[MsVickie]

This thread got me to thinking. When I see my nieces and nephews getting chunky and we have to keep them, we do try to choose healthier snacks and meals for them. Now living in a house with a hubby who loves sweets of course that temptation will be there always. When they are old enough you can kinda implicate oh your having a apple. You know its good for ya? This works much better than NO yout cant have pudding your having a apple!

Kids do get it after a while....but it takes time. I have found boys get it much quicker than the girls. I have no idea why that is but they do. Girls are more whiny I know that for a fact. People give in. You have to do it stuttly though. Not all at once.

I know as i was contliplating this surgery We started switching over to better foods to eat. I had a neice and nephew that stayed with me alot during that time. The girl would always choose somthing sweet to eat for snack. So... when I would offer somthing more healthier....... and they would eat it I would almost praise them for it. Meaning saying like..... carrots are really good for your eyes did you know that? Or apples have been around for a long time. It keeps your tummy happy etc.... It got down to where they were given a choice in the afternoons of snacks..... fudge round or a apple or what ever... the boy always chose the healthier thing versus his sister. After a bit she would go back and forth. This took a couple of years....... but now she eats healthy stuff.

The last thing you really wanna do right now is shame her into thinking eveything that is given to her is bad. Remember moderation is the key. Im only saying this because I had a mother whom constantly was on me about my weight and she was severly obese herself. This started early in life. Being more suttle about things is a better way to go. Give her good choices at home and maybe just mabye she will ask for somthign different when she is away at another place for the day.

Dont let it follow her the rest of her life like it did me......and I ended up morbidly obese. There are ways around it.

[gradualwisd0m]

Growing up we didn't have a lot of money so there were a lot of starch and carbs in the house like Mac N Cheese, Lipton Noodles, Spaghetti, 'Dumplings' (which make me cringe now). I recall my mother making 4x batches of chocolate chip cookies - the cookie jar was ALWAYS filled with them and we ate them. For a while mom was buying oranges and apples and they were a great treat. Even when she'd bring home a bunch of bananas from the store they would disappear within a day because it was something we never had.

In elementary school we had "snack time" and I rememeber my classmates had things like Fruit Gushers, Fruit Roll-ups or some other processed food. I always felt poor because I often had an apple. It confused me because I was an overweight child eating fruit and my classmates were average weight and they ate the processed snacks but stayed thin while I continued to gain. It was a cruel situation.

When I would go home and visit the last 5 years, my younger sister would eat those Easy Mac bowls or some other processed bowl of carbs (she was about 12-16 years old). I remember telling my mom that she shouldn't buy that kind of thing for her and that she was doing more harm than good. It's frustrating because now my sister is a really picky eater.

[stylindi]

Ya... i know i mUST try to be more subtle....i started off that way ... and i know better. Doh ...stoopid emotions.