Wednesday, March 3, 2010

I Love To Eat, But I Like Skinny Jeans, Too!


I read an article this morning, while treadmilling-it at LA Fitness, about childhood obesity. It said that the first "solid" food that children get, I'm sure outside of the pureed crap we feed them, is french fries. It depicted a picture of parents sitting in a fast food restaurant thinking about how soft those fries are and concluding that it's soft enough for their "baby" to chow down on.

I'm deeply disturbed by this statement. Isaiah's, and Josiah's, first food was organic baby cereal mixed in mama-milk. Isaiah ate through pureed vegetables, all organic, and moved his way to pureed fruit, all organic, and followed that with fresh mangoes, avocados, and bananas from family property on Maui--organic enough and grown in rich, volcanic soil. Josiah will follow the same pattern. In fact, I'm excited to take him to the UPick farms this year. Oregon's produce is prime in the summer and the fall and I intend to attack the farmer's market with the gusto my husband exudes at The Home Depot.

Isaiah won't drink a soda. I don't think he's ever drank Coke or Pepsi. His first trip to McDonald's only took place because of my parents. And, Josiah will follow Isaiah's exceptional example. Isaiah understands what sugar does and he knows what exercise does, too. He knows why we go to the gym and he knows why we eat our mushrooms, salad, and beans.

I'm not one to judge someone else about their health issues. Let the person who doesn't eat soft, succulent white bread throw the first Snickers bar. I love donut dates with my boys. In fact, I cherish them. Not to mention, I am from HAWAII--land of the white rice and Aloha Shoyu. And, I sometimes I give-in and buy Isaiah pancakes from McDonald's. I'm not perfect, I'm fun.

But, clearly America is fat. We're fat and lazy and we think it's ok. We give up after working out for a while, yet we save our clothes that we wore ten years ago. We shop at Whole Foods and the Farmer's Market, but we down alcohol the way we should be downing water. We don't eat enough fish, but we love huge buckets of popcorn shrimp. And, we believe in quick fix diets that don't work--they don't even sound like the would work.

My kids won't be apart of Generation XXL. Dust off the bikes. Run to the office. Eat that apple. No Cheetos. Carry your own bag. Turn off that tv. Drop that candy bar--it is only decoration for the check out stand. Let's go to Whole Foods. Pass mommy the salad. Change our habits and stick together--we're stronger in numbers.

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