Let the Beat go On
OKay Buddies,
I have a continuation of Dawn Renee’s blog for you…THANK YOU for the great discussion! Looks like I missed the whirl wind. By the time I logged on to make my point, they had all been made for me.
I would like to point out that discussions like these are important so that people can create a framework for their opinion based on many perspectives rather than on just their gut reaction. Also, this is how SOCIAL CHANGE happens, at a grass roots level. Mothers Against Drunk Driving was a bunch of women hurting because their children were hurting, and they made a difference.
So, let me talk about perspective for a minute. In the counseling classes I am taking at school, we are learning to look at addiction (like the addiction to food that spawns OBESITY) from different model perspectives. The Moral Model is definately one!
So I would like to offer another perspective to look at this problem. The model of social change. I am of the mind that it doesn’t matter WHO is to blame. Rather than pointing the finger at the problem let’s look past the finger and point at the solution. What could be done by either parents, schools, cities, corporations, the nation, or just you and I to make a change toward wellness in the area of obesity for adults or children?
Let’s pretend the sky is the limit. So be a creative as you wish, think outside the box. That is how magic happens. And let’s say it doesn’t matter if we ever do it, we will each be touched by the discussion itself.
Ready? GO…..
Welll…I dont know if this is the answer, but I just wanted to say that unfortunately, I think it all boils down to money…Which can also be a cop out, but can not be ignored…
Did anyone watch that series last year where Shaquille Oneil helped the kids lose weight and TRIED to revamp school lunch programs??? HE is an advocate agains childhood obesity too…
But, the schools dont have the funding to cook healhty meals…as most of us on this journey know…
BAD FOOD is also CHEAPER FOOD… (99 cent menu anyone???)
I think the schools struggle…I think many families struggle…
I dont know if I like calling obesity a disease…And I kind of feel the same way about alcoholism…Because to me, thats one more way for us humans to NOT take responsibility for what we did…
We have free will…We used it…And look at us…
I made my choices…I dont want to blame it on a disease…
Thats just my thought…
We are a nation of people who blame others…VICTIMS…And I really cant stand that aspect of us…
My mom and dad are both overweight…SURE…I could use that as an excuse…BUT…I was a normal weight pretty much my whole life…So I am thinking I did this…All those meals at McDonalds, Waffle house…etc…
Anyway..I rambled…Its early…HAH…
GREAT Blog!!!!!
well for me. one of my reasons for losing weight is so my children will never have to struggle with theirs. i don’t have any children yet but by the time i do have them i want health to be such a huge part of my life that it is second nature for them to live a healthy life too. i make very little money but i manage to buy healthier foods it’s about being creative and innovative.
thank you ladies. food for thought
It is sad that the government didn’t give extra funding in the US as they did here. However, it was groundswell with a figure head but millions of parents who demanded better school food (school dinners as they are known here).
There were four problems with the school dinners.
1) Instead of being cooked on site as they used to be, they were bought in, and they bought in high fat, low cost food
2) The amount of subsidy by the government was insufficient. Note: Most parents pay a proportion of cost, but some children get free school dinners if they are from a low income family.
3) The school dinner ladies didn’t always have the skills or knowledge to cook healthy meals.
4) There was a lack of equipment at the schools to cook meals from start to finish, instead of just heating up pre-made meals.
The other big problem highlighted was that not all parents were teaching their children to cook. The children knew how to buy junk food and how to use the microwave, but not necessarily cook from scratch.
Years ago, we all had cooking lessons at school, particularly at junior school, but they had stopped. Now they are back on the school curriculum.
Whereas all the supermarket loyalty vouchers you got when you bought your groceries were to fund books and IT equipment for schools, ow they are for cooking equipment, gardening equipment (so we have school gardens again) and exercise equipment.
Parents are encouraged to teach their children to cook and the supermarkets have all these free recipe cards for families to cook healthy meals, on a budget, with the family.
Society has changed here. Our outlook has changed. We are a country of 60 million people, and we have changed school meals.
There’s a lot more to it that this. We have to encourage more children to eat school dinners than bring bad snacks like crisps to school with them. Local schools try to use local produce, children have (for the most part) adapted to the healthier school dinners. There was initial reluctance by the dinner ladies and the kids who wanted their old burger, chips (fries) and pizza meals, but that has definitely changed.
I left a link yesterday, and here are a couple again. If you are serious about making a difference, you mmay find some pointers here. There are probably better websites about the campaign but these are the first that came up on google.
http://www.jamieoliver.com/school-dinners
http://www.channel4.com/life/microsites/J/jamies_school_dinners/
How can we complain about childhood obesity if we don’t do anything to stop it. Not just for our own children, but for all children. It is possible to change society, but each one of us has to take responsibility and stand up and be counted.
Complaining from the sidelines and not anything about it is condemning a whole generation of children to shorter lives with health issues and all the other issues that comes from obesity.
More than anything, I would like to lovingly suggest, instead of making Childhood Obesisty something to advocate against, I might reframing my outlook and find something to advocate FOR. Advocate for fitness, for a voice to stand up for my needs, for movement of the body, for acceptance of more than one body type, for creating relationships with our body and with food based on presence of mind and heart.
Our society nakes it easier and more acceptable to push against a perceived wrong than to scrape a new road to a possible better way of live. Certainly it is just the otherside of the same coin, but how we language things can create a world of difference.
I know there is a lot to be said about the subject, but my tendancy is to attempt to boil it down to a position based on empathy for a person’s situation…income, education, societal pressures…to look at the whole beast.
Not every person is created a warrior or advocate for their own well-being. Creating spaces (like buddy slim) where we can find our own power…our own voice…helps to counteract the circumstances we were born with or lived with. So that we can have the courage to pursue responsibility.
As for empathy, overeating is not always just a mindless thing that people do. Any kind of excess can serve to protect a person’s psyche. Sometimes for children who have little control over their environment, being overweight is SAFER than being thin ….emotionally, physically. Sometimes that is what they can control when mom or dad are yelling or someone in their life is not respecting them or bullying them. Sometimes that is in the best interest of the person in that moment. And to judge that can cause even more trauma for the individual and push them further away from healing. Of course, these are the best situations, but unfortunately it is reality for many individuals. And until they can create emotional, physical, spiritual safety for themselves, their vice is serving them.
Just some thoughts. Thanks everyone for sharing.
Is there any other thoughtful place to be then outside the box? Unfortunately these kinds of people do not get elected, but I think the tables are turning with more and more smaller discussions. And yes blame NEVER creates productivity. But it sure does feel good to get it out there and respect our uniqueness and allow for cracked doors to open more fully for new thoughts.