WELLNESS WEDNESDAYS...Inside a Boy's Mind

Inside a Boy’s Mind

"The sovereign invigorator of the body is exercise and of all the exercises, walking is the best."  --Thomas Jefferson

I have always been a fast walker.  Walking just makes me feel great.  I am aware of my steps and my stride as I move towards my destination.  I enjoy walking. 

Lately, I have become painfully aware of children who are at 

unhealthy weights walking to and from school.  I notice them when 

I am driving to and from work, which is next door to an elementary

school.

One day, I saw him.  The boy was standing by himself at the corner of the school, a gray sweatshirt zipped up and the hood covering his head.  He waited to cross the street after school.  He didn’t step forward, even though the road was clear.  His head remained looking down at the sidewalk, as if unsure of which direction to go or how to take the next step.  What was unusual was that it was May and we were in south Florida and it was hot, with tropical temperatures and high humidity locked in for summer.  He had to be boiling hot inside that zipped up sweatshirt.  But he didn’t move. 

The boy, probably 9 or 10, appeared to be very overweight.  As a mother, I worried about him standing there.  Why was he standing so still in the mid-afternoon heat?  Why was he wearing a sweatshirt all zipped up and the hood pulled over his head?  Was he thinking about how little energy he had for the walk home?  Were his legs painfully chafed from rubbing against his jeans? Or was he silently wishing someone he knew would drive by, notice him and give him a ride home because he was out of breath from carrying the excess weight? Did another child at school make fun of him for being fat?  Was he paralyzed with fear about having to go back to school the next day to face more taunting?  Perhaps, he was hoping that if he stayed still long enough and hid inside the sweatshirt, no one would notice him and his oversized body. 

Children do not ask to be overweight.  The added pounds come on gradually, not overnight.   How does it happen?  An extra serving of white rice here, a large Coke there.  Sandwiches on white bread because the white bread from Walmart is cheap.  The drive- through window at McDonald’s is where the kids can order a cheap dinner from the dollar menu.  Cheap food?  I think not. What parents might consider cheap food is really expensive, at least in the lives of young children who get addicted to the salt, sugar, and fat it contains.  The consequences of an unhealthy weight, especially for a child, are so significant but as adults we look at it as adults, not from the child' perspective.  What is it really like to be inside the mind of a child who is screaming inside to be healthy and to love to know the pleasure of walking but no one is listening?

   

Are you helping your children to make healthy choices about food and fitness?  Do you know know any parents who could use some inspiration?  Please support Growing Healthy Kids and our health literacy projects to reverse, halt, and prevent childhood obesity.  We’d love to come to your neighborhood!

Thank you,

Nancy Heinrich

Founder, Growing Healthy Kids, Inc. 

HEALTHY COOKING CLASS SATURDAY JUNE 7

Preventing diabetes - and other obesity-related diseases in children who are overweight or obese - is the reason I started Growing Healthy Kids, Inc.  There is an urgent need to  improve health literacy at a local level about this preventable disease. Knowing where to start is often confusing.  Focusing on real foods is how I create solutions for families who want to gain the upper hand on a disease whose complications include increased risk of kidney failure, lower limb amputations, and blindness. When a teenager develops type 2 diabetes, there is another dimension to side effects and complications for which physicians have not been prepared; developing diabetes before age 20 is estimated to reduce a lifespan by about 15 years.  

This Saturday, June 7, I will be teaching a healthy cooking class at Florida Veggies & More. Participants will learn tips for controlling their blood sugar, blood pressure, cholesterol and weight as well as delicious recipes using locally grown farm fresh vegetables.    

Children from the Youth Guidance Mentoring and Activities Program
at a recent GROWING HEALTHY KIDS program at
Florida Veggies and More in Vero Beach. 

According to Heinrich, “Knowing what to eat if you are diagnosed 

with diabetes (or prediabetes) is a mystery for most people.  Advice such as "just cut out the sugar" and "go to the library and get a book about diabetes" does not provide the practical “what to buy” and “what to eat” confidence that people need to prevent the complications that accompany uncontrolled diabetes or to get on a path towards healthier eating.”

Saturday’s class marks the final class of a very successful spring 
series of healthy eating workshops which began in January.  Dan and Lisa Brenneman, owners of the hydroponic farm, are excited to announce that the Healthy Cooking with Nancy Heinrich, The Healthy Diabetes Coach series will resume in September with the start of the next growing cycle.  This Saturday’s class is at 2:00 and is open to the public.  Kids, of course, are welcome.  For $5, attendees receive a small plate, the recipes and evidence-based health tips.  The class is at Florida Veggies and More, located at 6755 37^th Street.  For more information, contact Lisa Brenneman at 772-559-5641 or me at 772-453-3413. 

See you at the farm!
Nancy Heinrich
Founder, Growing Healthy Kids

WELLNESS WEDNESDAYS...GETTING UNSTUCK

GETTING UNSTUCK

Earlier this year, I met a dear family member, Donna Jean, at Tybee Island, Georgia.  Donna Jean  escapes the cold and snow of her North Carolina home and winters on Tybee; family members know if they want to see her, they have to schedule a visit.   For several years, she and I have corresponded about meeting when my work schedule would allow me to travel north. 

Donna Jean has a degree in journalism and has been a writer all her life.   My goal was to enjoy several  “relax and recreation” days at her beach house and exploring - with her help - the pros and cons of my past year‘s Wellness Wednesdays columns and her advice for this year’s column.  The thought of talking with her about effective writing and clear communication to my target audience thrilled me.

 

I dutifully packed copies of my blog books for the trip, along with writing notebooks.  After  I arrived on the island and had unpacked fresh vegetables from my favorite hydroponic farm for the meals I would prepare for the two of us, Donna Jean told me that she would read the Wellness Wednesdays columns in the evenings.  Then, the next morning after she had tea and I had coffee, she would provide her impressions and suggestions of what she had read the night before.   I took copious notes for three days and returned to Florida.  And then the unexpected happened - I was unsure what to write! 

   

After all the little girl kind of excitement about looking forward to the weekend on Tybee Island with Donna Jean, when I returned home I found I could not write.  I was not prepared to be stuck.  I had expected the flood gates to open wide and have words tumbling out on every paper I touched after being inspired by a powerful writer. 

For the last 3 months I have not written Wellness Wednesdays.  Until  today, when  I made the decision that it was time to write again.  One of the challenges Donna Jean gave me on Tybee, intertwined in our conversation about communication theory, was “to find ways to get the stories out.”  So this year I will write about the stories from the Growing Healthy Kids movement and why we are working crazy busy hours to improve health literacy of parents and improve health outcomes of America’s children. 

I have missed you and our weekly conversations more than you can imagine.  I want to honor our conversations.  Donna Jean taught me a lot on Tybee.  She taught me that by becoming a storyteller, I will be a more powerful teacher and will touch more lives.  It is time to tell stories about Growing Healthy Kids.  

Every column may not be a story, but many will be.  As I write about health matters, food, farming, fitness, love, family and friends, tell me this: What health goal has gotten you stuck to the point where you could take no action?  Looking forward to hearing from you.

Nancy Heinrich

Founder, Growing Healthy Kids, Inc.