Learning Healthy Habits From Our Children
Michelle May M.D.

There are many important things that we need to teach children as they growbut they have many natural behaviors that we shouldnt try to change. In fact, we could learn a few things from kids! Here are some important lessons:

Eat when you are hungry. From the time they are born, babies know when and how much they need to eatand they cry to let us know too! As they grow, this important instinct can be un-learned. By the time they are adults, they may have learned to eat for many other reasons besides hungermealtimes, tempting food, stress, anger, boredom, and countless other triggers. By recognizing the difference between needing to eat and wanting to eat, adults can re-learn when and how much to eat too.

Stop eating when you are full. An infant will turn their head away when they have had enough to eat, and a toddler will throw a plate of food on the floor when they are done. But as adults, we clean our plates because there are starving children somewhereor just because something tastes good. I am not suggesting that we start throwing our plates on the floor again, but we need to remember that food is abundant in our society so there is no need to eat it all now.

Being hungry makes you grouchy. Being hungry, tired, or frustrated make childrenand adultscrabby! Starving yourself because you are too busy to eat or because you are trying to lose weight usually backfires.

Snacks are good. Kids naturally prefer to eat smaller meals with snacks in between whenever they get hungry. That pattern of eating keeps their energy level and metabolism stoked all day. Adults who need to fire up their metabolism should try this too.

Play with your food. Most kids love to examine, smell, and touch their food. Since eating is a total sensory experience, they get the most from every morsel. This childlike approach will help you eat less food while enjoying it more. Youll appreciate the aroma, appearance, and flavors more if you arent driving, watching T.V., or standing in the kitchen!

All foods fit. Children are born with a natural preference for sweet and higher fat flavors. Though parents sometimes worry, these fun foods can be part of a healthy diet. In fact, overly restrictive food rules usually lead to rebellious eating anywayjust think about the last time you werent allowed to eat something on a diet! Children and adults both eat healthier when they learn to enjoy these less nutritious foods in moderation.

Be a picky eater. Kids wont easily eat something they dont like. Think of how much less food you would eat if you didnt settle for food that tasted so-so.

You can learn to like new foods. Healthy eating is an acquired taste. Good nutrition is essential, so providing a variety of appealing, healthful foods will benefit the whole family. In our house, we have a two-bite rule. Everyone tastes two bites of everything; if they still dont like it, they dont have to eat itbut they have to try it again the next time we have it. Since that is The Rule, there are no battles at the table and the kids often surprise themselves by liking something they thought they wouldnt. (And we never say I told you so!)

Follow the leader. Face it, kids watch, and often imitate, everything we do. If they observe us eating a variety of healthful foods and exercising regularly, then they will learn to take good care of their bodies. Likewise, if they dont hear us making comments like I am so fat and she looks fat then they are less likely to suffer from poor self-esteem and a judgmental attitude.

There is more to a party than cake and ice cream! Invite a child to a party and theyll want to know what they are going to get to do. Invite an adult and theyll wonder what food will be served. You dont have to avoid parties to keep your weight down; just focus on the real purpose of social eventsto be social!

Eating with your family is fun. Since babies and toddlers must be fed by their parents, they naturally love eating with other people. Family mealtime is your opportunity to model good habits and connect with each other. Now that our kids are older, we sometimes play High-Low at dinner. Each member of the family takes a turn telling the others about the best and worst parts of their day. What a door opener!

Its boring to just sit around! Toddlers seem to be in perpetual motion as they explore their world. Young kids love to run in the grass, play on the playground, and challenge themselves and each other to increasingly more difficult activities. Of course, as they get older, television, computers, and electronic games compete for their attention. In our family, to encourage other activities, we use screen time which limits how much time our children are allowed to spend on anything with a screen. Sometimes adults would benefit by limiting their screen time and exploring their world a little more!

Sleep is good. After a full day, children need a good nights sleep to prepare for all of the adventures that tomorrow will hold. Wouldnt we all benefit from a consistent bedtime to make sure we get our rest too?

Live in the moment. Kids are masters at living in the present. They dont waste a lot of energy worrying about what has already happened or what might happen tomorrow. They are fully engaged in small pursuits like discovering where the ants are going, chasing the dog, or seeing how deep they can dig with a plastic shovel. We, on the other hand, continue to scurry around, chasing after our dreams, and all the while, digging ourselves deeper and deeper. We could learn a lot from children!

About the Author

Michelle May, M.D. is a practicing Board Certified Family Physician with expertise in the cognitive-behavioral aspects of weight management. She is the author of Am I Hungry? What To Do When Diets Dont Work in collaboration with a Registered Dietitian and Psychologist. Visit her website http://www.AmIHungry.com for more ideas on managing weight without dieting.

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Are you looking to lose weight to improve your appearance, your health, or even both? If you are, you may be looking for advice. The good news is that there are a number of tips that you can use to help you successfully lose weight and hopefully achieve your weight loss goal.

When it comes to losing weight, the best thing that you can do is eat healthy. Eating healthy involves watching the foods that you eat, not necessarily how much food you eat. Of course, you may want to restrict the amount of foods that you eat, when on a diet, but it is more important to focus on the foods that you do eat. For instance, if you were to eat fruit instead of chips, you could have more fruit snacks with your meals than you would be able to if you were just to eat junk food.

Since eating healthy is an important component of losing weight, you may be wondering how you can go about doing so. One of the first things that you should do is find and familiarize yourself with healthy meals. You can do this by way of standard internet search or by buying a collection of healthy eating recipe books. To reduce the boredom often associated with healthy eating, especially if you are not use to it, it is important that you spice, up your foods and try to not eat the same meals over and over again each week.

In connection with healthy eating, regular exercise is also important to weight loss. If you are looking to lose weight, you should start an exercise plan for yourself. Exercise is important as it burns off calories. When you burn calories, the amount of calories that your body absorbs decreases. This is, essentially, what makes it possible for you to lose weight. If you havent been exercising regularly in the past, it is important that you take it slow. Exercise is a great way to lose weight, but you do not want to overdo it, especially at first.

If you dont currently have an exercise plan or program in place, you may be wondering more about what you can do. One of the many ways that you can go about finding exercises or workouts to do is by buying a collection of fitness magazines. Many fitness magazines have detailed exercises outlined in them, often accompanied by pictures. You may also be able to find free instructional workout videos or exercise moves online. As a reminder, it is important to start out slow or at least start with exercises that would be easy for you to.

Eating healthy and regular exercise are both important components of losing weight, but there are additional tips that you can use to help you lose weight. One of those tips involves finding a workout partner or a workout buddy. This is a person who can exercise with you, whether your exercise involves visiting a local gym or just going for a walk at a local shopping center. Having a workout partner may help to keep you motivated and it may help to keep exercising and losing weight fun and exciting for you.

Another way that you can go about successfully achieving your weight loss goal is by spicing, up your exercises. As previously mentioned, you can use the internet or fitness magazines to find workouts for you to do at home. To help reduce the boredom often associated with exercising you will want to change up your exercises, often on a daily basis. For instance, one day you may want to use a treadmill, the next day you may want to lift weights, and the next day you may want to do an exercise DVD, and so forth.

You should also consider making exercise and healthy eating logs or journals for yourself. These items can be used to track your progress. If you have a good week, like one where you completed all of your exercises, you may want to think about rewarding yourself. Your reward doesnt have to include food; it can be something as simple as a sticker or treating yourself to a movie. Journals and logs have been known to help many individuals looking to lose weight and it may be able to do the same for you.

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Are you looking to lose weight? If you are, there is a good chance that you have heard of weight loss surgery before. Weight loss surgery is how many individuals lose weight. Although weight loss surgery has helped thousands of Americans lose weight, improve their appearance, and improve their health, weight loss surgery may not be for you.

When it comes to determining if weight loss surgery is right for you, there are a number of factors that you will need to take into consideration. One of those factors is your current weight. Most of the time, you will find that weight loss surgeons require their patients to be at least eighty pounds overweight. If you are not as overweight as recommend, you may not even be able to undergo a weight loss surgery. If that is the case, you should keep in mind that there are a number of different weight loss approaches that you can take.

Speaking of alternative weight loss methods, have you tried any other approaches? Many individuals are able to successfully lose weight with healthy eating, exercise, and weight loss products, like diet pills. While there are some individuals who opt for weight loss surgery right away, there are others who only use it as a last resort. Although weight loss surgery, like gastric bypass surgery or lap-band surgery, is more than worth it, you may be able to lose your excess weight without having to spend a large amount of money doing so.

Another factor that you should take into consideration, when determining if weight loss surgery is right for you, is your health. If you are overweight, have you been noticing any other health problems or has your doctor outlined the importance of losing weight for your health? If this has happened, you may not have a choice when it comes to undergoing weight loss surgery. For some individuals, weight loss surgery is, literally, lifesaving.

As it was previously mentioned, two popular weight loss surgeries include gastric bypass surgery and lap-band surgery. While there additional weight loss surgeries that you can undergo, these two are the most popular ones. The surgery that you would like to undergo is also important when determining whether or not weight loss surgery is your best option. For instance, gastric bypass surgery requires the stapling of the stomach, whereas lap-band surgery involves an adjustable or removable band. When deciding which weight loss surgery you should undergo, your decision will need to be made in conjunction with a healthcare professional.

When examining weight loss surgeries, you will find that most surgeries reduce the stomach pouch size. For that reason, your ability to follow all instructions given to you is important. After undergoing a weight loss surgery, like lap-band surgery or gastric bypass surgery, your healthcare professional will likely request that you develop yourself an exercise plan, as well as eat healthy. It is important that you follow all advice given to you. With weight loss surgeries that involve the reduction of the stomach pouch, an over consumption of food can be harmful to your weight loss, as well as dangerous to your health.

The above mentioned factors are factors that may help you determine whether or not weight loss surgery is right for you. As a reminder, it is important to remember that weight loss surgery is not your only option, when looking to lose weight, but it is a method that you should explore.

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Everyone has their trouble spots when it comes to weight loss. We all have areas on our body that we love and areas on our body that we hate. If you have trouble with your belly you may wonder what can be done to lose the stomach fat.

You know that it is just not possible to spot reduce. What that means is that you can’t just lose weight in certain areas of your body, you have to lose weight everywhere. For that reason you will have to focus on overall body weight reduction to get the body you have always dreamed of.

Even though you can’t spot reduce, you will still lose more weight in some areas than in others for the simple reason that you have more fat in some areas than others. Your body will burn fat first, then muscle, so as long as you still have excess fat deposits and you cut your daily calorie intake you will lose weight.

So if you want to lose the stomach fat but you don’t need to lose weight in your hips or butt, all you need to do is eat fewer calories and the excess weight will come off.

Another thing that can help the appearance of your belly is exercise. A lot of women wrongly think that if they do too many exercises it will just make areas of their body half look bigger because they will ‘bulk up’. In reality women just aren’t made that way. In order to get really big you’d have to workout on a full time basis, eat only 100% nutritious foods (no cheating) and probably get some pharmaceutical help. It takes quite a lot for a woman to bulk up.

If you target all your major muscle groups what will happen is that you will look toned. When your muscles are toned you will look smaller since your body will be tighter. Think of your muscles kind of like a girdle. Building your muscles will allow you to naturally hold everything in more easily and that will give you an all over appearance of being smaller which will make it look like you have lost more weight than you really have.

To get the best results you should watch what you eat, make sure you drink plenty of water everyday to stay hydrated and to keep your body clear of toxins, and do some muscle building exercises.

One great and easy to do exercise for your belly is to do crunches. You don’t need any special equipment and it is easy to learn how to do them. All you have to do is lay on your back on the floor, bend the knees to protect your lower back then put your hands lightly behind your head and looking straight at the ceiling slowly move up and down. Breathe out as you come up.

It’s easy to lose the stomach fat, just eat right and exercise. And, oh yeah, you’ll also lose weight everywhere else too!

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