7 Weight Loss Tips for Kids and Their Families

September 6th, 2009

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weight_loss1 Here is a sure-fire list of diet dos and don’t to help your family triumph over obesity:

1. Try again. Weight loss and healthy eating is not easy. There will be times when you and your family will struggle with this new lifestyle. It is important to keep trying. Failure is certain if you are not trying.

2. Avoid portion distortion. When serving food you must use portion control, a buffet-type or family-style situation tends to promote overeating.

3. Start the day off right with a good breakfast. A bowl of low-sugar cereal with low-fat milk, low-fat yogurt with a granola or breakfast bar, or an English muffin with peanut butter, rather than a doughnut or muffin. A healthy breakfast will put your family on the healthy track for the rest of the day.

4. be a ‘healthy’ role model. If there are chips, cookies and Twinkies and no fruit or vegetables when your kids look for snacks, how can they succeed? Line your refrigerator and cabinets with fresh fruits, nuts, low-fat cheese, and easy things for kids to snack on besides ‘junk food’.

5. Be positive. Say, Let’s go pick out fruits and make a fruit salad, don’t eat this or that. Use positive words and phrases when talking with your kid.

6. Make healthy eating a family affair. Create family meals together and for the entire family. Do not single out an overweight family member with special diet food. Your entire family can benefit form healthy eating regardless of weight.

7. Make time for physical activity. Make physical activity a family activity. Every night after dinner in the summer, go for a half-hour walk and make it an activity that kids look forward to.