TheTeenDoc.com » weight loss

More In And Less Out: The perks of Summer Vacation

teendoc — Tue, 01 Jun 2010 11:00:45 +0000

Summer is coming and your teens are excited to be rid of homework and getting up early every day to be somewhere they don’t always want to be. However, the lifestyle they yearn for is the same lifestyle that will put the pounds on faster than you can say, “First day of school.”

So just in case you were thinking your teen should just “hang out” over the summer, here are some healthier options to their dreamlike relaxing schedule.

1. Move it

This sounds easy. Exercise, exercise and more exercise, but to many teens exercise means walking around the mall and ending at the food court or walking over a friend’s house and eating hot Cheetos on their couch. Moving enough to make a difference in weight is more than what they teach in physical education. They have to increase their heart rate to 200 or more and they need to sweat a lot! Panting is fine when your teen is out of shape, but if there is a wheeze too you may want to see your doctor. You can help by having them bike or walk everywhere in the summer. The cost of not carrying a back pack and walking from class to class is a big part of maintaining weight for some teens so to substitute it with a daily training or sport schedule is more than enough to maintain or lose weight.

2. Healthy options

It’s great the deals you get on the warehouse store packaging, but your teen may take this as a challenge to finish the box before the week is out. You can help by buying healthy snacks to have around. This way if they’re going to snack on something naughty from the corner store they have to walk there and back to eat it! Don’t make it easy for them, buy smart with fruits and veggies and make it easy for them. If you buy fruit display the fruit in the center of the dining table or better, cut it up so it is very easy to grab and snack on instead of the bag of chips. You can also decrease eating out at restaurants and provide low calorie drinks to prevent drinking calories (juice or soda it doesn’t matter). These are smart changes they can maintain throughout the year and continue their weight loss or maintenance.

3. Summer Review

Yes, school is out, but this is when all the IQ (Intelligence quotient) points go out the window. Teens struggle in the first few weeks of school because they need to review the previous year’s school work in order to learn what they need to for the current year. Get your teen to tutor someone in an easier subject they can earn money or volunteer hours while they do it. Or, just get them reviewing old material in a structured format. This will give them a huge advantage when school starts and give structure to an otherwise too relaxing day.

4. Get Ahead

They can also take a course that advances the subject matter or is simply a subject of interest like in a desired field at the local university. The summer is no time to have your teen’s brain go to rot. And sure they need a break, but one course isn’t nearly as demanding as six or eight. Let them take a very hard course for the following year over the summer and take all the time they need to complete projects and lots of reading. They can learn a new manual labor skill like gardening, building or electrical work. These will also get your teen walking around and spending less time in front of your pantry.

5. Summer Internship

Summer is a great time to network for your teen. They may or may not have Donald trump money, but they can certainly schmooze like he does. If your teen is interested in something like architecture or law why not have them call a local office and ask if they can do something like answer phones, organize files or do some background research? These are opportunities for people in the field to get to know your teen on a personal level and potentially write letters for graduate or post-graduate school. It is also a smart way to try a career on for size and ask a lot of questions for free.

These are clever ways to get your teen moving and in doing so decrease their chances of putting on more weight. Because the only thing harder than losing 15 pounds is losing 20!

Summer Brain Rot

Working For Doughnuts

teendoc — Wed, 12 May 2010 11:00:33 +0000

After a great workout, there’s a feeling of euphoria. And if your teen like so many people out there has struggled to just move, you better believe there is a sense of accomplishment. So there is no surprise that your face wrinkles when on the way home you stop for coffee and your teen asks for a doughnut at the counter. You try very hard to refrain, from asking, “You just worked out so you could eat -a doughnut?”

A great way of holding them accountable is by journaling their daily food intake. It provides a list of what they have taken in and allows them to see the consequences of that intake. If after a week there is no change in how they feel in their clothes or weight loss they will get frustrated. When they come to you, point them in the direction of journaling their intake. This is where they need to start after deciding if they are motivated enough to lose the weight in the first place.

Accountability without you having to nag, or complain, or point things out really, without you having to be the bad guy, is a way to give your teen the tools they need to see consequences of their behavior good or bad. Have them write down what they have eaten every day for a week. They should include how much they worked out and what the work out was. What they drank and of course ate. Ideally someone, but preferably not you goes over this with them discussing the cause and effect of each choice.

This method allows you to encourage and support your teen without the nagging. They’re able to come to you for help in a very specific way and be clear about what they need to get the job done on managing their weight. No matter how good the intention nagging is simply annoying; spend your time and your teen’s time better by letting them take control of their own weight loss. After enough after work out doughnuts and no weight loss, your teen is going to figure out maybe weight loss is easier without the doughnut.

Your Teen’s First Step In Weight Loss

Your Teen’s First Step In Weight Loss

teendoc — Thu, 14 Jan 2010 11:30:39 +0000

Is your teen planning on losing weight this year? Have they done the most important first step in weight loss? It is so important that if they don’t take this step they are sure to gain the weight back.

The first step in weight loss is for your teen to accept themselves as a great person who can achieve anything they want even if they don’t lose weight.

Often times what motivates people to lose weight is a fantasy that when they lose weight, they will get that date, grade, career, friends, etc. will all come to fruition. The truth is that unless they love themselves the way they are now, they are happy with themselves now, believe they can accomplish anything they want now, they will not be happy when they lose the weight, how much more be able to keep the weight off.

This is a lesson that is worth stressing to your teen before they endeavor to lose weight. They can sometimes be motivated by things like you nagging them, the doctor mentioning it at a physical, or a looming dance, prom or wedding. These stresses can convince them to do something they are not ready for.

Invariably when your teen loses some weight and no one notices they are going to be deeply hurt. Anyone who has ever had a lot of weight to lose knows that although your teen can see and feel changes, others may not notice until the results are more dramatic. However, it is others not noticing the first few pounds that can discourage some from going further. When your teen has taken the first step in weight loss, this is not such a disappointment and they just go on.

Weight loss is too difficult a task to be motivated solely by outside forces. The first step in weight loss is for your teen to recognize they are as beautiful, smart and successful as they are going to be whether they lose weight or not.