The habits I formed when I was a kid followed me all the way to college. Although I was never obese (because I just cared too much about the way I looked), I had a weight problem due to horrible eating habits.

My mom bought a lot of sugary foods. She let me eat pizza and ice cream on a daily basis. I’m not blaming her, because she really didn’t know much better. As an immigrant struggling to make a living and support a family, she bought foods that were on sale. Her only goal was to keep me fed. There weren’t as many fat kids walking around twenty years ago as there are now, and so there was not as much awareness about what is healthy and what is not.

One thing I’ve realized by reading personal blogs of food addicts or former food addicts is that most of these habits are formed during child hood. If you were overweight as a kid, then you’re likely to be obese when you grow older.

Image By babble

If you’re a parent, then I urge you to pay attention to what you’re feeding your kids. You may be a healthy parent, or an overweight parent, but either way your kids future depends on the example you set for them. I’m not a parent, I don’t even have a girlfriend, so I’m not going to teach you how to raise your kids. But, I would like to share a few experiences that I believe effected my weight when I was a kid:

1. When I was around 4-5 years old, I began eating pizza on a frequent basis. My mom would take me to this place called Singas Famous Pizza, and order a half a pie of pizza almost every day. A full pie these days is around $4.50, so a half pie was probably extremely cheap back then.
2. Every time I went to the playground, I didn’t really do much. I wasn’t playing with the other kids. I remember my mom was trying to get me to play on the monkey bars, but all I really did was go down slides and swing on theswing set. Swing sets are fun, but they don’t really burn off any calories.
3. Also, at the playground, the only time I did any running was when the ice cream man came. My mom whipped out a dollar every day for me and let me run like the wind.
4. When I started grade school, my mother would pretty much give me the same thing everyday: bread and butter sandwhich, a juice box, and fruit snack. That’s all just carbs and sugar. If she gave me fruit, I didn’t eat it.
5. As I got older and began to receive an allowance. I threw out the food in the lunch box (cuz you can’t trade a bread and butter sandwich), and stood on the lunch line to be fed either a bagel with cream cheese or microwave pizza.
6. In middle school, the lunch lady remembered that I was a vegetarian. So on days where there was no pizza or pasta, she would make me a special cheese sandwich: a bread roll with three-four slices of cheese. Put some ketchup on it, and gobble it up. Eat that everyday and see what happens to your man boobs.
7. In high school, I went into the other direction, and became border line anorexic. I was skinny fat because I probably ate only 1000 calories a day. Combine that with a daily 1-2 mile run, 60 minutes in the weight room, and two intense martial arts training sessions per week, and you’ll have hunger pangs as loud as a speeding train.
8. After high school, I learned how easy it was for me to drive down to Taco Bell in between my classes and gobble up a nice Mexican Pizza or Bean and Cheese burrito. Top it off with a tall cup of soda, and drive back to another boring lecture.
9. Speaking of boring lectures, there was a Starbucks on campus. I began knocking down tall lattes to help me stay awake in class. When those didn’t work, I started a ritual of latte in the morning and Monster energy drink in the evening.
10. Finally, as if this story couldn’t get any worse, there is an Indian restaurant near my dad’s place. It’s good stuff. I would gobble up around 3parotas (a type of bread) with Palak Paneer (literally, spinach and cheese), almost every week.

There you have it. If your goal is to fatten up your kids so that one day they can audition for the Biggest Loser and win half a million dollars for entertaining other fat people who are too lazy to go to ShahTraining.com and try out a quick bodyweight workout, then just follow my tips, and you’ll achieve your goal.

Over the next few months, I will be spending a lot of time on developing content for overweight and obese individuals looking to lose weight. I realize some of the limitations that even bodyweight training can have for the morbidly obese. But I also see a lot of potential for teaching basic bodyweight movements to these individuals. I’ll get into this in a future post.

Here are just 10 reasons why it is dangerous to be obese:

1. For every 11 to 18 pounds of fat gain, a person’s risk of developing type 2 diabetes is twice as high of individuals who are of normal weight and have not gained any weight.
2. Obesity during pregnancy is associated with increased risk of death in both the baby and the mother.
3. Individuals who are obese (BMI greater than 30) have a 50 to 100 percent increased risk of premature death from all causes, compared to individuals with a healthy weight. Read More.

Thursday, June 19, 2008

Dominic brought a friend of his to workout with us. Preston looked like what I did about a year ago: overweight, but not obese. The first question I asked him was if he’d ever worked out before. He said he used go to the gym. Right then and there I knew this kid was going to have trouble with the workout. But, to tell you to the truth I was surprised by his determination. Hopefully I’ll see this kid again. Would love to work with him.

Workout:

Burpees 10-20-30
KB Swings 5-10-15

Time: 10:51.07

Preston was unable to finish the workout. This time is a combined time for al three of us. Basically the order was Me, Dom, and Preston. When the first person finished burpees, the next person started burpees, etc. You’d always have one person resting, although the rest periods weren’t much.

We were able to get a few Pushups out of Preston before he collapsed on to the ground and made a comment about the ground feeling like a bed. Dom’s famous line: “Well don’t go to sleep!”

Because I felt I had a bit left in me, I challenged Dom to the following workout:

3 rounds for time:
10 Burpees
5 Swings

My time: 4:11.83
Doms Time: 7:37.98

One thing I noticed was that Dom was teaching Preston a lot of the movements that I was. He was acting like a coach, and very good one at that. Makes you feel good when your student becomes a teacher.

Diet:

Breakfast: 1 bowl oatmeal

Post Workout: Protien Shake & 2 homemade burritos (Black beans, whole wheat tortilla, lettuce, sauce, olive oil)
Later on: Banana
4:00 PM: 2 slices Sprouted Bread Toasted w/ Peanut Butter
8:00 PM: Tofu thingamagig that my mom made
8:30 PM: Some bean-type food that my mom made, with 3 roti (a type of indian bread)

• Have you ever been in a teaching position? Please post your thoughts to comments.
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