Sigh. So far this Weekly Check-Up feature has been almost wholly devoted to weight loss and exercise--yours and your kids (she says wearily.) And trust me, I'm totally down with a healthy, active life, and I completely get the hundred thousand reasons we wanna lose weight (including vanity, and that's pretty natural) and why we don't want our kids to struggle with obesity. So this bit from Mom Squawk that's really more about how you can be a good role model for your kids is in keeping with the theme, and it was motivated by health reasons, so fine. I like "Meeting goals for physical activity (and writing down activities)" and "Modeling healthy eating habits and most especially, "Praising each other".
But then there's one I don't like. "Doing daily weigh-ins and graphing weight". What's wrong with that? Look, I see people every day who are obsessed with the numbers and the scale and all of the sudden the health piece flies out the window in favor of losing a certain number of pounds. And this got me to thinking of little girls dieting and the supreme importance placed on being skinny and pretty and how lately I'm real tired of all of that. So I'm going to add a few more ways you can be a role model for your kids--not in weight loss--but in being all healthy and shit.
Don't critique your body, as in "I hate my legs" or "Gawd, my belly is huge." Silent critiques in front of the mirror send a message too.
Explain how physical activity is good for your body, i.e. your heart, your lungs, your emotional health...
Don't make anything too forbidden. Show your kids how there's room for all kinds of yummy stuff. Even occasionally in excess. That's called being human.
Let your kids see you having fun doing exercise. If you hate what you do, find something else to add to it that you do like, even if it doesn't result in some max calorie burn.
Feel free to point out the beauty in diverse shapes. Don't just love on stick figures.
If you wanna model healthy eating, remember that a few celery sticks, half a chicken breast, and a diet Coke for dinner aren't gonna sustain your life activities well and your kids are watching you do that, too. Explain how the body works best with lots of different kinds of foods. At my house we say, "What on this plate is protein? What's a vegetable?" and so on, cuz we're kinda funny like that.
Be sure to celebrate all kinds of successes, like trying a new physical activity or adding ten minutes to a regular walk, and maybe you could just leave out the weight loss part, because trust me, your children will get the importance of being a particular weight every time they crack a magazine or turn on the TV or overhear people complaining about the belly, but they'll probably hear very little meaningful talk about what it means to be healthy, active, and confident at a range of weights.
I certainly don't do all these things perfectly, but to me, it seems like the good fight, and I want my gorgeous little girl to see me try. So there.
