Good Morning Internets!!
As I continue to struggle with my food demons... I've had something on my mind about children and stopping the cycle of unhealthy relationships with food. I saw this article this morning and it really helped me put some things in perspective.
Clearly having a family is front and center of my brain right now, and that got me thinking about the genetics of my kids having two obese parents. Certainly there are some genetic dispositions to weight problems that we can't control, but what are the things that we can control?
Is it possible to prevent your child from having the same food demons that you've developed over a lifetime? I honestly don't know, but I sure would live to be able to do that!
I would love to break free of the mindset of "food is love" and not reward my kids with food or any other parenting technique... I want them to have the best of what life has to offer (doesn't every parent?) and not deal with the social problems that come along with being overweight.
Naturally, this isn't a problem that I have to deal with right now - but is just something that pops into my head on a pretty regular basis as I think about the future.
Thanks for sharing this, Kim. Chances are, our kids will be predisposed to being overweight. But we can model positive food behaviors in ways that our parents might not have done for us (at least in my own case). It also reminds me of Edie on Desperate Housewives this week and how she was struggling to get her daughter to stop eating cake and exercise. I also think about Melting Mama, who is a healthy weight post-op but does struggle with keeping her kids at a healthy weight. Huge issue. All I know is that we have to start with ourselves before we can model good living to others!
ReplyDeletegreat thoughts kim...I echo your desires, and shudder at the idea of my babies struggling with the same issues that I had.
ReplyDeleteI think we can implement our lifestlye in our families day to day living and hopefully make those changes for the better.
Hmm...I have to think about this.
ReplyDeleteI'm with Meg on this one. You just have to do the best you can, always model good habits in nutrition and exercise. I think the younger they are taught, the better chances they have, as obesity can be hereditary.
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