Fitness Camp to Home: A guide for parents!

It wasn’t easy sending your child to fitness or weight management camp. It was probably very expensive, and you no doubt missed your child. A teen can change an awful lot over a summer, even without going to weight loss camp, and it’s tough to miss out on that. Once your child returns home, he or she needs support in maintaining healthy habits learned at camp. There are a number of reasons that children have a tough time maintaining their weight loss once they return home. Below are a few of the difficulties and how you can help avoid them.

Unrealistic expectations are common because parents forget that their teen faces the double difficulty of losing weight while still growing. Sometimes they don’t so much lose weight as they gain height and “grow into” their weight. The point is, when they return home, they may not have lost that much weight. But don’t focus so much on the number on the scale: he or she may have grown an inch over the summer, making any weight lost more significant. Be positive about what your teen has accomplished rather than comparing it to what you think he or she should have accomplished.

Parental guilt can be destructive all around. Some parents feel guilty for “letting” their child become overweight, and some feel guilty about sending their child to weight loss camp. When your child returns home from camp, it’s an opportunity for the entire family to start again with healthier habits and to lose some of the old habits, like going out for ice cream a couple of times a week.

The kitchen itself could be a problem. If your child has just spent two months learning healthy eating habits and comes home to a refrigerator full of ice cream sandwiches and a pantry full of potato chips, it’s going to be exceptionally hard to maintain those habits in the face of such temptation. Before your child returns, stock the kitchen with easy to prepare and eat foods that are healthy. One of the best examples of this is fruit. In summer you can get fresh fruit easily, and for most fruits, the only preparation required is a good washing.

You may think you’re helping your teen by being a “food Nazi,” but if you do nothing but tell your child what he or she cannot eat, it’s a classic setup for rebellion. Encouragement is great. Talking it out is great. But saying “no treats ever, period” is unrealistic and not really supportive. Encourage the good habits your child has developed rather than looking for faults and pointing them out.

Be a good role model, but don’t go overboard. If you look perfect, get up every morning at 5 a.m. to jog, and happen to have a fast metabolism, your child is going to look at that as a set of unrealistic expectations. On the other hand, if they see Mom or Dad lying hour after hour in front of the television with a bag of chips and a bowl of dip, they’re going to wonder why they bothered learning their healthier habits. It is much better for everyone if your organize activities like a walk after dinner, or a weekend hike at a local park.

In summary, your teen’s return home from fitness or weight loss camp is an opportunity for the entire family to “reboot” with better eating and exercise habits. Let them know that you are supportive and that you are “there” for them and don’t go overboard in enforcing “rules” and you’ll have a healthier environment for them and for you.