PLAYSTATION GENERATION-childhood obesity

“It’s not cool to be fat!”
America’s youth are starting to become Willy Wonka’s Umpa Lumpas. The obesity epidemic is especially evident in United States, where many people live sedentary lives and eat more convenience foods, which are typically high in calories and low in nutritional value. Children, on average, spend up to five to six hours a day involved in these sedentary activities. Perhaps it wouldn’t matter if they were sufficiently active at other times, but most of them aren’t. In just two decades, the prevalence of overweight doubled for U.S. children ages 6 to 11 — and tripled for American teenagers. The annual National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found that about one-third of U.S. children are overweight or at risk of becoming overweight. In total, about 25 million U.S. children and adolescents are overweight or nearly overweight. This generation will presently be the first generation to die before their parents if they are not careful. More and more reports are being published stating that American youth are obese. Childhood obesity is particularly troubling because the extra pounds often start kids on the path to health problems that were once confined to adults, such as diabetes, high blood pressure and high cholesterol. The major health threat is the early development of Type 2 diabetes (adult onset), particularly in children with a family history of the disease. Doctors are reporting a surge in young adolescents developing Type 2 diabetes – which can lead to heart disease, high blood pressure, kidney disease, stroke, limb amputations, and blindness. People who develop diabetes in adolescence face a diminished quality of life and shortened life span, particularly if the disease progresses untreated. It’s a scary prospect for our children but, in many cases, obesity and diabetes are preventable.
THE SOLUTION
If a weight-loss program is necessary, involve the whole family in healthy habits so your child doesn’t feel singled out. You can encourage healthy eating by serving more fruits and vegetables and buying fewer sodas and high-calorie, high-fat snack foods. Physical activity can also help your child overcome obesity or being overweight. Kids need about 60 minutes each day. Obese children need to learn to listen to their internal cues of hunger and appetite. Parents and childcare providers must help them do so. This includes encouraging children to eat according to these cues, while acknowledging the emotional aspect of feeding and eating. A restrictive diet may make the child feel deprived and neglected, and exacerbate the overeating problem.

Maintain weight. A goal of weight maintenance versus weight loss depends on age, baseline BMI percentile, and whether the child has any medical complications because of obesity (such as hypertension and high cholesterol).

Encourage physical activity. Children should take part in at least 60 minutes of age- and developmentally-appropriate activities every day. Activity periods should last 10 to 15 minutes or more and include a range of intensities (moderate to vigorous). Children should engage in a variety of physical activities of various levels of intensity.

For best success, all family members should participate in the increased activity. Physically active parents and siblings serve as role models. They also provide good company for bike rides, walks or swims. Physical activity should be fun and make children feel good, not a chore they must do to lose weight.
The Centers for Disease Control have recommended that schools establish policies that promote enjoyable, lifelong physical activity among young people. Their guidelines state, “Physical education should emphasize skills for lifetime physical activities (e.g., dance, strength training, and jogging, swimming, bicycling, cross-country skiing, walking, and hiking) rather than those for competitive sports.” These experts also recommend that fitness-enhancing physical activities become an integral part of the American family’s lifestyle.

PUBLIC ENEMY #1

You may view missing a week of exercise or grabbing a doughnut when you’ve been trying to lose weight as a failure.  But this all-or-nothing outloock can actually undermine your future success.  When you feel disappointed in yourself, pay attention to the way you explain your behavior.  Thoughts and statements like “I have no willpower” or “I knew I’d never stick to a diet” are self defeating and negative self talk and could lead you to repeat the very actions you hoped to change.  Instead, admit that you screwed up and take a moment to realize that doing so is natural.  When you make a mistake with a diet, an exercise plan, or for that matter any major decision, it doesn’t mean that you’re a bad person or that you’ll never improve.  All it means simply is that you need to renew your motivation.

LOVE YOUR BODY

 1. FIND something you like about yourself.  Look in the mirror and pick a body part (shoulders, hands, skin, eyes, etc) that you admire and accentuate it.

2.PRACTICE positive visualization.  Every morining after you turn off your alarm, make it a habit to imagine yourself at your very best; healthy and happy.  Visualize as much detail as possible.

3.SPLURGE on an item of clothing that makes you feel fantastic, whether it’s a slick suit for you men or some gorgeous lingerie or a pair of killer high heel shoes for you women.  Get something that makes you feel good about yourself and accentuates that body part that you admire from tip #1.

4.SURROUND yourself with a circle of friends or loved ones who not only adore you but who als love themselves.  Fat talk and body bashing are contagious.  Avoid negative self talk and negativity from your circle i.e. “I hate my (insert body part).”

5.WRITE  down something nice a friend or loved one has said about you and stick it on your bathroom or bedroom mirror so you see it every day.

HELP…I’M FALLING & I CAN’T GET UP

 Little Known Facts 

Ø  Hypnosis is a cooperative venture between two people-not something one person does to another

Ø  Fewer than 1 out of 20 people are not susceptible

Ø  Trance is not like on-off switch. People enter trance gradually and experience different levels of trance.  A person in a deeper level of trance is more likely to accept suggestions than one who is in a light trance or not in a trance. 

Benefits of hypnosis In Helping Athletes Achieve Their Performance Goals 

Ø  RELAXATION: most noticeable due to how an athlete feels when he/she comes out of a trance.  Usually relaxation is experienced in the mind and/or body of the athlete.  This is similar to someone that is well rested from a nights sleep. 

Ø  SUGGESTIBILITY:  most prominent characteristic that comes to most individuals’ minds due to individuals coming in contact with hypnosis via movies, stage hypnotic show, etc.  Although stage shows seldom help the individual with any issues or conflicts, sports hypnotic suggestions can be used to empower athletes.  By educating athletes, they are able to understand that during a session they are able to, at any time, resist suggestions as well as follow them. 

Ø  CONCENTRATION:  Athletes that are in trance have an increased ability to concentrate and focus which makes sports hypnosis attractive to athletes and coaches alike.  Through trance, the athlete is able to focus on task relevant cues and tune out distractions in which the athlete is able to analyze factors contributing to their failure and/or success of a past, present, or future event. 

Ø  IMAGINATION ABILITY:  In trance, the athlete has enhanced imaginative abilities which enable the athlete to reduce current reality testing- to accept distortion of time, cognition and affect.  The ability to distort time helps such athletes as tennis players, golfers, and gymnast to vividly rehearse a dive or skill in slow motion. 

Ø  BRAIN FUNCTION:   Hypnotic trance allows access to different functions of the brain.  The motivations, though inaccessible through conscious mind, can be more accessible through trance.  Understanding unconscious motivations is major with working with athletes in helping cope and understand different issues.  Theories suggest that humans have two halves or lobes in their brains.  The right side deals with emotions while the left side is the logic, and rational side of thinking.  Hypnosis allows more access to qualities associated with the right side of the brain.  Tapping into both sides can be useful in mentally training athletes.  Imaginative skills of the right side of the brain can help make hypnotic imaginary sessions more vivid and thus more powerful! 

Ø  AUTONOMIC CONTROL: Ability to control some autonomic functions such as blood flow and blood pressure.  This characteristic is important in facilitating recovery of injuries.  With an increase in the flow of blood and other healing fluids to the site of an injury recovery is more rapid.  Likewise, hypnosis is valuable in pain control, which can be used in sports medicine.  Anxiety has both physiological and psychological aspects and its control is important.. Sport hypnotist can teach athletes how he/she can control both aspects effectively in trance. 

The Process of Growth and Change-float like a butterfly….

The key to success is to take all the time you need to learn and practice the art of weight loss and focus on the process, not the pounds.

THE PROCESS OF GROWTH AND CHANGE

Awareness: waking up, feeling, seeing, touching, and hearing internally and externally. Being alert, paying attention not just to physical experiences but also to mental, emotional, and spiritual experiences.

Introspection: thinking about your “self”, about your thoughts, your feelings, your actions, and reactions, your wants and needs.

Letting Go of the past: acknowledging the past that contributed to where you are today and then letting it go in order to move forward.  This involves grieving for what you are leaving behind.

Acceptance of Self and Others: a sense of peace about who you are and where you are and an absence of anger and blame for your current state of body and mind.

Embracing Change: an attitude that learning about yourself is enjoyable and that mistakes are not bad, but rather the foundation for learning.  A true commitment to moving forward and being different from how you were.  Willingness to be in the process of growing instead of being done.  You’re ready to take action and to do the work necessary to move forward.

Growth: A progressive development of the self toward a higher, more fulfilling level of living.

Increased Awareness: As you grow, your awareness and consciousness increase, allowing you to perceive other thoughts, feelings, and actions, often uncomfortable, and leading you to further introspection.

As you see the process repeats itself in which you find yourself back at introspect. As long as you stay with the process you will continue to grow and improve your life and your weight.  This process is not always fast or smooth however if you stay with it, you will find that the rewards in the end can be tremendous.

There really is no such thing as standing still in life.  You are either moving forward or sliding back.  Growth is the natural state of all living things. Time can mark the coming and going of the natural cycles of the moon and the seasons, but it cannot mark when a spirit is ready to change and grow. 

Being overweight is a symptom of one or more areas of imbalance in your life.

Two things to consider when losing weight. (1) You cannot grow or change any person but yourself (2) What you believe and what you think have a direct influence on what you do and how you feel.

Your old habits and behaviors were developed for a reason.  They met a certain need that you have.  If you do not discover the reasons for the habit and meet the need in some other way, you will be unable to end the old habit.  You cannot pick up and hold on to a new habit unless you let go of the old and all the reasons you needed it. 

Weight loss has the same implications as when one is grieving over a loved one or loss of job or any perceived loss.  Any perceived loss will be grieved in various stages until you can come to a resolution that you, as a person, are whole and OK without that thing or person.  THE STAGES OF GRIEF are:

Denial: At this stage you try to protect your inner nature by denying that you even have a problem or that you are feeling bad or that you need to stop doing or thinking something that has been part of your lifestyle for years.  Chronic dieters called these people the “obese and happy”.  They proclaim that they love and accept themselves exactly as they are (which is good) and that they intend never to concern themselves with weight again.  This is fine for strong, healthy people who may be 20 or 30 percent over their naturally slim weight. But to be 100 and 200 pounds overweight and be perfectly happy to stay there is saying “I am perfectly happy dying young.” These individuals are likely denying their problems because they can no longer stand the pain.  They should not feel bad about themselves but they should not compromise their health either. 

Anger and blaming: At this stage you are looking for others, places and things to blame instead of taking responsibility for your own actions of being overweight.  At this stage you are angry and uncomfortable.  Taking responsibility at this stage is too painful to admit. The wonderful thing is that there is no one or thing to blame and there is no guilt only there is the past and how it was then and the present and how it is now.  If guilt is removed and forgiveness is replaced the responsibility wouldn’t be as painful.

Bargaining: At this stage you make a last ditch effort to avoid the perceived pain of ending and taking self responsibility.  You make bargains with yourself and higher powers  or jump into a quick fix to cover the pain or return to denial that you have any problem at all. Staying in this phase will delay the grieving process and prevent you from moving forward to growth and change.

Acceptance and emotional release:  At this stage you finally break through all barriers and accept the ending as truth.  Part of you is gone, whether it is a habit or something else.  Holding on to it has no more positive benefits for you.  You accept the ending with all the pros and cons that come with it.  Likewise, usually there is a strong emotional release that comes along with it i.e. crying, elation, remorse, etc.  As you move out of your grief, you move back into the main spiral of positive growth and change.

Acceptance of self and others: Accepting yourself and others and taking responsibilities for your own life involves forgiveness. At this stage you become able to forgive yourself the past and forgive others who may have treated you unloving.  You can realize that you did the est you could and so did they (if it involves another person). Holding on to anger and blame can only hold you back.  When you forgive yourself and others for all the unhealthy things you did in the past, you can move forward.  Though forgiving yourself may bring tears, the feeling afterward can be light and giddy.  Enjoy this stage.  This is why this stage feels so good.

Know what stage of personal growth you are in and be aware of when you are stuck and when you are ready to move on.  Then give yourself some new beliefs and mental images that will support your movement to the next stage. If you just remain recovered from the old but not committed to the new for too long, your growth process will stall.

Taken from The Ten Habits of Naturally Slim People by Jill Podjasek and Jennifer Carney