Childhood Obesity.

I have been wanting to write about this issue since I heard something on the radio regarding Michelle Obamas plan to help the US with childhood obesity. Now I do understand this is a serious issue the US is now trying to take control of. From my knowledge children aren’t any bigger than they ever were. I do know that a lot of children’s bodies are maturing a lot faster than they were decades ago but I feel as though that’s because of all the steroids that farm owners put in their animals to make the meat bigger therefore are able to charge more per pound. I was thinking about what her proposal was. She stated she wants several restaurant’s to lower their sodium and offer more options as far as vegetables and fruits instead of the fried foods and all the things that are considered bad for grown-ups and children. She has proposed by all the major Food chains to follow her lead they will lower all their sodium by 20% over the next 10 years. A few of the restaurants are Olive Garden and Long Horn Steak house. My feeling about the whole thing she is going about this the wrong way. See I have children and 3 out of my 4 children are considered overweight. My daughter who is 14 is shaped like an 18year old, my son who is 10 looks 12 and one of my twins who is 6 looks 10. Now my youngest twin son is overweight and has been said to have an eating problem at his age and that’s something I am working on with him because I myself am overweight and know exactly how I got to where I am so my main focus with my children is to not allow them to go through what I am going through. When I was a child my parents limited my sugar intake the things I was able to eat was that of a child not of a grown up until I was old enough to make my own choices and I chose wrong. I don’t fee like the government should monitor the restaurants, because the ones they want to work with aren’t the problem. I feel as though they should lower the price of fruits and vegetables. I was in the store today and I noticed I can get a huge bag of chips for the whole family or buy 2 apples for the same price. Now that’s just not right. Where the problem is with the lower income families people who have children that want to snake and can run to their parents and say "Hey mom can I have a dollar" and we know what they are going to buy some type of junk food because in order for them to buy the fruit we would all like for them to have they would need more than just one dollar. I come from a time where parents are in control of their children and that’s how I have raised my children. I am in control of everything they eat so if I can honestly say my children are overweight it’s no one’s fault but my own. I have made several attempts at weight loss and it’s a battle for myself but because I battle with it doesn’t mean they should. My children are very active into sports. While we do have xbox 360, Wii (two of them) and have cell phones and various games these are things my children never even touch they would much rather go play outside on their scooters, bikes or just go out and throw the ball around. I didn’t get to play outside when I was a kid because my parents were so scared I was going to hurt myself but this is something I allow my children to do because I know I don’t always give them the best food options but I am aware of the problem and will continue to work hard on it for their best interest. Today I went to the gym and all that kept ringing through my mind is my daughter saying “Mommy you have to lose weight because I want you here to baby sit your grandkids” that was too cute because she doesn’t plan on having kids until she is 35 that would make me 55 and she is going to expect me to run after her kids lol. Point here is instead of the president working on food chain help us with the price of fruits and veggies, no reason for a bag of chips to cost less than 2 apples.