Help To Get Healthy

I have a younger sister who is having a lot of problems with her weight. I am off at college so it is hard to help her. My parents are horrible role models in this category, esp. my mother. I have never been as overweight as the rest of my family, mostly because I hated my mother for teaching me such horrible habits and rebelled. I just hate seeing my sister so depressed and having no self-confidence. We have tried doing programs together but she never does them and since I am not home it is really hard. She is always calling herself fatty and my parents just let her call herself that and my mom often does the same thing. As you can tell, my parents dont really support her and I want to get them healthy too. I have talked to them many times about getting her to see a nutritionist and really getting her on track. She is 16, about 5 foot (maybe an inch taller) and weighs now to my knowledge at least 170. It is so hard for her and it hurts me to see her like this. I just wish someone could offer me advice on how to help her. I think she really needs support and home as well. So if anyone has advice on that too, it would be great. I just want my family to be healthy and happy. Thanks.

[leif ericson]

heres a couple of simple things she can do to lose some pounds
in a healthy way.   tell her to stop eating after 4 or 6 pm,
eat larger meals in the morning and small healthy meals at night. studies show that thinner people eat bigger breakfasts
and fat people eat larger dinners (in general) so thats a clue !
there is a book that i really like called "eat right for your blood type", i love this book, it's very interesting. it's
not about crash diets but more about changing the way we think
about the food we take in and how it may be benficial or harmfull to eat certain foods.  good luck, tell her not to give up !                    l.e.

[leif ericson]

heres a couple of simple things she can do to lose some pounds
in a healthy way.   tell her to stop eating after 4 or 6 pm,
eat larger meals in the morning and small healthy meals at night. studies show that thinner people eat bigger breakfasts
and fat people eat larger dinners (in general) so thats a clue !
there is a book that i really like called "eat right for your blood type", i love this book, it's very interesting. it's
not about crash diets but more about changing the way we think
about the food we take in and how it may be benficial or harmfull to eat certain foods.  good luck, tell her not to give up !                    l.e.

[leif ericson]

sorry about the double responce thing, my pc does that sometimes.


yeah, having parents that don't support her must be tough. maybe they don't want her to be attractive and spend alot of time with boys. fear of the "empty nest syndrom (syndrome)", maybe ?  fat on a girl (as on a "poor" guy) will keep most potential daters from knocking on your door ! (at least for white guys anyway, hehehe) she needs to find her weakness (everybody has one, mine is sweets) and pick her battles (such as give up the "worst" thing that she eats)instead of going cold turkey (no pun intended) on everything, and eating rice cakes... @#$#@%$#% rice cakes, i hate em !!! has she gone to your parents with a serious plee for their help ???  this is their daughter for god sake.


                              l.e.

[sunflower21]

Try to encourage her to either join a sport at school or get a membership at a local YMCA or gym. Being more active is a start. Since her parents can't guide her properly on a healthy diet, maybe you can email her nutrition advice or get her a subscription to a healthy eating magazine. Hopefully she can encourage her parents to start bring more healthy food into the house and less junk.

[ticked]

Main thing is portion control, excersise and drink lots of water. Lots of multigrains, beans, etcc.   No take out

[Passionate about Prevention]

Go to the website www.5pillars.com for some good ideas.

[anxiousmomtobe?]

The best exercise in the world is walking.  Swimming is great too, but at her weight she probably doesn't want to get into a swim suit.

If she can afford it, I highly recommend joining a gym and going with a buddy.  A trainer will help her take weight off safely.

As I am learning, the only way to lose weight is move more and eat less.

Teens are notoriously bad eaters, they love junk, she needs a food guide to make it clear to her what her body needs each day.

You are a wonderful big sister.