Family Power
by Nancy Giorgi
February 21, 2007
Miller-Kovach, Karen. Weight Watchers Family Power. New Jersey: Wiley & Sons, Inc., 2006.
The number of overweight children in the US has tripled in just 30 years. Fast food, video games and lack of exercise are culprits but there is only one real solution: developing healthy habits at home.
Weight Watchers has started a program to help parents and families instill healthy-weight habits in their children. I will be including information from the book Weight Watchers Family Power: 5 Simple Rules for a Healthy-Weight Home in the remaining school newsletters. The book: transforms the way families approach nutrition and exercise, with specific principles designed to help parents give kids the lifelong keys to maintaining a healthy weight.
The 5 rules:
- Focus on wholesome nutritious foods
- Include treats
- Aim to keep non-homework screen time to two hours or less per day
- Try to be active an hour or more per day
- The Weight Watchers Family Power principles apply to everyone in the home
Eat well and exercise!
FAMILY POWER EXCERPT #1
What is a Healthy-Weight Home?
A healthy-weight home is one in which everyone who lives there has a lifestyle that encourages them to be at a weight that is right and healthy for them. This means children and adults, including those who are very thin and those who are rather heavy. A healthy-weight home is not about being on a diet. It embraces meals and snacks that focus on wholesome, nutritious foods and it includes treats. Activity plays a vital role. Because parents create the home for their families, they are the “change agents” that make a healthy-weight home happen. This is done by surrounding the family with the 5 Simple Rules, using a style that will make them last.
