This week there has been alot of buzz in my social media feed about a new app that WW (aka weight watchers) has rolled out that is geared towards CHILDREN ages 8-17. As I have shared before here my eating disorder started in a doctors office when I was 13 years old.
I was told that I would be HAPPIER if I lost 10 pounds…I was only 13, and that was enough to damage me for a very long time.
In 2018 I found a wellness groove that worked for me. I did lose weight, but more importantly I gained knowledge about myself and what works for my body and what does not. In 2019 I have put 15 pounds back on and it does not even matter. I now know how to eat to nourish my body and how to exercise for FUN not as a punishment or to earn any sort of food.
Food should not have a moral hold on us. There should not be good foods or bad foods. Food is food, and Kurbo is downright terrible. I loaded the app before making any snap judgments, and went over my “red” limit by lunch. Chia seeds, Avocado, eggs, bacon, bread, cheese and oatmeal put me over that limit. The only green light things that I found are fruits and vegetables, but not too many of certain fruits and vegetables. How is this going to teach kids to eat in a nutrient balanced way? There will be kids that stop eating things just because they are yellow or red light items, and then they wont be getting all of the nutrients that they need to grow.
This kind of thing breaks my heart. If you are an adult and logging foods, tracking calories, or anything like that works for you in a non-obsessive disordered eating way works for you, fine, but can we please back off of our children?
If you would have asked me about this 10 years ago, I probably would have agreed with it as a good idea, as I was still very young and in a disordered eating mindset. I was even on board with sending a kiddo to weight loss camp at the recommendation of a practitioner. Now I feel terrible about it knowing what I know as an adult that was pushed into weight loss as a child.
Lets teach our kids to eat a variety of foods ranging from vegetables to cookies, and to never feel guilty for eating “too much” of anything. Lets teach them to move their bodies in ways that they enjoy, and not to exercise as a way of earning any type of food. Lets stop body shaming ourselves, others and especially children.
Thanks for coming to my in-cohesive rant…I needed to get it out.
For the record-the featured image is 3 reds, 16 greens…my limit for a day would be 3 reds…the red comes from more than 2 eggs and the olive oil that this was all sautéed in. Total crap.
Talking Life with Alyssa 