Lori S. Brizee - Healthy Choices, Healthy Children: A Guide to Raising Fit, Happy Kids

A GUIDE TO RAISING FIT, HAPPY KIDS

Lori S. Brizee, MS, RD, CSP with Sue Schumann Warner

Healthy Choices, Healthy Children: A Guide to Raising Fit, Happy Kids
Copyright 2011 by Lori S. Brizee and Sue Schumann Warner
ISBN 978-1-55725-924-0

My Plate graphic as it appears on used by permission of the USDA Center for Nutrition Policy and Promotion (CNPP).

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Brizee, Lori S.

Healthy choices, healthy children : a guide to raising fit, happy kids / Lori S. Brizee, Sue Schumann Warner.

p. cm.

Summary: This easy-to-use guide provides essential tools for raising well-nourished, active children who will make lifelong healthy choices. Engaging, practical, and filled with quick tips, this is a must read for the busy parent trying to navigate the challenging world of kids and food. An ideal book for parents, schools, churches, and community groups. Recipes are includedProvided by publisher.

ISBN 978-1-55725-924-0 (pbk.)

1. ChildrenNutrition. 2. Physical fitness for children. 3. ChildrenHealth and hygiene. I. Schumann Warner, Sue. II. Title.

RJ206.B756 2011

618.92dc23 2011022630

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

All rights reserved. No portion of this book may be reproduced, stored in an electronic retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any meanselectronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, or any otherexcept for brief quotations in printed reviews, without the prior permission of the publisher.

Published by Paraclete Press
Brewster, Massachusetts
www.paracletepress.com
Printed in the United States of America

I dedicate this book to my husband, Bob,
and my kids, Suzanne and Michael, who
have given me inspiration throughout my
life and career and have encouraged me in
every step of writing this book.

Lori S. Brizee

AS A NUTRITIONIST FOR NEARLY THIRTY YEARS, primarily in pediatrics, Ive seen firsthand the growing need for families to take a more active role in teaching their children about healthy living and healthy eating. And as a community we must support families and caregivers by providing them with up-to-date information and realistic suggestions that are easily incorporated into their busy and complicated lives. Healthy Choices, Healthy Children is my attempt to create such a resource. This book can help us reverse the rising tide of obesity and raise children who are physically fit, healthy, and well nourished.

Of course, we and our children are far more than just physical beings. In order for any of us to truly be successful as human beings, we need to develop in mind, body, and spirit. If we focus on just one area for our child, we will stifle the opportunity for growth in others. An extremely intelligent child may excel beyond his age level in every subject and read at a college level by age twelve. But if he is eating poorly, getting no physical activity, and has not developed social skills, he will have a very difficult life in spite of his great talents. Or we may have a child who is an amazing athletedefinitely on the road to a soccer scholarship for college. If this child does not work hard in school, develop good communication skills, and learn compassion for others, she will have a less than joyful life.

There are many references in the Bible and other sacred writings to raising our childrenwe are told over and over to teach them and to be examples for them. Our children and grandchildren are a blessing to uswe want to love them unconditionally. We want to encourage their strengths and help build their self-esteem and character.

Every child has strengths and weaknessesphysically, mentally, and spiritually. Some are visible and some are not. Children with visible differencesbirth defects that affect their appearance, accidents that result in disfigurement, as well as obesityare stigmatized. Children face discrimination and prejudice every day when they look different. Research suggests that parents may also treat these children differently than they do their more normal-appearing children. Parents who have children with any characteristic that society views as outside of normal and healthy have a hard road.

As a community of caring people, we need to teach our kids to treat each other as children of God. As adults, we need to evaluate our prejudices and figure out where they come from. I firmly believe that we need to ask ourselves, every day, how we can truly love our neighborsthat includes our families, our friends (and our childrens friends), our business associates, our acquaintances, the people in the next town... you get the picture.

I see the misery that many kids deal with because of their weight. My heart breaks as I hear stories of teasing, discrimination, and overall poor treatment because of a childs obesityespecially when it comes from adults, whom we would expect to be more understanding. Our kids live in a stressful worldand they handle stress in a variety of different ways. Some of them overeat, others dont eat well at all, some take up other self-destructive behaviorsdrugs, alcohol, and on and on. Our job is to affirm our kids, to let them know they are loved, and to guide them in healthy lifestyle habits.

My hope is that this book will help parents, grandparents, teachers, and other adults better understand how we can change our environment, our ways of eating, and our activity to decrease the epidemic of obesity in children. There is much to be done to reverse this trend. It has to start with individuals and families who care and expand to the people making decisions about our food supply and community environment.

So, how can we help our children who have weight issues? By truly caring for our children and teaching them that they are loved by Godand by uswe can help them to love themselves and be the people they were meant to be. Their worth has nothing to do with their weight.

However, we want our kids to be healthy, so we definitely want them to be at a healthy weight. We need to focus on choosing healthy foods, limiting less healthy ones, getting physical activity, and cutting back on those sit-down activitiesTV, videos, computer games. We want to do this simply because it is the right thing to do for all our kids, not just our overweight children. We want to do this because we love our children and know that it is best to work on being physically healthy.

How do we bring in the mental and spiritual aspects of being healthy? We want to stimulate our childrens mindstalk with them, spend time with them, read with them, talk about current events, take them to cultural eventsand set limits, such as doing homework and reading before kicking back to watch TV or play a video game. We want to be involved in their schools as much as is possible and appropriate, getting to know their teachers. By helping our kids advance their mental skills, we are helping them get ready to be functional adults.

The spiritual is where many of us fall short. We may not be involved in an organized church or faith practice. That does not mean that we do not have a spiritual component to our livesthat part of us that resonates deep inside when we see a beautiful sunset, admire the intricacies of a small wildflower, or hear beautiful music. That part of us that wells up with joy when our child gives us an unsolicited hug, draws us a picture, or brings us a gift. That part of us that cries inside when our child is hurting or is left out.

Our spirit is the part of us that enables us to feel both joy and sadness. We want to build our own spiritual strengthmaybe we read the Bible and pray, learn to meditate, or practice yoga. Maybe we reflect on creation and nature while we take a walk. Maybe we go to a museum to see great art, or listen to our favorite music. We need to do things for ourselves that are good for the soul, that rejuvenate our hectic lives. We have to allow ourselves the time to just beby allowing our spirit to come to the surface, we are role models for our children.