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Should Our Teenagers WANT to Workout?
By Christina | December 4, 2008
A good friend of mine called me recently and asked me what I thought about a 13 year old boy who had recently lost weight, gotten into shape and now was concerned with how much he ate and how healthy the content of what he was eating was. The mother of the teen felt he was obsessed and shouldn’t be concerned with what he ate and certainly should not feel he had to go for a run to battle what he ate if it was “junk” or dessert food.
I have to say, I disagree with the mom. I think it is fantastic that a teenager is taking control of his health and well being as well as wanting to be fit. Clearly, I am not there to judge if this an out of control behavior but simply wanting to “run off” ice cream from the night before or making good “after school” snack choices seems like an excellent and proactive decision on the part of this adolescent.
Our society is plagued with overweight and obese children who are suffering long term consequences of heart disease and other related diseases not to metion growing up to be adults with the same conditions. Obesity is the cause of lack of production at work, high health care costs, and premature death. Yes, there are teens with eating disorders and body image obsessions but that’s not what this blog is about.
Our children need to be empowered to make the right choices and that includes taking responsibility for what they eat and how they exercise instead of waiting for mom and dad to make those decisions for them. I say “good job” to the teen who is taking charge!
Topics: General |
December 4th, 2008 at 2:13 pm
This is horrible. What if the kid decides to turn in his homework on time, save his money and respect his parents and property? Do we really need responsible teenagers like this? Obviously, we can’t tolerate this kind of behaviour. It is destroying the moral fabric of our country.