Signs, Symptoms and Treatment of Child Obesity

Signs, Symptoms and Treatment of Child Obesity

http://theconversation.com/our-fight-with-fat-why-is-obesity-getting-worse-86601

Obesity may not be associated with physical problems or complaints until late in an illness. Most of us feel we can easily recognize an obese child or adult when we seen one, the reality is that from a medical standpoint a child has typically passed from being "overweight" to "obese" long before their parents recognize it. Other physical complications of childhood obesity often go unrecognized until they are at advanced stages. Subtle indicators impacting their health may include:

*poor physical endurance or ability to keep up with friends
*shortness of breath with exertion
*snoring or long pauses in breathing while sleeping
*consistent complaints of pain in their knees, ankles or hips
*swelling or fluid accumulation in their lower legs or feet.
In addition, other health issues may develop such as asthma or gastroesophageal reflux/ heartburn, headaches, abdominal pain, daytime sleepiness, absent or irregular menstruation, persistently elevated blood pressures and/or depression and anxiety.

How can I help my child develop healthy habits?

Parents, grandparents and teachers play an important role in helping to educate children to build healthy eating, drinking, physical activity, and sleep habits. Teach children to self-regulate and how to override "mindless" urges to indulge repeatedly in energy density foods. Teach them to balance the amount of food and beverages he, she, they eat and drink with equal measures of daily physical activity.

Take your child grocery shopping and let him or her choose healthy foods and drinks, and help plan and prepare healthy meals and snacks. Take them to various community gardens on Saturday mornings to select fresh vegetables and fruits. This is a way to both support the community and eat healthy. My friend Nadine Farris runs a wonderful community garden called Hope & Faith on 10th and Troost.

There is no secret to healthy eating habits. It's a matter of fostering high self-esteem in our kids by helping them to feel happy, healthy and to have a positive body image.

Here are some other ways to help your child develop healthy habits:

*Be a good role model.
*Consume healthy foods and drinks, and choose active pastimes.
*Children are good learners, they observe and copy what they see.
*Talk with your child about what it means to be healthy and how to make healthy decisions.
*Discuss how physical activities and certain foods and drinks may help their bodies get strong and stay healthy.
*Children should get at least an hour of physical activity daily and should limit their screen time (computers, television, and mobile devices) outside of school work to no more than 2 hours each day.
*Chat about how to make healthy choices about food, drinks, and activities at school, at friends' houses, and at other places outside your home.
*Involve the whole family in building healthy eating, drinking, and physical activity habits.
*Everyone benefits, and your child who is overweight won't feel singled out.
*Make sure you child gets enough sleep.

While research about the relationship between sleep and weight is ongoing, some studies link excess weight to not enough sleep in children and adults. How much sleep your child needs depends on his, her, their age.

You can be an important role model in helping your child build physical activity and healthy eating habits.
When it comes to exercise motivation is over-rated. You can not wait for motivation to come before you decide to exercise. Many times you have to put one foot in front of the other and get out the door. Go to the gym, go for a walk, do stretches, dance, pushups, etc. Help yourself and your kids change the way they eat by acting your way (even when it's tough) into a new way of vibrant living.
www.olufemis-counseling.com

Breaking the Addiction Loop

Addictions are among the most damaging of human conditions, significantly affecting the mental, physical, economic health of individuals, families, and their communities. For example cigarette smoking is the leading cause preventable early death. Why can’t individuals, who can often clearly see the harm they are causing to themselves and others, stop smoking or put down the bottle? What gets people “hooked” and how can Mindfulness-Cognitive therapy can help get them unhooked from their addiction.

Positive and negative reinforcement in a nutshell is what drives the stimulus that drives addictive behavior, simply put it feels good. Over time people consume more and more alcohol, cannabis, cigarettes, sex, etc to get the desired effect and a physical tolerance is developed. This is the addictive loop. The addictive loop is primitive and can be resistant to cognitive therapy but not always. Addiction behavior, stress and depression line up well with Mindfulness-based Cognitive treatment.

Addictive behavior is a craving or attachment to a substance, object or event and environmental or ruminative thoughts can be a trigger to repeat the addictive loop of addiction.

I use evidence-based therapy tools that focus on the Stages of Change which explores ways to slowly reduce addictive behavior and looking at the negative and positives of behavior. Other therapy tools are to avoid triggering cues, exercise (if appropriate) and replace addiction behavior with other positive or creative activities. Mindfulness practices specifically targets the critical links of emotion and craving in the addictive loop and works to eradicate the learned pattern of the addiction. Mindfulness practice teaches individuals that instead of running away from the uncomfortable feeling of a craving but rather learn to be present in the moment and to be curious and explore what the craving actually feels like in the body no matter how unpleasant. This approach help individuals learn that cravings are inherently not permanent and that your skin will not catch on fire. People learn that they can indeed ride it out and each time they gain greater insight, courage and confidence in the rooting out the addictive loop. Each time they feed a craving, it strengthens; each time they starve it, it weakens. It really is cause and effect in action. Mindfulness-Cognitive practices actually work to help people break addiction cycles.

Mindfulness practices improves our mental capacities, ranging from improved intentional focus, to decreased mind wandering and emotion regulation. Research shows that brain activity patterns change with meditation practice. Olufemi Sharp, MA, LPC

www.olufemis-counseling.com

feedback loop

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Why Am I so Anxious?

Become an Amygdala Whisperer:

The amygdala is tiny almond shaped, the oldest emotional, most primitive part of our brain, which was designed to ensure physical survival. Anxiety is caused by fire sirens going off in the brain. The amygdala. The amygdala reacts to threatening objects in the environment. When it is triggered, it sends immediate rapid fire signals to your brain and body to make your body ready for a fight or flight situation. It’s easy to allow the worry, stress and fears of life get take over.

When anxiety is triggered your heart beats faster, muscles tense, blood pressure rises, adrenaline is pumped into your bloodstream and more sweating occurs. When you feel extreme anxiety (fear, chronic stress and worry) the physical symptoms and thought errors can be debilitating.

One method of dealing with anxiety is learning how to recognize and talk back to that internal critic running on overdrive in your head.  Journal write your thoughts throughout the day. Make journal entries of all triggers, self-critical and all unhelpful thoughts and any feelings and physical responses that arise. Next, practice talking back to your thoughts with a more balanced perspective. For instance, (unhelpful thoughts) “My boss yelled at me I can’t do anything right.” (helpful thoughts) “This job stinks, it’s only temporary. I’m human, not perfect and mistakes happen.”

Perfectionism causes anxiety, it is another example of how people create acute and chronic stress out of thin air. A lot of people are very hard on themselves thinking they have to be perfect. Perfectionism is an illusion. The flip side of the perfectionism coin is inner-shame. Accepting that you are not perfect can help you self-regulate and calm the amygdala.

Mindfulness helps with taming the amygdala by telling it kindly to chill out. Mindfulness puts the brake on the steaming gas pedal of the amygdala. Mindfulness practice keeps it from going into a hot over-drive system.

Mindfulness practice lessens activity in the amygdala, and enhances activity in the prefrontal cortex. The prefrontal cortex plays a major role in higher-level cognition, including all types of self-regulation. Self-regulating the amygdala is your internal dialogue of: “calm down, dude, sister-girl, nothing to get excited about.”

In summary, an amygdala whisperer is tender self-talk. It requires you to slow down and be more deliberate about having mindful and cognitive moments throughout the day to keep anxious and depressive thoughts at bay.  You can gently override your emotional brain's screaming alarm system on your morning commute to work. You need an adult brain that tells you to shift thought to a different station. Practice, practice, practice slowing down, pausing, reflecting, introspecting, and choosing to set intention toward the best version of yourself.  I support you!

Olufemi Sharp



Signs, Symptoms and Treatment of Child Obesity:

http://theconversation.com/our-fight-with-fat-why-is-obesity-getting-worse-86601

Obesity may not be associated with physical problems or complaints until late in an illness. Most of us feel we can easily recognize an obese child or adult when we seen one, the reality is that from a medical standpoint a child has typically passed from being "overweight" to "obese" long before their parents recognize it. Other physical complications of childhood obesity often go unrecognized until they are at advanced stages. Subtle indicators impacting their health may include:

*poor physical endurance or ability to keep up with friends
*shortness of breath with exertion
*snoring or long pauses in breathing while sleeping
*consistent complaints of pain in their knees, ankles or hips
*swelling or fluid accumulation in their lower legs or feet.
In addition, other health issues may develop such as asthma or gastroesophageal reflux/ heartburn, headaches, abdominal pain, daytime sleepiness, absent or irregular menstruation, persistently elevated blood pressures and/or depression and anxiety.

How can I help my child develop healthy habits?

Parents, grandparents and teachers play an important role in helping to educate children to build healthy eating, drinking, physical activity, and sleep habits. Teach children to self-regulate and how to override "mindless" urges to indulge repeatedly in energy density foods. Teach them to balance the amount of food and beverages he, she, they eat and drink with equal measures of daily physical activity.

Take your child grocery shopping and let him or her choose healthy foods and drinks, and help plan and prepare healthy meals and snacks. Take them to various community gardens on Saturday mornings to select fresh vegetables and fruits. This is a way to both support the community and eat healthy. My friend Nadine Farris runs a wonderful community garden called Hope & Faith on 10th and Troost.

There is no secret to healthy eating habits. It's a matter of fostering high self-esteem in our kids by helping them to feel happy, healthy and to have a positive body image.

Here are some other ways to help your child develop healthy habits:

*Be a good role model.
*Consume healthy foods and drinks, and choose active pastimes.
*Children are good learners, they observe and copy what they see.
*Talk with your child about what it means to be healthy and how to make healthy decisions.
*Discuss how physical activities and certain foods and drinks may help their bodies get strong and stay healthy.
*Children should get at least an hour of physical activity daily and should limit their screen time (computers, television, and mobile devices) outside of school work to no more than 2 hours each day.
*Chat about how to make healthy choices about food, drinks, and activities at school, at friends' houses, and at other places outside your home.
*Involve the whole family in building healthy eating, drinking, and physical activity habits.
*Everyone benefits, and your child who is overweight won't feel singled out.
*Make sure you child gets enough sleep.

While research about the relationship between sleep and weight is ongoing, some studies link excess weight to not enough sleep in children and adults. How much sleep your child needs depends on his, her, their age.

You can be an important role model in helping your child build physical activity and healthy eating habits.
When it comes to exercise motivation is over-rated. You can not wait for motivation to come before you decide to exercise. Many times you have to put one foot in front of the other and get out the door. Go to the gym, go for a walk, do stretches, dance, pushups, etc. Help yourself and your kids change the way they eat by acting your way (even when it's tough) into a new way of vibrant living.
www.olufemis-counseling.com

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