Tuesday, September 22nd 2009
Didn’t catch my chat on The Motherhood last Friday? I’d love to hear your thoughts on my topic:
Now that the kids are back in school, you may have more “Me Time” on hand. What are you planning to do with it? For many of us, the answer is exercise. Whether you join a gym, return to your favorite spin or aerobics class or start jogging with a buddy, moving is what it’s all about. But what is your motivation? Are you exercising to lose weight? Tone up? Maintain health?
If your answer is about getting back into those skinny jeans that make your ass look so good rather than lowering your blood pressure, maybe your issue isn’t completely with your waistline. Perhaps your battle has a lot more to do with what you see when you look in the mirror – your body image.
In a country that’s full of convenience food & super sized meals on one hand and waif thin photoshopped models and celebrities on the other, have you ever stopped to ask yourself why you keep falling prey to same vicious cycle? And why are we setting our kids up for more of the same?
The CDC reports that obesity is defined as a body mass index (BMI) of 30 or greater. BMI is calculated from a person’s weight and height and provides a reasonable indicator of body fatness and weight categories that may lead to health problems. Obesity is a major risk factor for cardiovascular disease, certain types of cancer, and type 2 diabetes.
Use this tool from WebMD to check your BMI. How do you feel about your results?
During the past 20 years there has been a dramatic increase in obesity in the United States. In 2008, only one state (Colorado) had a prevalence of obesity less than 20%. Thirty-two states had a prevalence equal to or greater than 25%; six of these states (Alabama, Mississippi, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, and West Virginia ) had a prevalence of obesity equal to or greater than 30%.
Data from surveys (1976–1980 and 2003–2006) show that the prevalence of obesity has increased: for children aged 2–5 years, prevalence increased from 5.0% to 12.4%; for those aged 6–11 years, prevalence increased from 6.5% to 17.0%; and for those aged 12–19 years, prevalence increased from 5.0% to 17.6%
The only answer I keep personally returning to is that we need to stand up and take charge. That means taking control of not only our own diet but maintaining a healthy diet and good fitness role modeling for the entire family. McDonald’s has been wooing your children since before they were able to speak. Moms, it’s time to take back the reigns. Have you read these books? If not, I encourage you to do so.
Fast Food Nation
Chew On This
My point is that control is the answer to the dilemma we face when we look in the mirror. If we don’t like what we see, it’s time to change our minds. Some of that is acceptance but a lot of it takes action… and practice. Bottom line: YOU’RE IN CHARGE.
Jack Lalanne said, “Exercise is King. Nutrition is Queen.” How can we expect our bodies to to maintain any sort of temple-like status if we hardly pay attention to either?
There are some simple steps to getting started. Online tools like Fit Day and CalorieKing are a great way to track of your both your nutrition and physical fitness progress. Keeping a food and exercise journal is key. You have to be accountable.
And, of course, you need to get moving. Here are my home gym must haves:
Exercise/Resistance Tubes
Yoga Mat
Hand Weights
Bosu ***MY MOST FAVORITE EVER
Watch this video to see how you can use the Bosu:
Hitting that plateau: So you’ve been doing the same workout for months and you’ve seen some good results but now your body has stopped reacting. What do you do?
I am an aerobics instructor, teaching 3 to 4 classes a week, but I needed a personal trainer to get me into shape last year because my body was so used to my workout that it stopped reacting. NOTHING is worse than putting your heart and soul into a fitness regimen…and results don’t happen. Of course you want to quit but that’s not the answer. The answer is to switch it up.
Try a yoga dvd. Walk every day holding hand weights while your kid is at soccer practice. Buy a jump rope and actually use it. Incorporate exercise into TV time by doing plank exercises during each commercial. The kids can do it too!
What’s your struggle with exercise? With the mirror?
**I was not incented in any way to write this post…besides wanting my family to be happy & fit.
These are my just own personal thoughts and practices.
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Great post, Kimberle. I’ve been on a whole foods (feeding my kids recognizable foods, close to what they were originally; has nothing to do with the store) kick for the last few months, and it’s really great. Once in a while, though, I pick up a snack or a cereal at the store, stare at the list of preservatives and chemicals, and wonder why they needed to put 23 ingredients in a cracker (for instance). Then I put it back.
My kicker is exercise. And boy, does it kick me. I have stuff to work out at home, but I feel so GUILTY taking the time to do it, when I should be mom-ming or working!
Great post but depressing! I don’t agree wtih that BMI test but what do I know? I am listed as Healthy but very close to overweight accourding to that chart. I wear a size 4-6 and I run 6 miles a week. I could eat better and run more and would love to lose 10lbs but I wouldn’t call myself overweight. When I stopped dieting and checking those charts I dropped 20lbs just by not obsessing on it. Crazy stuff!
Just reading that made me feel like I got a workout. I’m done for the day. THanks!
oohh good questions!
As a plus size I can tell you that the body image is *so* important. Sure, I am trying to get healthy. But healthy is more than your body. It is your mind, too.
My struggle w/ the mirror is clothes. I am fine with the way I look and so is hubby. I am not happy with clothing options and ill fitting clothing.
My exercise struggles are doing it at home. My knee issues mean walking is no longer an option for me. So I do the wii fit (damn hula hoop can kick my azz!) at least 3 times a week, I dance around to great music while I clean houseand (my 6 yr old was jamming to Cum On Feel the4 Noize yesterday) lots of yardwork for cardio.
Could I do better? Sure. Dove ice cream bars a couple times a week, jack n cokes on weekends – those are my weaknesses. But I have gone from coffee with alot of half n half to black with sugar. (yay me!! babysteps!)
Kids n fast food- I think it is more about processed foods. My boys will eat hotdogs every night of the week if I let them so I don’t buy hotdogs. My struggle is not taking the easy road of processed foods and instead taking the rockier path of saying “if you don’t like it, make a PB&J” like my mom did. That is what I do not understand. How did we – just me??- backslide from when we were kids eating what was served (even if only one thing from a tableful of offerings) into parents making processed seperate meals for tiny tyrants??
love this post!
The only fast food that I can endorse is Subway. everything else is junk.
I long for the day when all McDonald’s close their doors because it is just disgusting crap! (I’m not perfect, I fall victim to the call of the french fry!) And like you said, they ‘woo’ our kids with their plastic junky toys.
I do struggle in the food dept though. Life has become too convenient and it’s so much easier to be lazy and get take out, drive thru, or eat something that comes out of a box or wrapper.
As for exercise, I make sure that my kids understand the value of moving their bodies to make them feel good, not necessarily look good. We take long walks, we run at the track, do yoga together, push ups, lunges, squats, etc.
the sad part though? My husband does NONE of this and my oldest son now thinks only mommies exercise.
Our kids are sponges and will soak up everything we give them, which is why it’s so important to give them healthy messages (and food) now so that they do not struggle with this later in life.
Like I said, I love this post and could probably go on forever!
I’ve had this post open on my browser since you put it up. I had such a hard time making myself read it even though I knew you’d have great things to say. I’m so embarrassed that I’ve let myself get to this point. It’s so hard to see a way out. Thanks for your encouragement. In the end, it is about health–and frankly that’s the part that’s starting to get me motivated the most.