DR. WALLACE: My family and I are all struggling with our weight these days. We were never “lean and light” people to begin with, but ever since the pandemic hit, we’ve all put on a lot more weight than ever before. Of course, we all stayed home all day and our eating habits became much worse. Not only did we eat more often, but we also began eating unhealthy foods at all hours of the day.
I know this is a big task, but I’d at least like to try to encourage my family to eat better and to have us all try to lose at least a few pounds rather than continue to gain them.
I’ve tried in the past to tell them the benefits of eating healthier foods in smaller portions, but those suggestions fell on deaf ears. Now I’m thinking it might make sense to point out the problems we may all soon face if we continue to become heavier and heavier. Do you have any comments about this that I could use with my family? — A Large Teen, via email
A LARGE TEEN: I commend you for wanting to help your family and yourself. I can start by telling you that there are well-established direct links between carrying excess weight and heightened risk of diabetes, heart disease and stroke.
A human body carrying excess weight also has a higher-than-average risk of developing high blood pressure. Some individuals even see their blood pressure rise to very risky levels.
These potential maladies both often affect quality of life and can reduce overall life expectancy.
I also suggest that you take some time to visit the NEDA website. NEDA stands for the National Eating Disorders Association and can be accessed at www.nationaleatingdisorders.org. Navigate around the site to find some areas that you can show to other family members. Hopefully you can at least start with one other family member who will find your research valuable. From there seek to recruit others gradually until your household shows marked improvements in diet and nutrition. Everyone deserves to be made aware of positive alternatives that they may wish to eventually pursue.
I CAN’T REALLY COMPLAIN
DR. WALLACE: I often hear other teens at my school complain about their parents. Their complaints are the usual ones, involving curfews, dating rules and even lack of attention and guidance.
When I hear this, I feel guilty! It’s because I feel I have great parents and I really don’t have any complaints at all. I’m the second oldest of four teens and whenever there has been family conflict, it has always been started by one of us teens doing something obviously wrong. Even then, our parents sit down and talk quietly with us about what happened, their future expectations and how we could handle similar situations better in the future.
I don’t want to chime in with trumped-up complaints when I hear my friends at school complain about their parents, but at the same time I don’t want to chirp about how great I feel my parents are. What can I do or say when this topic comes up? — A Lucky Teen, via email
A LUCKY TEEN: You are indeed lucky and even blessed to have excellent parents who obviously have fine parenting skills.
Perhaps you could sit down with your parents someday and get them to explain their philosophy about parenting. You could take notes about their style, goals and reasoning about parenting. Then you could start a blog or website and encourage your friends to post their issues with their parents — and have your parents help you (anonymously) explain what they think and why. You can tell your friends that you find this topic interesting and that you might someday pursue a career in counseling (you might!) The result could be something valuable to your friends and even if not much changes for them overall, you’ll learn some great parenting skills and strategies in case you become a parent yourself one day.
Dr. Robert Wallace welcomes questions from readers. Although he is unable to reply to all of them individually, he will answer as many as possible in this column. Email him at [email protected] To find out more about Dr. Robert Wallace and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate website at www.creators.com.
