Obesity normally runs in families. In order for the chain of obesity to be broken, one responsible adult must break from the pack and look for both realistic and proven tricks and tips to transforming the families lifestyle. But how?

If going to a full time weight loss camp for kids is not an option, then you can decide to empower yourself with knowledge and information (which is free) and make your home a weight loss camp of its own. All you need is the committal of every family member and a little bit of instruction. The first place to start is by visiting any of the sites offered by the CDC that discuss healthy weight loss for children.

Secondly, you may want to attend a two or three day course in nutrition so that you have accurate information to base your camp upon. The third step is to go through your home and remove all of the foods and items in your home that do not fit into your healthy lifestyle. Learn how to read food labels, and look for meal planning ideas from weight watchers or other online sites that specialize in healthy eating.

At first, the drastic change of your home becoming a weight loss camp will be met with hesitation. However, the end result is worth it. Each week begin implementing one new activity that will promote health and wellness. This can be as simple as taking a walk after dinner every night or limiting the amount of TV watching to an hour. You can also sign the family up for a fitness class or purchase a DVD exercise program that the family does together.

As the initial resistance tapers off, you will notice that being healthy and exercising really is fun. You and your entire family will feel better which will have you all looking for creative ideas to stay healthy. Allow your children to participate in the meal planning and shopping, and try to explain to them what makes food healthy or just ‘junk.’ Obviously, when you are dealing with children, they will feel punished if they are restricted from all sweet treats. For this reason, it is smart to come up with modified food choices that are slightly indulgent that your child can have from time to time.

Setting up a weight loss camp for kids in your own home should not just be a temporary adjustment. The truth is as you learn more about healthy living and eating and become a living example of just how transformational it can be to you and your child’s health, you are taking giant steps to making a positive change in your family. There are plenty of free resources to help you, many of which will help you overcome your emotional response to weight loss as well. Children are resilient and since you are introducing and enforcing the right and healthy way to live, they will naturally want to follow course.

If you can, you may want to find an affordable, temporary weight loss camp that you and your child can attend to gather ideas and get a boost towards your goals. However, just because you cannot afford it, doesn’t mean you can’t make it a reality in your own home.

It’s easy to place all the blame on childhood obesity on fast food and high calorie snacks but not only the calories damage the health of children.  The foods lack nutritional value.   Children are eating preservatives and chemical flavors, ingesting far more salt and sugar than nutritionists recommend and are filling their stomachs with food that does not efficiently fuel their body.

Obese children are seldom found eating a fresh vegetable or piece of fruit.  Too often, the options are choosing between cupcakes and cookies.  This new way of eating was enabled by advances in packaged foods.  There is no effort involved in providing high calorie snacks today as all of the foods that used to be treats made at home are now packaged in a way that encourages frequent consumption.

For generations, children in farming communities ate meals that would be considered unhealthy today.   Fried meats, creamed vegetables, plenty of carbohydrates and dessert once or twice a week was common fare in farm families.  Yet few children were overweight and even fewer suffered from childhood obesity.

Weight gain was not a problem because the caloric intake was quickly burned off by outdoor work and activities.   That is the missing element in society today.  Even young children are glued to TV watching a constant stream of rented movies.  Elementary school children play video games for hours and teens are updating MySpace and Facebook pages as they Twitter every few minutes.

Weight loss camps remove the sedentary activities children have so easily adapted to.

Outdoor activities are not only encouraged but are organized to include all the camp participants and provide physical activity.  Swimming, kayaking or canoeing, racing up hills, games of tag, dancing – these are activities that make up a typical day for many attending.

Exercise produces energy.   It raises the metabolism, burns fat, and tones muscles. The significant increase in exercise at weight loss camps for kids makes them feel better and also carries significant health benefits.

Children have food choices at camp but all choices are nutritionally sound.  Food is not used as a reward for behavior nor used to make a child feel better.  Positive reinforcement is never food based and exercise is not viewed as punishment – instead, “exercise” at camp is generally not what kids think of when you say the word “exercise” – it’s fun, exciting, and the kind of thing that kids want to keep doing.