I was watching a show on TV that was discussing a 12 year old girl who went in for liposuction at the weight of 219! They gave her the lipo and got her down to 155 and within a few months she was back up to where she was before.

What do the parents do? Send her to Mexico to get the LAP-BAND surgery which is illegal for children that young in this country. This is becoming an all too familiar story these days since the number of children considered obese in our country has increased dramatically over the last 5 years.

But the problem is this. Using plastic surgery as a crutch is a bad mindset to give our children in this country. Saying gain as much as you want and then just get it lipo’d off is insane. There are far greater problems with being obese than just the weight gain (diabetes, heart disease and more).

This 12 year old is a perfect example of why this is a bad thing. Even after getting the lipo and removing over 45lbs of fat she goes right back to her old eating habits and gains all of the weight back. One of the doctor’s said “the lap band is a good alternative because it teaches the kids how much to eat”. I almost fell out of my chair with that statement.

Here is a novel idea, maybe the parents should teach the kids how to eat properly instead of getting surgery to do the work for them. I could not believe that doctor said that but he isn’t the only one that believes this B.S. It is your job as a parent to properly prepare your children for adulthood and if you also have a weight problem than you should consider a nutritionist to teach you so you can teach your kids.

All of my family has struggled with their weight and EVERY ONE of them can tell you why they can’t lose the weight. There is something they are doing that they aren’t willing to stop and that is why they can’t keep the weight off. Having all of the same genes and upbringing I weigh exactly what I did at the age of 18. I have a 30 waist and 32 length on my pants and I weigh between 150-165 (it varies) which is the perfect weight for my height of 5’10″.

Now why can I control my weight when the rest of my family struggles? I decided long ago that I would not follow in the footsteps of my father. He was the same height that I am but he weighed 225lbs, which was about 60lbs overweight. At the age of 42 he had is first few rounds of heart attacks and by the age of 52 he was dead from heart failure. Coincidence?..No.

At the age of 14, I started body building and playing sports. I was so active I had more trouble keeping weight on than keeping it off. This is exactly the same problem all of our kids should be having.

With this 12 year old her doctor said she tried to do sports (run track) in school but the school was afraid she would have a heart attack because she would be drenched in sweat and beat red in the face after just a few minutes.

So that was the reason why she couldn’t use physical activity to help keep weight off. Bad excuse. When you are 219lbs at 12 years old you need to start slow. Walking would be the place to start in this instance BUT the real problem was that they waited until she got too heavy.

If you have a young child that is overweight and your pediatrician tells you that you need to do something with the child’s weight, later is not the time to start! It is our duty as parents to teach our children how to be healthy, happy adults.

Our children learn their eating habits from their parents and if you are obese than the odds are your kids will also be obese. If you are obese than you owe it to your children to improve your eating habits which will improve theirs as well.

Now we have some issues in this country in regards to weight loss. Many women take it too far and wind up with an eating disorder and then you have the opposite end of the spectrum where men and women will say “I am comfortable with myself and don’t care what I look like”.

Now, not caring what other people think about your appearance as long as you are happy, is exactly the mindset you want to achieve. Sounds like I contradicted myself right? Wrong.

Wanting to lose weight should not be for superficial reasons but for the best reasons of all, to live a healthy and happy life. When you become obese a whole myriad of issues arise such as diabetes, heart disease, fat build up around the heart and much more. Most obese people have trouble getting up out of a chair or walking stairs or many other normal activities.

Your goals should be simple; get healthy and teach your kids how to be healthy. I promise you if you change your eating and activity habits, barring a thyroid issue, you can lose weight. Just don’t do it for appearances, that is too easy to dismiss. Instead look up all of the diseases and other issues that come from obesity and if that isn’t enough to kick you in the arse than I am not sure of what would.

I don’t care about my weight, that is/has not ever been a concern for me but the issues that befell my father due to his weight problems was an extreme concern. I intend to live for many years past the age my father lasted.

Here are some tips:

I really hope that someone reads this and takes it to heart and improves the lives of themselves and their children. This is a serious problem and has NOTHING to do with appearance, this is a huge heath and quality of life issue; forget appearances completely.

90% of the people I know that have dieted for appearances sake have failed. All of those that have done it for their quality of life and health or even better their family, has succeeded! You do the math.

Parents take control of your lives and then help your children do the same but you have to start right away! Don’t wait until your child is in the same situation as this young 12yr old girl to act, the younger you start the easier the changes will be.

Good luck to you and stay safe out there!

This is a very sad sad story. Tonight in New York, 5 teenage girls died when their SUV veered into the path of an oncoming tractor trailer, killing all of them instantly.

It is believed that the driver may have been “texting” on her phone at the time of the accident. Police ruled out drugs and alcohol but say inexperience, speed and distraction may have caused this crash.

The girls were finishing a passing maneuver when for some unknown reason they veered into the path of the tractor trailer. Like I said at the start this is a sad story.

We all remember what we were like at 16-17 even 18. With a bunch of friends in the car common sense goes right ut the door along with attention to the road. Today it is ten times worse with all of the gizmos the kids have to draw their attention away.

It may be time to rethink things. Parents may need to become less flexible to their kids. Maybe even go as far as to invest in the monitoring systems they are coming out with that allow you to see your child as they drive, along with speed and other factors. This way you can see what kind of driver your child really is.

Listen this isn’t anything new, when I was young I had a bunch of friends die in a rollover accident back in my home state. They were speeding, drinking and screwing around when they wrecked. This story has played out all over America and to be honest I am lucky to not have been a story myself.

I am not sure of the answer to this problem but we all have seen how bad teens drive on the road, even when they aren’t getting into accidents. We need to come up with even more restrictions on the children and it will be tougher on parents but I guarantee it will be less rough than what the poor parents of those girls are going to have to go through.

Now before I go off on my tangent I want to state that by no means I am saying this tragedy was caused by cellphones since there is no way to tell WHO was texting on the drivers phone at the time of the accident, it may have been a p

Cell phone usage should be banned while driving for all people. Many may disagree but I can point out who is on the phone by how they drive. People on phones drift in their lanes, ride the brakes and can’t keep a constant speed, they make last minute turns with no turn signal because it would require them to put the phone down, they tailgate with open lanes, they rear end cars at red lights not paying attention it goes on and on.

Watch for these behaviors, not all will be on the phone some are just horrific, ignorant drivers but most of the time you can tell the gabbers. Do everyone a favor and make a choice: drive or use the flippin phone not both!

When I get a call I want to answer I pull over, if I can’t then it rolls to voice mail and I return it when I can. I haven’t had an accident or ticket in over 15 years…coincidence? I doubt it.

Stay safe out there!