It's not body shaming...

If you are hungry but would rather not eat, get a gander of this:
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Mikie said:
Pretty confident that families like yours are not the discussion here, obviously. It's the vast lethargic and mentally atrophied that do not take a moment to think of health, then have children, and pass on their horrific habits to their kids. Where a quality day to them is fast food and an evening spent in front of a monitor screen with an energy drink as their idea of exercise. Night after night after night.

All I can suggest is make the outdoors as fun as possible, hiking, sports, mountain biking, etc. Key is to not shove it down his throat so it turns him off. Maybe, cycling around young ladies, I know that motivates most of us! ;):whistling: I wish you the absolute BEST, and I know we are all with you!
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Yep, it's often bad habits handed down. My parents tried to teach us proper eating habits, but they were not what most people would describe as active. Neither were into sports, although my mother did like to take walks. So I never got into sports (and my lack of coordination didn't help - I sucked at soccer and baseball, so didn't stick with them). Thus I spent most of 40 years doing almost nothing in the way of exercise. My goal is to get my son into something active he can enjoy for the rest of his life. He loves baseball, but that's only going to last for so long, and it's not a terribly active sport to begin with. But "not shoving it down his throat" is the fine line I was talking about. Encouraging, but not forcing - and sometimes it's hard to find where one ends and the other begins.

It's especially hard now with so many inactive activities. When I was a kid, we had 12 channels of TV and pretty crappy video game systems. We played outside. Now my son sees his friends online more than he does in person. Sigh.
 
BigTex said:
I waited a day after seeing this thread to post, and thought about not posting at all, but here goes:

First, Santa could have had more tact, but someone needs to say it. The mother may or may not have tried to instill good eating habits, but perhaps she doesn't know what those are herself.

Now, on to the meat of the post: I am the father of an overweight kid. Part of it is he didn't get great genes from his mother and father. A lot of his friends eat and eat and eat, and are skinny, with not a lot of difference in physical activity. Sorry kid, you got dealt a bad hand there. He also seems to have inherited our sweet tooths (teeth?). And yeah, if you saw us out in public, especially if we were enjoying a burger and fries, you'd probably look at us a lot like you look at that kid and his mother.

Don't assume that healthy eating and an active lifestyle haven't been drilled into him. Don't think for a minute that I don't tell him every chance I get about good and bad eating, and about how much easier life is when you're not fat. I know how (*&^$% hard life is when you are fat. I'm down about 90 pounds from my peak, and I've still got a good 30 to go. But Mikie's post above is right - mountain biking saved my life, literally, along with learning about better nutrition and better eating habits. Healthy eating is still my weakness. I like my beer. I have a sweet tooth. I don't eat enough vegetables. But I'm a hell of a lot better than I used to be.

And I'm doing everything I can to keep him from going down the same road I traveled. I talk about nutrition every chance I get. I talk about being active. He gets out on the bike with me (but not enough), he goes to the gym with me. His baseball hitting coach has tried to instill the importance of being fit. I'm trying not to be a food Nazi, and try to tell him it's OK to enjoy a burger or pizza now and then, but eat sensibly the rest of the time. Slowly, some of it seems to be taking. He still isn't likely to eat much in the way of vegetables. He loves bread and potatoes. He won't go near fish. But I am seeing him not finish everything on the plate at every meal, which is a big improvement. I believe he's seen results from the gym time, and that's encouraging to him. So there's some hope. And he's 12. Even at 5'6" - yeah, he's a big kid, going to be several inches taller than me - he's got a growth spurt coming. So he may very well grow into his weight.

Believe me, it's a damn fine line his mother and I walk. There are days where I want to get rid of the XBox and TV altogether, force him to ride with me, serve fish and vegetables for dinner and tell him if he doesn't like it, he can go to bed hungry. That's more likely to be counterproductive, and lead to him sneaking food, the worst kinds of food. It's kind of like an alcoholic - you can't force an alcoholic to stop drinking, he has to want to stop. Thus the education. The positive reinforcement. The encouragement to be active.

My biggest hope is that we're setting a decent example. His mother plays tennis and will occasionally ride a bike with us. I bike, run, swim and train. We're working on setting better examples in our eating.

Not sure what the point is, but I know this parenting stuff isn't easy. Sometimes you don't know the right action. Sometimes you do everything right and stuff still goes wrong. And every once in a while you do things right and get the expected result. Those are the days that it's all worthwhile.
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Thanks for this post! Very grounding!
 
Cyclotourist said:
Doesn't fix it, but riding a bike to work or school is a lot cheaper than joining the rat race and buying a car, insurance, gas, maintenance.
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True that! (however ill bet 99% of mountain bikers in socal also own a motor vehicle). I was just making a joke commenting on how f'in expensive bikes/bike stuff is getting.
I own a car, but ride my bike to work. :sneaky: sure does save on gas $. One of my coworkers doesnt have a car and she walks 2 miles to work. I keep suggetsing she get a bike!
 
sir crashalot said:
True that! (however ill bet 99% of mountain bikers in socal also own a motor vehicle). I was just making a joke commenting on how f'in expensive bikes/bike stuff is getting.
I own a car, but ride my bike to work. :sneaky: sure does save on gas $. One of my coworkers doesnt have a car and she walks 2 miles to work. I keep suggetsing she get a bike!
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Ha! That went over my head! Yeah, my car isn't worth much more than my bike, that's for sure!!! Wish I could ride to work, as it's only 16 miles. But a miserable 16 miles of high-speed two lane road with zero shoulder full of distracted drivers at rush hour. Gotta' hide in my steel box for that! :(
 
Again...what is with people and this media craze over so-called "body shaming?"

A freaking gymnast is upset that a TSA worker claimed he didn't see muscles where another saw toned biceps. Shame? This is a purely self-manufactured problem. Others are not responsible for your feelings – you are. Is it "mind-shaming" when someone calls you an idiot? No, it isn't. You just ignore someone when he starts rattling off falsehoods, and in doing so you take control of your own feelings. Unless you're an insecure gymnast looking for a problem – then, you run to twitter and broadcast how you've been victimized.

Her problem is not her biceps, it's her custard-like spine.
 
mike said:
Again...what is with people and this media craze over so-called "body shaming?"

A freaking gymnast is upset that a TSA worker claimed he didn't see muscles where another saw toned biceps. Shame? This is a purely self-manufactured problem. Others are not responsible for your feelings – you are. Is it "mind-shaming" when someone calls you an idiot? No, it isn't. You just ignore someone when he starts rattling off falsehoods, and in doing so you take control of your own feelings. Unless you're an insecure gymnast looking for a problem – then, you run to twitter and broadcast how you've been victimized.

Her problem is not her biceps, it's her custard-like spine.
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Couldn't have said it better myself. That's what I've pounded into the offspring since day one. :thumbsup:
 
I read an article about this incident today and feel the same way. I am so sick of all this safe space, LBGQRSTUV, "I'm offended" bullshit. Get the freaks out of here, oh.. too late, they've got the media's ear and voice. My "tolerance" is thinning for this force fed crap.

There ain't any global warming going on when the earth is currently covered in snowflakes year round.
 
Cornholio said:
I read an article about this incident today and feel the same way. I am so sick of all this safe space, LBGQRSTUV, "I'm offended" bullshit. Get the freaks out of here, oh.. too late, they've got the media's ear and voice. My "tolerance" is thinning for this force fed crap.

There ain't any global warming going on when the earth is currently covered in snowflakes year round.
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While we're on the topic of political correctness, how 'bout these two "white"Portland women who were shamed into shutting down their burrito cart business after word got out they went to Mexico and observed locals making tortillas and burritos.

Its called "cultural appropriation," and based on the "rules" I think all the food courts I've been to will have to shut down because no one is enforcing the owners/cooks/cashiers, etc. to be culturally true to the food they're serving. Scandalous! ;)
 
kioti said:
While we're on the topic of political correctness, how 'bout these two "white"Portland women who were shamed into shutting down their burrito cart business after word got out they went to Mexico and observed locals making tortillas and burritos.

Its called "cultural appropriation," and based on the "rules" I think all the food courts I've been to will have to shut down because no one is enforcing the owners/cooks/cashiers, etc. to be culturally true to the food they're serving. Scandalous! ;)
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I saw that yesterday. Is there any habit or custom that hasn't been "culturally appropriated" at some point in time? I guess we're only supposed to visit the land of multiculturalism, not take up residence.
 
kioti said:
While we're on the topic of political correctness, how 'bout these two "white"Portland women who were shamed into shutting down their burrito cart business after word got out they went to Mexico and observed locals making tortillas and burritos.

Its called "cultural appropriation," and based on the "rules" I think all the food courts I've been to will have to shut down because no one is enforcing the owners/cooks/cashiers, etc. to be culturally true to the food they're serving. Scandalous! ;)
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Read that too and made me want to throw up. My company now hosts guest speakers focused on "diversity" who talk about nothing but sexuality the whole time. I don't give lectures on straight sex so why are these being "offered" at a place of business? Because if we don't we'll be shamed for intolerance.
 
Softies! Bullying! Ha! I got punched in the face for having red hair and freckles. I got called more names than I can remember but the best was," Red on the noodle like a dick on a poodle"! I fought the guy over that one and I got my ass kicked-but he never said it again...
 
kioti said:
While we're on the topic of political correctness, how 'bout these two "white"Portland women who were shamed into shutting down their burrito cart business after word got out they went to Mexico and observed locals making tortillas and burritos.

Its called "cultural appropriation," and based on the "rules" I think all the food courts I've been to will have to shut down because no one is enforcing the owners/cooks/cashiers, etc. to be culturally true to the food they're serving. Scandalous! ;)
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One of the best (and most authentic, according to my Cuban-born-and-raised wife) Cuban restaurants I've been to is owned by an Arabic chef trained in New York. ;) Let's see the culturalists deal with that.
 
kioti said:
While we're on the topic of political correctness, how 'bout these two "white"Portland women who were shamed into shutting down their burrito cart business after word got out they went to Mexico and observed locals making tortillas and burritos.

Its called "cultural appropriation," and based on the "rules" I think all the food courts I've been to will have to shut down because no one is enforcing the owners/cooks/cashiers, etc. to be culturally true to the food they're serving. Scandalous! ;)
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I watch a lot of DDD and a lot of those chefs/cooks go and learn to make their dishes in said countries that they cook.
 
Faust29 said:
A principal friend of mine shared this not too long ago... From his private account, of course.

It seems fitting here!

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That
Was
Spectacular!

Fortunately, it hasn't gotten quite that dystopic yet. We have amazingly brilliant kids doing phenomenal academic work. I will invite you to see for yourself and feel better about the world. Advanced Chemical Research presentations in a couple of weeks. Open to the public. You will be blown away.

BUT - the Harrison Bergeron ideals parodied by Vonnegut and reflected in this video are around every bend. Thank god there is simultaneously a movement to promote "grit" and resilience.
 
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Gotta throw in my useless 2 cents here. While I am sure a good portion of society is obese due to lack of exercise, poor life choices, poor diet, Doritos, Taco Bell, too much weed (munchies), ect, that is not the case for everyone. My wife was hit with an autoimmune disease during the late stages of her second pregnancy. In short, after my son was born premature, she was temporarily paralyzed. It took the Drs three weeks to figure out what was up. One of the solutions was to pump her up with prednisone, large doses. It took here 4 months to walk again and she gained a Sh!t ton of weight. The Dr's never addressed the weight gain, never even discussed what she should do. Oh, and she has serious nerve damage and severe chronic headaches to boot so exercising isn't exactly easy for her. It obviously wasn't her fault, and sometimes you need to save judgement since everyone has their own story. I would get REALLY pissed when people would stare, or smirk at her. I can only imagine her pain, but she never complained.

After YEARS of struggling with her weight, she finally had surgery. She has lost almost all her weight, and is in better shape than me for the first time since we got marriage. I guess the moral of the story is, I need to lay off the Doritos, Taco Bell and weed, and start riding more. :)
 
ddmansprty said:
Gotta throw in my useless 2 cents here. While I am sure a good portion of society is obese due to lack of exercise, poor life choices, poor diet, Doritos, Taco Bell, too much weed (munchies), ect, that is not the case for everyone. My wife was hit with an autoimmune disease during the late stages of her second pregnancy. In short, after my son was born premature, she was temporarily paralyzed. It took the Drs three weeks to figure out what was up. One of the solutions was to pump her up with prednisone, large doses. It took here 4 months to walk again and she gained a Sh!t ton of weight. The Dr's never addressed the weight gain, never even discussed what she should do. Oh, and she has serious nerve damage and severe chronic headaches to boot so exercising isn't exactly easy for her. It obviously wasn't her fault, and sometimes you need to save judgement since everyone has their own story. I would get REALLY pissed when people would stare, or smirk at her. I can only imagine her pain, but she never complained.

After YEARS of struggling with her weight, she finally had surgery. She has lost almost all her weight, and is in better shape than me for the first time since we got marriage. I guess the moral of the story is, I need to lay off the Doritos, Taco Bell and weed, and start riding more. :)
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Thanks for your take, ddman. Anyone dealing with a legit health issue is exempt from my gum beating. Congrats to your family for awesome improvement!

Protip: You can have all the Doritos, Taco Bell and weed you want if you ride your bike enough. :cool: Yes, picking the right parents helps...
 
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