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Summer Weight-Loss Camp Is…

March 14, 2012 by

If you are still deciding whether summer camp is the right place for your child or teen, here is a list of what summer weight loss camp is about:

  • Healthy life learning. Camp shouldn’t be about fad diets or deprivation, it’s about having fun learning about correct portion sizes and enjoying physical activities.
  • Sports should focus on participation, not competition. Staff should instruct and positively reinforce the efforts of kids who are having a great time while being physically active. Physical activity should never be stressful!
  • Team building. Team activities teach kids how to work successfully as a team and how to be a good sport. Team activities also help raise self-esteem and build friendships!
  • Water activities. Hot summer days can be spent on a private lake kayaking, canoeing, swimming, fishing or more! Kids at Camp Pocono Trails get the amazing experience of having an onsite private lakefront at their disposal.
  • Building friendships and making memories. The camp experience would be nothing without the lasting bonds of friendship that are developed and cultivated year after year at weight loss camp.

Camp Pocono Trails is the absolute best place your child or teen can spend a summer!

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The Importance of a Strong Support Network to an Obese Teen

April 27, 2010 by

There is very little that is more important to a teenager than feeling a sense of belonging.  Therefore, the idea of going to a ‘fat camp‘ is usually terrifying for teens.  However, weight loss camps for kids can provide an environment for them where they are surrounded by people like them who are working toward similar goals.  Such camps and programs often surprise teens by providing a totally accepting atmosphere.

Teens already suffer from an onslaught of bodily and hormonal changes, peer pressures, and swiftly approaching responsibilities.  Adding something like being obese to this list of stress-factors makes it particularly difficult for a teen to set and achieve goals.  Counselors at summer camps are specially trained to help teens feel good about themselves and give them the extra boost they need to succeed at losing weight.

The sad truth is that most obese teens simply don’t get the support they need to successfully lose weight.  Teens are probably less accepting than any other age group of obesity and other differences.  Kids can be cruel at this age, and obese teens typically get the exact opposite of what they need when it comes to warmth and compassion.  And peers are not the only ones to blame; many times family members, often with the best of intentions, are so critical that the teen simply doesn’t have the self-esteem to care about taking action and losing weight.  Shame leads to eating and inactivity, which lead to more shame.

The pressure in our society to be skinny is so strong that even people of normal weight often report having painful memories of not belonging during adolescence.  Kids are especially vulnerable between the ages of 13 and 18, and it is common for people who are obese between these ages to report emotional pain lasting into their 30s and 40s.

Weight loss camps give girls the opportunity to talk about fashion and their looks with people who look similar, eliminating the embarrassment they might feel talking about such subjects with skinnier girls.  These camps put teens in an environment where they feel they are not inferior to the people around them or being constantly judged by people.

Boys enjoy the same benefits.  They can talk about any subject they want in front of people they know are similar to them, or even confront members of the opposite sex without feeling like they are creating an awkward situation.  At this age, interactions with the opposite sex are very important to the development of self-esteem and a feeling of beginning to enter the adult world.  The social benefits of weight loss camps are just as important as the physical benefits.

Ultimately, everyone needs to feel like they belong somewhere.  Weight loss camps provide an environment where your teen will not feel out of place.  Teens need to feel accepted and like they are supported in whatever goal they are trying to achieve, whether losing weight, making friends, or simply being more social.

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Summer is the Perfect Time to Help Your Kids Feel Better About Themselves

April 20, 2010 by

Every year brings new changes to your child’s life, whether new teachers, new classmates, or a new school.  Many parents do not realize it, but these changes can be very stressful on children, especially overweight or obese children.

While most kids do not worry about whether or not they are obese, all kids worry about what other kids think of them.  Therefore, obesity affects each child differently; some kids are outgoing enough that they are not teased about their weight, and are therefore not bothered by it, but many kids do suffer as a result of their condition.

However, it can be difficult for a parent to convince even a frequently-teased obese child to consider diet and exercise.  Kids often do not see the importance of restraint or how learning to restrain themselves could result in their leading happier lives.  For a child, habits are not a matter of choice, but a matter of the way things are and will always be.

The best time to introduce changes to your child’s habits and routines is when other changes are already occurring – between school years or when your child is getting ready to transition to a new school.  All the changes that will already be going on in your child’s life will make the new habit seem less intruding.

Perhaps as a parent you are worried about your obese child or teen suffering from the cruelty of his or her classmates?  Most parents can tell or at least get a feeling of when their child is not happy or is suffering from torments at school.  Such torments inevitably manifest themselves through changes in your child’s mood or disposition.  You know your child better than anyone else does; it is important to be perceptive.

High school in particular brings a lot of very difficult changes.  A high school student’s environment is completely different from that of any other environment he or she has ever encountered.  This is particularly terrifying for a person who is insecure about his or her weight and/or appearance.

Most teens use their summer break from school to improve their looks or otherwise increase their chances of being accepted when school starts back up again.  A weight loss camp is a great way to help your teen feel ready to start school confidently in the fall.

Not only do weight loss camps help kids lose weight while having fun, but they also give kids an opportunity to learn valuable information about nutrition that will serve them in planning healthy diets for the rest of their lives.

Additionally, the exercise habits adopted at teen weight loss camps are fun and will provide a foundation for a life full of confidence and good health that will help your teen see his or her life in a more positive way.

The summer is the perfect time for your child to make a decision either to start the next year the way he or she is, or to start changing for the better. Make the right decision; persuade your child to take this step toward a happier and more productive school year and a better, healthier life.

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Summer Weight Loss Camps Provide the Perfect Atmosphere of Acceptance

April 15, 2010 by

Though it is true that obesity rates are high, it is becoming less so.  While this is a great development, it means for obese people (especially kids), that there are fewer people in whom they can confide and to whom they feel like an equal.  A “fat camp” can give a child struggling with his or her weight the benefit of being able to choose friends based on other qualities.

Everybody knows how important friendships are to a child.  Childhood is a very sensitive period during which the person you will be for the rest of your life is formed.  If your child is obese, it is likely he or she feels limited and trapped by the number of other kids at school struggling with weight loss.

Kids understand at a very early age their likelihood of being accepted among certain social groups.  There are two likely possibilities if your kid is overweight: he or she is quiet and withdrawn, or he or she acts out as an extreme extrovert, always goofing off or engaging in self-degradation.

Obese children often feel like they have to bring more to the table in order to be accepted and have issues with their self-esteem.  And, sadly, most children and teenagers are not accepting of obesity.

Most overweight kids, however, do not even bother trying to put forward the extra effort in order to be accepted by everybody; they will simply make friends with whoever is willing to accept them, and in some cases this is only other obese kids.  Weight loss camps for teens and kids provide a great atmosphere where kids do not have to worry about picking their friends with their weight in mind.

Most kids who spend their summers in our camps report a new-found sense of social freedom from judgment and criticism that they are able to carry over into their lives at school the next year.  The power of genuine friendship is truly amazing.

Most overweight kids are lucky to have one other kid in their class they can relate to.  If your kid is so lucky, he or she is doing better than most.  However, even if your kid has a close friend at school, you would be amazed to see the effects of adding another, or even two or three more close friends.  Not only do weight loss camps allow overweight kids to feel what it is like to have multiple genuine friends, but they also allow them to feel what it is like not to have to be friends with everyone who will accept them, and that will do wonders for their self esteem.

This aspect of weight loss camps is particularly helpful for girls.  The social pressure put on women by society is tremendous, and feeling relief from this pressure is tremendously helpful in losing weight.

Weight loss camps provide kids with an environment in which more importance is placed on their personality, as opposed to their appearance, than may ever have been before in their lives.  The absence of stress this creates will put your child in the perfect state of mind for losing weight and adopting healthier living habits.

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Weight Loss Camps: Good For Your Child’s Body and Mind

March 23, 2010 by

When overweight children go to weight loss camps they are surrounded, usually for the first time, by people who struggle with the same problem.  For most kids, this kind of environment fosters more confident, outgoing behavior, which can be very helpful when trying to focus on the goal of losing weight.  By removing large amounts of pressure, teen weight loss camps can enable your child to accomplish his or her goals.

Having a social network of people who are going through something similar to what you are going through drastically increases your chances for success.  This is why camps are so successful, and why so many kids report satisfaction and increased self esteem after coming home from summer weight loss camps.

The truth about our culture is that unhealthy eating habits are the norm, and teens trying to develop healthier eating habits often have a hard time finding the support they need from their friends or the people they go to school with.  At summer camps, everyone eats the same thing, and your kid will have the chance to form healthy habits that will become second nature by the time the summer is over.

Most parents try to limit what their children eat, but at the same time they have the responsibility of providing their children with discipline.  These days, everyone is pushing positive reinforcement, and there are only so many rewards parents can offer kids for appropriate behavior.  It is hard to find rewards that are more effective than candy, junk food, and time in front of the television.  Every parent uses these things to reward their child occasionally, and therefore it is particularly difficult to reward a child for abstaining from them.

At weight loss camps, the parents are not the ones enforcing a healthy diet, so the child does not consider former systems of reward and punishment to be necessarily related or relevant.  Camp counselors have the benefit of seeming more like an outside perspective than a figure of authority to the child.

When your child is presented with the absence of everything he or she is familiar with, replaced by a new, structured, and accepting environment, he or she will have a much easier time making lifestyle changes and becoming a more confident and outgoing person.  Making friends quickly becomes both necessary and easy.

In addition to making friends, kids attending a weight loss camp have the opportunity to talk to trained counselors who plan the time spent at the camp in a way engineered to best facilitate physical activity, weight loss, and a positive attitude.  Planned, friendly, competitive activities get kids active both physically and socially.

While a summer camp can help your child lose weight and become a healthier person, it is important to keep in mind that when your child comes home, he or she will be like a different person, and it will be important for the rest of the family to adopt new, healthier habits to show their support.

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Weight Loss Camps Provide Other Benefits Beyond Losing Weight

May 12, 2009 by

One of the most important ingredients to success is the self-confidence required to pursue dreams. When your teenager is overweight or obese, there’s a good chance that their self-esteem and self-confidence levels are down.

Will poor self-esteem lead your child to avoid risks and opportunities out of fear? If they would love to act, will they try out for the school play or shy away because of their weight? Your teen may not participate in classroom discussions or become a leader if they don’t feel confident.

When you try to help your teen lose weight on your own, you might make common mistakes such as over-pressuring your teen. Making eating a constant issue is also a constant reminder of their perceived inadequacies. This can spiral out of control and actually cause your child to gain more weight when they eat for comfort and consolation…and lose self-esteem.

Trained professionals at our weight loss camp use well-documented techniques to help empower your teen to make healthy choices. Through education and training, your child will develop the skills necessary to take control of their weight loss issues.

These skills will come home with your teen. Eventually, this may lead to a much healthier home environment all together. Once your teen begins to make healthier choices on their own, the whole family may get involved. Your teen will be the one who leads this effort, which will also make them feel good!

In addition, your teen will meet other teens at weight loss camps that may be able to better relate to their weight issues. We all want to feel accepted and you might not be able to truly offer this to your teen the way other overweight or obese teens can.

Once they begin down the path to weight loss, the improvements they begin to see will improve their self-confidence and self-esteem. This will spin off in so many directions, you’ll be amazed at what your teen becomes capable of accomplishing.

Now, trying out for a play might not seem as daunting. Participating in sports becomes more of a possibility. Improved self-confidence will allow them to focus less on how they appear when it comes to popularity and acceptance.

When your teen is empowered to lose weight, the empowerment translates to nearly everything they attempt.

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