bothered me. I wasn’t out of line with my weight, but almost everyone else was skinnier than me.
I never expected this to have an impact on others the way it is, I know that I have an addictive personality and I love the taste of fast food as much as anyone else. This post is something I believe in and wanted to write this to myself more so as a motivational piece as my wife and I plan to start having kids sometime in the near future. I don’t want my kids growing up being called names like I was when I was young and I feel that the only one to blame if they were… would be myself.
Again, thank you so much for sharing your feelings.
Hey Brett…your blog post was a bit shocking, but I could tell that it was coming from your heart, especially the second half. I was the same as you growing up – bigger than other kids and to some extent this is genetic (my dad comes from Russian ancestry…have you seen Russian women, LOL!). I mentioned in another reply that my oldest child is like me – larger than all her friends…taller and bigger and overweight – just like me. Interestingly my mom fed me twinkies and all that kind of processed junk all my life and I always blamed my weight on my parents 1950′s post-industrial processed diet. But we feed our kids all the very best food (no high fructose corn syrup, no trans fats, no artificial colors/flavors/preservatives, simple wholesome ingredients, etc) and make their lunches for school EVERY day, moderate their portions (and ours) give them 5 to 9 servings of fruits and vegetables, and on and on and my oldest is still overweight. Honestly I think the other side of the equation is exercise…how much you need depends on your natural metabolic rate and your genetic body type. Probably you and me and my daughter, and maybe Carolyne’s son need more exercise and less food…that seems unfair in this world where there are people who can eat a lot and never exercise and be thin as a rail. I hate to exercise almost as much as I love to eat dessert, LOL! I love your point about getting outside. This is HUGE. If kids just move their bodies OUTSIDE they would naturally burn more calories. Our kids spend a lot of time outside and we love this. I hope that no matter what the genetics, body types, etc, that this will help change their lives. This is something that can not only make their bodies healthy, but also their minds. A little bit of TV and games for entertainment is OK (have you ever played cut the rope on your iphone…that is a real brain buster!) but if I were to make an “activity pyramid” being outside would be the broad base on the bottom – outside every day! Thanks for your post…I did enjoy it, as well as all the great comments. (I found this blog via Teri’s SIL Ashley on her post on 48Days…)
Suzanne – Thank you for your incredible feedback and your comment to Carolyne. I appreciate you taking the time to share with everyone who reads this some of the reality that we all face with the problem in our society. I know that genetics has a huge roll in how are body adapts to the food and environment around us. We all need more exercise and I believe that it is the biggest problem that we face. As a country we work more than any other and have less time off to spend rejuvenating our bodies from all the stress that we encounter. I live just north of LA and never like driving down there because of all the traffic. It saddens me that we spend so much time in our cars going to and from work and live such sedentary lifestyles. I used to drive an hour to and from work and even though that helped prepare me for the day and helped me relax on my way home… I had a great drive through the mountains, no traffic… it still took 2 hours out of my day to take care of myself the way I should have been.
Your idea about an activity pyramid is one of the best ideas I have heard in a long time. I may just be coming up with something along those lines. Make sure you stay tuned for the second part of this post. I had already planned on the majority of the second post but added some additional insight from all the comments that I received. I will be posting it this wednesday.
What? Spend more than 10 minutes in the kitchen preparing a meal.
Enjoyed the post Brett.
Thanks Chris. I used to spend less time in the kitchen than I would in the drive through.
Great post. The title definitely caught a lot of attention. I appreciate the point Justin made about how we tend to villify one food or type of food. It’s great for business, makes great books and consumables, but pushes the edges of credibility.
While I agree that corn can be a good food and HFCS can be a detrimental ingredient, the problem comes to the original point of your post: too many calories. Corn syrup is dangerous(calorie-wise) simply due to the concentration of calories in what seems like a small amount of food. If you eat mass-produced food to the point you are full, you have eaten way too many calories.
Simply because something is homemade or made from scratch, that does not mean it is any better than manufactured food. Sure, you can identify all the ingredients and even produce their names, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t as many calories. Homemade cookies have lots of calories(but they’re sooooo good).
The trick is paying attention to what you are making and eating. People talk about exercising more, but for most of us trying to control our weight, what we eat makes a bigger difference. While I won’t go as far as Time Magazine and say exercise won’t make you thin, we can easily eat more than we burn in a workout.
I’ll have to work on a post about what it’s like to “be lucky and have good genes so I can eat whatever I want.” but I need to calm down first.
James – Thank you for your addition to the comments. You are right, we eat way too much and need to cut back on all the concentrated calories that we do eat. It has taken some time for my wife and I to manage the amount that we eat, and I am sure we are not perfect in that amount, but we are seeing progress. I have read and tried a majority of the books and their exercise programs that are available to us and realize, it isn’t about finding the one that will work for you. The fact is that for me it has to be about persistance. I do have a problem with lethargy and a problem with all the good food. During the week I work toward eating the best I can in the right amount of portions, exercise to keep my metabolism up. On the weekends I allow myself the freedom to make a choice whether it is good or bad on the type of food I eat as well as try and get outdoors with the family as much as possible. I can attest to the fact, because I have seen it play out in my own life, if I don’t eat right and I don’t exercise, I will gain fat, become extremely uncomfortable and my joints tend to lose there elasticity and I start to hurt.
I disagree homemade is better health wise. Because no preservatives & increased nutrition. You just got to fit it in your food pyramid (it’s what dietitians use) you can eat a cookie, the size of it just has to fit in your misc calories section.
Ur right about the focus on nutritional dense foods.
This is hard hitting, Brett! You’re right, the kids have nothing to do with it. Of course they’re hungry. They’ll eat as much candy as you let them.
Parents need to step up to the plate and be parents.
Justin – I am just as guilty as them… I will eat anything that you put in front of me…. worth eating that is.
Good post. As a healthcare provider in a pediatric clinic, you have stated many things I have wanted to actually say to parents. The actual burden is yet to be seen. Putting parents on notice is one thing but actually getting them to embrace the situation and take steps to correct the problem is another. Thank you for being bold enough to write it as you see it.
Nina – thank you for sharing. Sometimes it is hard to say things that you really feel. It is definitely easier to speak your mind when writing it down and getting your words out on paper than being bold to someone in person. It is also easier to say things from the heart when you have experience and know that someone is able to overcome anything if they put there mind to it. I hope that at least one parent will be honest with what they need to do to change in their life and the life of their child.
Okay, I posted this on the “Mama Says Namaste” discussion group on 48 Days.net to start some debate on there as well–hopefully everyone has commented here as well. I love reading all of this. I think, like everything else, that this is not a black and white. It’s not just about the food we eat, or how much we exercise, or even how we handle stress. It’s a compilation of so many things. I could point the finger of blame to our Western culture–we want everything RIGHT NOW and we want a big fat easy button for life. Don’t exercise? Pop a diet pill. No time to cook? Pop in a “healthy” Lean Cuisine meal. Stressed out? Get a massage and you’re golden. We are a consumer society–we take and take as quickly as we can so we can move on to the next best thing. We end up overwhelmed, overworked, and overweight. I think most of our lives, we spend trying to figure out how to balance ourselves–to find that smooth path where we look and feel great and all our needs are met. It’s just not a simple solution, and it’s different for every one of us. It’s funny how we tend to crave uniqueness, but consistently look to the masses for a band-aid solution!
Ultimately this is all just a rant–we can call attention to the issues going on in the world, but it’ll just remain “attention” unless we choose to personally act and do something different. I firmly believe that starts with each of us individually in our own lives. One switch we did in our family was to get rid of our coffee maker and start using a teapot and a french press. It didn’t cut back on our coffee intake, and it didn’t make inches melt off of me. But it caused me to think…about taking the time to let water brew, the peacefulness of “home” I feel when I hear the teapot whistle, the “afternoon coffee” time with my hubby, and it reminded me about the importance of stopping to drink in life–to relish my family, to spend time together, and to walk through life deliberately–embracing it the best I can. So we choose to play outside with the kids, to grow our own garden and teach the girls about fresh veggies, and to go for family walks and discuss things going on in our hearts. Being healthy encompasses my spiritual, emotional, mental, and physical health–and everything affects the other!
Hello Ashley – Thank you so much for adding such great content to this post. I am amazed what this article… this feeling in my heart…. has stirred up in others. Your thoughts on us wanting everything right now is the biggest problem we face. Our society has made us believe that having more is better, yet we have taken in too much! We want more stuff….. so we buy it on credit. We have to keep our addiction to stuff going….. so we work more. When we work more…. we add more stress to our lives if it is not the right fit for us. With more stress…. we end up finding comfort in many addictions. Food being the easiest and primary comfort we find.
I love your idea about creating the peacefulness in our homes by taking the time to kettle brew coffee. It reminds me of when I was young and parents used to do the same thing. That should be the ultimate goal for any family….. to create a peaceful home environment. Without peacefulness in our home….well…. we see how it has had an effect on our society.
Make sure you also check out the follow up article I wrote My Child Deserves Better Than Fat
B.B. Bold Brett! Honest post Brett, if we stay close to God & keep looking at things from the His eyes I don’t think we can go wrong with bold posts. Keep up the good work with the right perspective.
Like Justin & Mister Miyagi say, “No bad student, only bad teacher!” This would be a great thing for a local deitition/physical trainer to do as ministry work; for the familys that really wanted to change.
Thank you for sharing Brandon. Love your thoughts and I do agree with what Mr Miyagi says to. We just found out that one of your local gyms will be starting a Zumba for kids. I think it is a great idea. My wife and I found this out after I was talking to her about how there are so many weight loss videos for adults, someone should create a fun one for kids.