Healthy eating - Healthy Children

I'm on a diet. It's a good diet and for the most part I consider and refer to it as a healthy eating plan as opposed to a diet because the truth of the matter is, when I reach my goal, the only way I will keep my weight there is to continue to eat healthy.

When I'm on a diet, my whole family is on a diet because I just don't have what it takes to watch the rest of the family pig out on all that good stuff like cookies and chips and chocolate (oh yummm) while I eat carrot sticks and celery.

Nothing against carrot sticks and celery, I quite like the bunny food but I also really like cookies and chips and chocolate!

The upside of this new healthy eating plan is that the whole family is becoming more healthy. The Dad has lost almost as much weight as I have! This is entirely not fair since I'm the one doing all the trying and he's still getting to eat whatever he wants whenever he wants but just the change of what I cook at home has made a huge difference for him.

The younger kids, those intense ones don't and didn't need to loose any weight, I think the pure surging intensity running through their veins is enough to keep them slim and trim, but the pie worries me.

The Pie went from being a "stick" (The Dad used to call him 'stick man') to being a bit of a chub.

I'm hoping it's mostly a phase that 11 year old boys go through - I have seen most of his friends do a little chubby stint and then miraculously return to their former trim selves after a huge growth spurt around the time they turn 12.

The Pie has not grown more than a fraction of an inch in about 8 months and considering he's 5'6 already, he's due for a major grow any time.

In the mean time, I'm not just sitting idle waiting for him to grow into his weight.

According to this article on Overweight Children, 15% of U.S. children and teenagers are considered to be overweight. The article, which can be found at Online Diet Advice goes on to discuss the possible reasons for the weight problem in children and some suggestions for dealing with overweight children.

My biggest concern is to deal with it effectively without making Pie feel bad about himself! That is a major challenge because the last thing I want to do is make him feel bad about himself - or equally as bad, make him think that I feel badly about him.

I just want healthy kids, healthy minds, heathy spirits and healthy bodies. Hopefully in changing my attitude towards food - I will help them with heathy bodies.