Combating Childhood Obesity Requires Family Lifestyle Changes

Earlier this year, USA Today reported on the USDA's push for school lunch changes. The agency recommends that schools lower sodium, include more whole grains and serve low-fat milk in an effort to address the childhood obesity issues that plague our country.

Childhood obesity is when a child is well above the normal weight for his or her age and height. The extra pounds often lead to health problems that were once confined to adults, such as diabetes, high blood pressure and high cholesterol. In many cases, childhood obesity can also lead to poor self-esteem and depression.

How do you determine if your child is obese or close to it? Besides taking an honest look at their size and extra rolls that children should not have, there is the Body Mass Index (BMI).

BMI is derived from the proportion of weight and height, in combination with age, and in comparison to the average child of the same age. BMI is an indicator of body fatness and is used to screen for weight categories that may lead to health problems.

If a child's BMI shows that he or she is overweight and possibly obese, our next step as parents is to help them make healthy eating choices and encourage them to get more exercise.

School lunch changes will only go so far in reversing childhood obesity trends. Indeed, an entire family lifestyle change comes into play.

Starts in the home

It is unrealistic to expect that your child will follow healthy eating and exercise habits if you do not.

According to the CDC-BMI calculator, and visually noticing the extra rolls of fat and climbing numbers on the scale, both my children, my husband and myself are overweight and/or obese. Even the dog is overweight, so this tells you how unhealthy eating and exercise habits trickle down.

In an effort to get control of the situation and help us to become more fit and healthy, I have begun to institute an entire family lifestyle change.

We are starting out small by being more aware of portion sizes and cutting down on second helpings. Gradually, we'll work our way up to total fitness.

It is my hope that by starting modestly and steadily adding more and more healthy lifestyle changes, we will be more willing and able to stick with it for our lifetime.

I involve the kids as much as possible in making healthy eating choices, because I find that with their involvement, they are more likely to jump on board and stay on board for the long term. We chose more fresh fruits and vegetables as sides to our meals, rather than high-calorie flavored pastas or rice dishes.

As for treats and snacks, we do not deny them; we have just changed how we eat them.

Instead of taking the whole bag of munchies from the cabinet and either pouring a bowl or eating right out of the bag, the boys and I went through and put proper portion sizes into small baggies.

Surprisingly, they love it and usually only take one, even though some of the serving sizes seem pretty skimpy.

Another family change we are making is helping each other be more active, rather than playing Wii or watching television. Now that the weather is getting nicer, there's a lot more we can do outside to stay active.

An entire family lifestyle change doesn't happen overnight and will take some time and effort. But if you are like me and my family, once you put your mind to it, you can do it.