Season 14 - Will Be a Mid Season Replacement Show

[Bearcata]

Well, walking home for lunch every day depends on a parent being home at noon every day to fix it, serve it, supervise. Been quite a few years since that was the norm.....
One year we were going to do a sabbatical overseas...this was early 80's and I visited a lot of schools, etc., trying to figure out what would work best with our 2nd and 4th grade kids. In Germany I was told that kids came home for lunch every day, and that if the teacher was out sick no sub was called in, the kids were just sent home. Mom was just supposed to sit in the house all day waiting I guess. Or the 7 year old was supposed to know how to get home and take care of himself safely at home. Of course the Germans also didn't believe in babysitters...to get one for my one year old on an earlier trip we basically had to bribe a teen who was going to be doing a junior year abroad thing with the idea that now they would have a family outside of their host family that they could call on for help. They think we obsess over fire (I guess because there are more stone houses there...).
OK, wandering from the topic!! I do agree that pre video games and TV we spent a whole lot more time outside. My kids were young just before handheld videogames appeared, and when they did the kids were instantly obsessed. Scary.

No not sitting doing nothing, cleaning the house, doing the laundry, grocery shopping, sewing the clothes. Both my mom and aunt sewed and made all the kids clothes cause that was less expensive than buying man made clothes at Kmart. I remember walking myself to preschool at 4 and 5 yrs old and to elementary school when I was older and so did all the other kids I knew.

When I was a kid I lived in Europe, no frig, or dish washing machine. I even remember my grandmother washing clothes by hand. There were several stores around the block, dry goods, butcher, fish monger, and my mom would go get fresh groceries 2 or 3 times a week.

[PWS]

Yeah, I lived in England as a teen... and in the end we did the sabbatical in England, where they would at least keep the kids in school once they got there. There were two lethal streets to cross to get to the school and crossing guards at only one and only some of the time. I read that England had a high rate of child/vehicle accidents...
During our sabbatical we had a 3/4 fridge which made us the envy of some. A washer but not a dryer (line drying clothes in England is like doing it in Seattle! Go figure.). I walked the kids to school and shopped at the little stores on the way home. On the plus side I got two mile long walks in every day thanks to walking them to school! And I cooked from scratch most nights in the States and then, so pretty healthy. Well, off to watch the ball drop in Times Square. And the shoe drop in Key West! Happy New Year all. May we all keep our resolutions!

[mandmmom2]

Things have become too "easy" in the States and we've become lazy....sad...

[Bearcata]

Things have become too "easy" in the States and we've become lazy....sad...

Well having electricity, that brings lights, powers frigs, washing machines etc...does reduce dong things by hand. Do you really want to spend all day washing your family's laundry? The power of electricity enabled alot of women to be freed from domestic chores, dying at a young age because you are worked to death, and gave an opportunity to get educated and be self supporting and the freedom to run our own lives. That being said, yes, I think the pendulum of how both parents working too much, using TV and Video games to baby sit, using convenience foods because it is easy has swung to the other extreme. I honestly do believe the habits you are raised with do shape your life. I was normal weight until I went to collage and still not too bad after graduation. After that when I tried to lose weight I tried by starving and other crazy stuff and it took me years to realize that I just needed to eat regularly, watch my portions, exercise and have some patience because I didn't put in on over night and it was not coming off overnight.

[AJane]

I think the convenience foods are the biggest culprit. My friend's husband was diagnosed with Type II diabetes a couple years ago and is on oral meds. He has put on a lot of weight since he was married (15 years ago). So it's lifestyle-induced. He has a physically demanding job, but he's easily 60-70 lbs overweight. I told him to try working out, maybe start walking and go from there, and he complained that he's too tired after work because he's lifting and carrying, up and down ladders, etc., all day long. Ok, understand, but how did he get so overweight then? Because he eats crap, all the time. My friend cooks (he doesn't), so if she's not feeding him, it's fast food, nachos, pepsi and beer. I don't know why men find it so hard to brown-bag it.

My husband travels a lot and eats out all the time. He must gain a pound or two every time he goes on the road. I suggested that he try downloading an app with a food journal - I'm using a Jillian Micheals one right now, as it happens, and it will even pull up food by brand-name. It automatically keeps track of calories, fat, sodium, etc. A real eye-opener. I haven't used a food journal for a while but I know I've been slipping into bad habits, and it's great for keeping me cognizant of what I'm eating. The Jillian app also factors in whatever exercise you do in a day and puts it toward your calorie count. I'm just using the free version, if anyone is interested.

[Bearcata]

Both my sibs gained 40 - 60 lbs after they got married it took a couple of years, some of it was going out all the time and eating the huge restaurant portions. My one sister in law tried FA (Food Addicts Anonymous), not once but twice and the second time around it kicked in. My brother tired it with her also and they prepped all their food on the weekends and portioned everything into Rubbermaid food containers. They had breakfast, lunch and dinner all set out. They wrote down each day what they were going to eat and didn't deviate. (you can do so during maintenance) The big thing was to cut out sugar. They read labels and anything ending with an "ose" had to be third or lower down on the items in a product. They both successfully lost and maintained their weight loss. The emphasis being on food prep, portion control, no sugar. Exercise was not encouraged until you got your addiction to food under control.

My other brother has on and off tried various diet programs and the whole family did weight watchers about a year or two ago and where quite successful at it. What gets me is that everything my brother was successful at losing weight my sis in law would try to sabotage his efforts, fortunately the weight watchers program seems to work for him and he has get it off for over two years now.

Both examples just show that while exercise is important, if you watch what you eat over time you will get the results you want.

[mandmmom2]

I grew up healthy and active but it was college and marriage that hit me hard. I lost it after my second girl born but I've gained it back. Now I'm trying the approach of low sugar and protion or exercise. I just have to be patient and realize that I won't have my high school body back.

[Bearcata]

I grew up healthy and active but it was college and marriage that hit me hard. I lost it after my second girl born but I've gained it back. Now I'm trying the approach of low sugar and protion or exercise. I just have to be patient and realize that I won't have my high school body back.

I think most people don't realize that the human body continues to grow a bit after high school graduation. Women tend to stop around 25 and men at 30. Women will get a bit more hip and breast and even muscle and lose what ever "baby fat" they had; the same goes for men. Many folks who had huge ears and noses actually grow into them in their 20s and 30s.

[Tilden]

No not sitting doing nothing, cleaning the house, doing the laundry, grocery shopping, sewing the clothes. Both my mom and aunt sewed and made all the kids clothes cause that was less expensive than buying man made clothes at Kmart. I remember walking myself to preschool at 4 and 5 yrs old and to elementary school when I was older and so did all the other kids I knew.

When I was a kid I lived in Europe, no frig, or dish washing machine. I even remember my grandmother washing clothes by hand. There were several stores around the block, dry goods, butcher, fish monger, and my mom would go get fresh groceries 2 or 3 times a week.

I grew up in small town Minnesota. While we did have a refrigerator, we didn't have a dishwasher. My mother didn't do the laundry by hand, but she used a wringer washer until I was through college. I think she got an actual dryer when I was around seven, but in the summer, she still used an outside clothesline. Prior to the dryer, she hung the clothes downstairs in the winter, and continued to do that with some items after she got the dryer (which she got when she had a hysterectomy and was in the hospital for a week and my father decided she shouldn't be hanging up clothes for a while--or just hadn't liked doing it himself). We had grocery stores, but she still canned and froze vegetables in the summer, many of which came from a family garden. She also sewed a lot of my clothes, crotcheted, quilted, made sock monkeys and Raggedy Ann dolls, embroidered etc. She read voraciously too and walked for exercise in the evening long before it was considered popular or healthful.

I, too, walked myself back and forth from elementary school in the afternoons (around six blocks) from kindergarten on, though my father would take the neighborhood kids to elementary school on his way to work in the morning, simply because it was on his way to work. And even though I was more naturally inclined toward things like reading and crafts and music, I still played outside, rode my bike back and forth to the library (eight blocks or so) etc. Before my father, who umpired and referred locally, passed when I was twelve, he also taught everybody in the neighborhood the basics of baseball and football, and we played badminton and croquet in our ample backyard. I also skated and sledded in the winter. Oh, yeah, and I walked the dog, and since cell phones were non-existent, often walked with friends who happened to live in the neighborhood in the evening, so we could talk without our parents necessarily overhearing us.

So, I do think it was possible to do a lot of the same sorts of things in the U.S. I know what my family was doing wasn't a lot different from what the families of most of my neighbors and friends' families did.

Oh, yeah, and in Minnesota, there was always yardwork in the summer and shoveling in the winter. We never did own a snowblower.

[Tilden]

I kind of wish that if they were doing a season including teens that they just stuck to teens or did teen/adult pairs, like parents and kids or older sibling/younger sibling.

I also hope they address the fact that nutritional differences can vary with age somewhat. That thirteen year old certainly is still growing, as are the sixteen year olds. Their nutritional needs may be different than those of a fifty year old, even if all four are eating healthily.