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Wednesday, May 16, 2012

..and he's only 12?

While on vacation I received the press release regarding, 
"Portion Size Me" a kid-driven plan to a healthier family.


I hadn't been able to read the story or post about it, and all of a sudden I see the family on the Today show this week, talking about this book and how this 12 year old boy told his mother he was fed up, was ready to stop eating fast food and it was time to get rid of those unhealthy habits. HE was ready for change and ready to help change his entire family!  
If you didn't see the coverage on Today Show, check this out:


The CDC predicts that 42% of Americans will be obese by 2030, according to a new study released this week.
Currently, more than one-third of U.S. adults are obese, while 20% of kids ages 6-11 and 18% of teens ages 12-19 are obese.
12-year-old Marshall Reid used to be one of those statistics. He was obese and being teased by his classmates about his weight. Two years ago at the age of 10, Marshall decided to do something about it.
Along with his mom Alex, sister Jordan and dad Dan (who was serving in Iraq at the time), Marshall developed a plan for his family that focuses on ingredients, portions, exercise and the importance of family in preparing meals.

Marshall’s plan is called Portion Size Me and it’s also the name of his new book, Portion Size Me: A Kid-Driven Plan to a Healthier Family. The book helps families get started with a 30-day program, complete with recipes, fun facts and thoughts from Marshall, and quick tips and thoughts from Alex, and 30 recipes for breakfast, lunch and dinner.
As a result of Portion Size Me, Marshall has lost 30lbs and 4 BMI points, placing him out of the obese category. The entire Reid family has lost a collective 70 lbs. and say the experience has brought them closer together.
In fact, the family is scheduled to travel 11,000 across the country this summer in an Airstream to share their Portion Size Me program with other families!

I think this boy probably speaks for many children.  Our kids want to be active and healthy, but they aren't sure how or what to do.  We, as their parents must model these behaviors, we obviously cannot depend on the schools when a lot of our health and physical education classes are being taken away or shortened.  
It has me interested...what about YOU?

Would you read this book?

And now for my Pinterest-inspired recipe of the week:

Grilled asparagus + feta + lemon zest + olive oil
Looks SO yummy, right?  I can't wait to try it and tell ya how it turns out!
Do you love Pinterest recipes too?
My workouts are going great and although we only ran a few times on vacation (whoops!), we seemed to have gotten into the swing of things again around here!  My husband and I ran together yesterday and I tried my best to keep up, but he's so darn fast!  Ha!  I secretly LOVE that he's so fast...for some odd reason I get SO motivated by trying to keep up...whether or not I do keep up is a different story!  LOL!  
And since a trip to Disney was my Mother's Day this year, Jillian's Body Revolution hasn't made it to my door step just yet...anybody feeling generous?  Ha!







6 comments:

fancy nancy said...

What an inspiring boy!!! I LOVE finding recipes on Pinterest!! Those look great!!

Unknown said...

I love Pinterest recipes ... they are easy to find and people eat with their eyes. Half the time I wouldn't look for something, but if I see it, I will like it. :)

Christine said...

That's really interesting. I used to do a bunch of work around healthy eating, childhood obesity and schools. One of the challenges was that even if schools implemented healthier foods, a lot of times those messages weren't reinforced at home so it was important to create a partnership between the two and different ways to support parents at home. It's hard for sure and I'm really impressed that Marshall spoke up.

Unknown said...

Yay for this kid, and I applaud the parents for listening to him (even though I don't applaud them for not taking the initiative themselves). I do love me some Pinterest!

misszippy said...

Wow--that is incredibly impressive that a 12-yr. old took the initiative to become healthy and bring his family along for the ride. I definitely would read this book--thanks for sharing!

Samantha said...

Good for that boy for tAking initiative with his healthy and his family. That is super rare! I agree that kids don't necessarily want to be obese especially because it is so sociably unacceptable! Why give them something else to get made fun of for? They just lack the confidence, skills, knowledge, or support to fix it.
<3 Sam
Www.loosingweightgaininglife.com