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Snack Box Dilemmas

October 23, 2008 by

A few weeks ago, my Kindergartner had the “Snack Box” for the first time.  Now, the snack box is a big tub with a lid that you fill with snacks for the following day for all of the kids in class.  Naturally, I wanted to gain an idea of what had been sent previously by other parents to make sure that my child’s first snack day cuisine was a hit with the class.  Little did I know, I was up against some pretty stiff competition.

It turns out, my son had previously had cookies, chips, candy and chocolate for snacks at school.  Of course, wanting to make sure that he wasn’t pulling one over on me trying to get me to send something like that, I called my friend whose son is in the same class.  She concurred saying that her son had reported similar snacks.

I was simply shocked!  I realize that not every parent on the planet is trying to undo pervious mistakes because they have an overweight kindergartener, but even I had never allowed my child to dine on such snacks throughout the day.  It doesn’t matter whether your child is overweight or not.  Those refined sugar products are simply terrible for our children’s health.  Okay now and again, sure.  But five days a week, twice a day?  No.

So, what does one do?  How do you convince other parents to send healthier snacks?  How do we send healthier snacks?  Understand that “home-made” is out anymore because of the potential for food borne illness.  So, the snacks need to be store bought.  And, they need to be something that 5-year-old’s enjoy (which of course is the biggest challenge).

So, I brainstormed with a few other moms that shared my concerns.  Through my experiences with children’s summer fitness camp, I’ve learned a ton of great snack ideas.  Implementing them for an entire class was a bit difficult, but once we figured out how to do that, we printed up a take home sheet that the teacher was more than willing to send home with the kids.  She too had been battling the sugar snacks (what teacher wants 20+ five year olds hopped up on sugar all day?).

Here are some of the ideas: (obviously, some of these won’t work for classrooms with peanut allergies, check with the teacher)

Kinder Mix — Yogurt covered raisins, cashews, soy nuts

Strawberries and Creme — Plain vanilla yogurt, sliced strawberries or unsweetened frozen strawberries for simplicity.  Call a local restaurant and ask if they’d be willing to donate disposable “take-home” ramekins with lids that you can easily put the yoghurt and strawberries in separately and allow the child to mix.  Your local deli might donate a bunch of those little tester spoons as well.

Toffee/sugar coated nuts (true, there’s sugar involved, but more protein, vitamins and even omega 3 fatty acid in some nuts as opposed to sugar through and through) & grapes (rinse the whole bunch and snip little clusters of five grapes or so)

Turkey cheese rollups — Take one piece of mild cheese, one piece of lean turkey from the deli and roll it up!

And remember:  These are snacks, not meals.  They may seem like a small amount, but 5-year-olds have small stomachs too!  Let’s keep it that way!

For more ideas and ways of dealing with all of the challenges of parenting an overweight or obese child, check out some of the fabulous weight loss camps for children!

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Weight Loss Camp Lessons: How to Pack a Healthy Lunch for Kids

October 16, 2008 by

It can be really hard to come up with healthy lunches for kids.  There are so many products out on the market that claim to be healthy but really aren’t.  That coupled with a child’s likes, dislikes and level of convenience and it can be nearly impossible.  No worries!  We’re here to help.  One of the main focuses of our weight loss camp for kids is teaching them how to eat healthier foods.  Lunchtime at school is one of the biggest challenges that overweight children face.

Packing your child’s lunch is loads healthier than the usual school menu.  I’ve eliminated the “fillers” such as chips, white bread, cookies etc.  Nuts are far healthier and most kids like them especially if they are doctored up a bit with a sweet coating.  Just make sure you only send a handful even if they are plain, raw nuts.

It should also be noted that many of the kiddo usuals for lunch such as the sugar filled kid’s yogurts (instead opt for grown up low-fat yogurt or even Yoplait Kids yogurt with Omega 3’s for brain function) or “fruit” snacks (roll-ups, etc) are devoid of nutrition and chocked full of sugar, additives, and calories; pretty much chemicals in a colorful container!

And drinks!  Stay away from juices, sodas, chocolate milk or whole fat milk, and some sports drinks.  Water is always great.  You can throw some small water bottles in the freezer the night before.  By lunchtime,they’ll be thawed, icy cold and refreshing.  Sports drinks that are better than most are G2 or Power-Aid Zero, though I haven’t found the Power-Aid Zero in the smaller containers.

You don’t need to eliminate all fun from the lunch.  Instead of sending a pack of cookies or other dessert item, send a couple of Hershey’s kisses or  mini-sized candy bars.  There are a plethora of good old favorites that are now in mini sizes.

Here’s some ideas to get you started:

Ditch the Bread Sandwich Lunch

2 ounces lean turkey breast, lean ham or lean chicken from the deli (good quality)
1 low fat string cheese
Fruit
Veggie (something your child likes with no dip!)
1 small handfull of nuts (honey roasted or crunchy sugar coating is fine)
2 Hershey’s Kisses or mini-candy bars
Small purified water bottle

Yogurt Pack

1 low fat yogurt (see above note on types to choose)
Granola sprinkles for the yogurt (mix a little flax seed in the granola sprinkles… they’ll never notice!)
1 Apple (Gala reigns supreme!)
Flavoured rice cake mini’s
2 Hershey’s Kisses or mini-candy bars

Eggstatically Terrific

1 hardboiled egg (peel the egg for them, they don’t have enough time at lunch these days)
Carrots (Green Giants Baby Supremes are kiddo favorites)
Fruit
Spicy trail mix (small amount)
2 Hershey’s Kisses or mini-candy bars

Be creative and explore the healthy snack aisles at the market.  It’s amazing what kids will learn to like if given the chance.  A great way to empower your child to make healthier choices is to have them attend a weight loss or fitness camp geared towards kids.  The key to great health for your kids is knowledge and empowerment so that they’ll carry this attitude throughout their lives!

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A Review of “Eat This, Don’t Eat That”

October 2, 2008 by

“Eat This, Don’t Eat That” (by David Zinczenko with Matt Goulding) is getting rave reviews.  Is it a book that can help you and your overweight or obese child?  Mostly yes, maybe a little bit no.

The book is put together quite well with some really fantastic practical advice.  My favorite chapter is the first which explains the eight rules of childhood nutrition.  The advice is geared to teach parents and kids about the general problems in today’s diets.  One of the problems today is misinformation.  While most of us have a general understanding about proper diet, we tend to fall into the traps of modern day society.  This book quickly points out the problems we have with super-sized portions, hidden sugar and the lack of family meal time and structure.

Another great aspect of the book is some very surprising comparisons between popular kids foods.  Spaghettios versus Mac & Cheese… Spaghettios wins out with fewer calories and fewer fat grams.  What should your child eat at Chili’s?  Not the Pepper Pals Country-Fried Chicken Crisper meal with a staggering 1110 calories!  That’s more than half of most kids’ daily caloric requirements in one sitting!  Instead, the Pepper Pals Grilled Chicken Platter with Cinnamon Apples was recommended.

There are only two minor problems that I can forsee with the book:  1.  Misuse and 2. Not enough emphasis on fitness

It’s not enough to use the book as a guide to eating out right or making convenience purchases.  Make sure to read the book thoroughly and understand the concepts it is teaching so that you can incorporate this into your child’s daily life.  It doesn’t matter if you are making healthy restaurant choices once a week and feeding your child too much of the wrong stuff the rest of the week.  That would be the equivalent of sending your child to fitness camp to lose weight and teach them healthy living styles only to let them return home to the same unhealthy, sedentary lifestyle they had before they left!

A huge portion of the childhood obesity problem lies with the sedentary lives that we all lead.  I think the book should have placed a bit more emphasis on this aspect.  There is a chapter at the end with some great ideas for family fitness as well as a few mentions in the rest of the book, but we really, really have to get our kids moving if we want them to be healthy.

Overall?  A great buy if used properly and if the parents reading the book take it upon themselves to incorporate more exercise into their children’s lives.  A great way to do this is through one of the fun weight loss camps for kids that will help you and your child make exercise a regular part of his or her daily life!  Give it a shot!

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Fat Camp? How the Perception of Overweight Children has Changed

September 30, 2008 by

Years ago, the obese or overweight child faced a lot of scrutiny by their classmates and peers.  Taunting on the playground was sometimes even overlooked by teachers that were ignorant to the plights of these children.  Back then the obese or overweight child stood out, and like any noticeable difference amongst a group, their weight trouble was questioned and looked down on.

In years gone by, overweight children were sometimes sent to a fat camp where they were treated in ways that many parents would find atrocious today.  Their focus was on getting kids to lose weight through an almost drill-sergeant-esque approach.  Their focus was on short term weight loss and much less attention was paid to promoting a holistic healthy approach to living life.

Today with the rise of childhood obesity, more and more children on the playground are in fact overweight or obese.  It’s almost a half and half ratio.  It’s really tough to even say what the average size child is anymore.  As a matter of fact, the flip side are the children on the playground whose parents are so paranoid about their child becoming heavy that they are in fact too thin.

Why do we care about all of this?  Well, if you are a parent of an obese or overweight child, you might take comfort in the fact that your child may not experience the sort of isolation and ridicule that they once did.  As well, you should understand that they may be so comfortable in numbers so to speak, that they don’t see much need to lose weight or grow into their weight.

Ultimately, this boils down to taking a healthy self-empowering approach to childhood obesity.  With the help and guidance of counselors at a weight loss or fitness camp, you can help teach your child about proper weight as it relates to health, not appearance.  Empowering your child to lose weight helps them not only in their weight loss efforts, but also in peer pressure.  When children allow the group to make decisions for them, they aren’t in charge of their lives and are left vulnerable to many potentially harmful situations down the road.

So, while we should be thankful that our children may not experience the same taunting on the playground that obese or overweight kids did when we were young, we need to caution ourselves to take comfort in that totally.  After all, we’re worried about their health, right?  Not their popularity.

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Creative Tips for Helping Kids Lose Weight

September 11, 2008 by

1.  Get them involved in the meal planning, shopping and cooking.

When your child is able to have some say within the boundaries of healthful food, you are giving them the opportunity to make healthful choices.  You are also teaching them valuable skills for the future as well as letting them in on the fun world of cooking!  They will probably be more apt to eat something that they helped prepare or at least give it a try.  Empower them to make these good choices.

2.  Set up a rewards system for working out.

One of the best rewards systems I’ve heard of tackles two birds with one stone.  Your child might be obese due to a sedentary lifestyle.  This comes of course from the wonderful world of technology.  Rather than having a screaming match every time your child has had too much “screen” time, revamp your system.  It’s alright if they play on the computer or watch television, but they have to earn that time through exercise.  Make a stack of notecards with individual activities.  Allow them to choose, but assign a certain number of reward minutes given the difficulty of the task at hand.  When they’ve completed their activity, reward them with a “screen minutes” ticket.  By doing this, you encourage your child to exercise and limit their screen time.

3.  Check out a fun fitness camp for kids or teens!

The days of “fat” camps are long gone.  Today’s fitness camps designed to help children and teens start down a more healthful path for life incorporate mega fun activities and tons of healthful food choices.  Your child is guaranteed to have a good time and learn the valuable skills that they will need to lose weight and stay on a healthy path.

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Researching a Weight Loss or Fitness Camp for Kids: Important Factors to Look For

September 9, 2008 by

Years ago, camps like this were cruelly called “fat camps,” but the fitness camps today are quite different.  Let’s face it.  We have so many obese and overweight kids these days that your child is certainly not alone.  Looking into today’s fitness and weight loss camps for your child may be the very best thing you’ve ever done for them!

There are some things to keep in mind.  When you do your research, make sure the camp offers the following:

1.  A healthy approach to weight loss.  This seems like a no-brainer, but just to make sure you’re not sending your child to an “old school” mentality camp, make sure that they offer plenty of healthful food choices that won’t leave your child too hungry.  Find out what a daily menu will be like.  Make sure it includes plenty of vegetables and fruit, lean protein, non-fat dairy and whole grains.

2.  Make sure the healthy approach goes beyond the food and exercise and includes emotional support for your child.  Being overweight or obese can be very tough on your child’s emotional well-being.  You want the counselors to be encouraging as well as understanding.  You want your child to lose weight, not self-esteem!

3.  Make sure that realistic goals are set.  Children lose weight differently than adults.  A lot of their “weight loss” will come in the form of “growing into” their weight.  Sure, pounds can and should be lost while at a weight loss camp, but you don’t want counselors to promise that they’ll send back a thin child!  Weight lost too quickly always comes back and is NEVER supportive of a healthy system.

4.  Make sure that they incorporate FUN activities in terms of exercise.  As adults, we tend to push ourselves in the gym, stay on the treadmill long after we’re bored or force another set of crunches.  Kids should have fun while they exercise so they stick with it.  Who knows?  Maybe they’ll come back home with some ideas for YOU to make YOUR exercise more fun!

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The Scary Truth about Childhood Obesity

September 4, 2008 by

It’s hard to turn on the news or read a paper anymore without hearing something about the obesity crisis in America.  Our poor eating habits and sedentary lifestyles have certainly caught up with us.  Today’s kids are feeling the effects as well.  We have more obese children than we have ever experienced.  Years ago, there used to be one or two larger kids per class.  In today’s world, it’s not unlikely that half of the class will be overweight or obese.

Even though your child is not likely to be singled out as heavy kids once were, that does not take away from the truly scary things about childhood obesity.  Obesity is linked to many, many diseases.  If your child is obese, they are likely to have some fairly unpleasant problems in the future such as:

* Increased risk of cardiovascular disease:  High blood pressure, Atherosclerosis, Myocardial Infarction
* Type II diabetes
* Joint problems such as bad knees and back problems
* Increased risk of  developing certain cancers such as breast and prostate cancer
* Lessened quality of life

It’s important that you help your child now before the health conditions are set in stone.  You need to educate yourself and understand the physical and emotional aspects of obesity.  You need to figure out creative ways of helping your child lose a bit of weight and grow into his or her weight without adding a bunch of pressure.  You need to explore other alternatives such as therapy and fitness camp.   Today’s fitness camps are a far cry from the stigmatized “fat camp” of yesterday.

Obesity is something that can be completely reversed if you are willing to work hard and if you are able to empower your child to work hard.  Adjusting one’s life to lose weight efficiently isn’t an overnight process, but if you commit to it now, you’ll be giving your child a wonderful gift; the gift of good health!

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Weight Loss Camp at Home: Fun Ways to Exercise

August 11, 2008 by

Are you looking for a FUN way to exercise?  At weight loss camp, you learn that exercise can be fun and enjoyable.  Here, I’d like to show you that you can have the same fun exercising at home

Ask your parents if you can set up your very own obstacle course!  If the weather is nice, the backyard will do, but you can do this indoors as well, you just have to be creative.

What you’ll need:

A stack of large index cards
Marker
Timer (stopwatch) 
Any sort of equipment that you can find:  Jump rope, stability ball, gallon jugs filled with water, balls, rope, cones, bean bags…anything that you can find and be creative with.

Now, take the index cards and write certain activities for each station that you’ll set up.  You can write things like:

Jump rope 40 jumps
Jog in place for one minute
Jumping Jacks (50)
Sit-ups (10)
Push-ups (10)
Lift Weights (the gallon jugs with water)

Any type of exercise that you’ve learned in gym class or at a fitness camp will do.

In between the stations, set up an obstacle.  Be creative here.  Use ropes that you have to jump over or bean bags that you have to step on to cross over the pretend Amazon River (filled with piranha… watch out!)  In the house, maybe you have to climb a mountain (the stairs) or hop around a tree (chair).

If you have brothers and sisters that can join you, make it a competition.  If not, compete against yourself to see how quickly you can get through the course five or ten times (depending on how long your course is).

Exercise doesn’t have to be boring or seem like work.  Make it fun, make it your own… just do it!  Just make sure you clean up your obstacle course when you’re finished so your parents will let you do this again!

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How to Help Your Kids Transition Successfully Back Home

July 25, 2008 by

If your child is about to arrive back home from fitness camp, you’re probably wondering what you can do to ensure that all of their hard work isn’t undone.  There are many factors to keep in mind.

1.  Make sure you understand exactly what your child has been doing at camp.  Obviously, this is something you probably explored when you chose the camp.  Now, make sure you communicate with your child to determine which parts of camp they really liked and which parts were possibly not their favorite.  For instance, they may have explored all sorts of new vegetables.  Find out which ones they really enjoyed and try to make sure that you have these on hand.  Make sure you find out which activities they enjoyed the most.  Maybe there’s a way they can continue this activity when they get home.

2.  Make sure you’ve done your homework.  Sometimes we think that we know a lot about proper nutrition and exercise, yet we’re inundated with so much incorrect information that we become confused.  Talk with your child’s counselors to make sure you have the right ideas about proper nutrition and exercise for your child.

3.  If your child has had a lot of success, chances are they might need some new clothes.  You know how great it feels to lose weight and buy a new outfit.  Your child is going to enjoy this as well.  Take them on a shopping trip a few days after they get back home.  This might even help you reinstill the inspiration to stay on a healthy path.

4.  If you have some bad food habits of your own, the best advice is to try to rid yourself of these habits; however, this is not always realistic.  At the very least, you’ll need to avoid eating these things in front of your child and keep them out of the pantry.  It’s okay for everyone to have a treat now and again.  As a matter of fact, denying yourself of the things you love too often could lead to binging in the future.  The same goes for your child. 

Following these tips will help ensure that the transition back home is successful.  Your child made some lifestyle changes at weight loss camp, now it is your responsibility as a parent to ensure that these changes are long-term.

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Summer Weight Loss Camp Starts Soon – Register Now!

June 20, 2008 by

The summer is here! At Camp Pocono Trails, we’re gearing up for another exciting summer full of building new images and teaching healthy living habits. Our first Summer Sessions start on June 28th, and we are excited about having campers here for two, three, four or more weeks.

Still on the fence? Our sessions are filling up fast, but there are still spots open. Our goal at Camp Pocono Trails is to provide the finest weight loss camp experience in the country. We believe that the key to success is activity….and we do our best to ensure that we offer the most exciting activities in the nation.

Click here to see a full schedule for this summer.

We hope you’re as excited about this coming summer as we are. We’re looking forward to seeing you all soon!

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