Around the time that menstruation begins, girls begin developing bodies like women. Adipocytes (fat cells) begin developing around the hips and in the breasts. Just like the rest of us, the fat doesn’t stop there… it’s not unusual to see middle school-aged girls with roll of subcutaneous fat bulging over the steam of their britches like the top of a muffin. The excess body fat is bad for their health and awful for their self-esteem, at a tough age when self-esteem isn’t high to begin with. Any mother with a teenage daughter can also attest that this is a time of life when moms and daughters can mix like oil and water. So, you need to lose weight? Your daughter needs to ward off excessive fat gain? You would like to be able to talk about what’s going on in her life? Lace up your jogging shoes, mama- You have a role to model!
I give this advice because of my own experience. For all of my life (and even to this day!), my mom would get up to jog at the track before she would go to work. When I got old enough, she began waking me up to come with her. We only jogged 2-miles, so it was just a 20-minute commitment, but a commitment, it was! I remember running with her wearing shower caps on a rainy day. I remember running with her in ski masks when it was snowing. I remember running with her on Christmas Days. There was never an excuse big enough to trump her priority to jogging, which instilled that priority in me, too. The priority my mom put on daily physical activity affected me in a profound way- in a way I couldn’t have understood back then. When other teenage girls were closing their moms out of their lives, on our daily jogs, my mom would hear about what was going on with me at school; what was going on in my dating life; and some of the shenanigans that I had gotten myself in to. Our jogs were for cardio and camaraderie. Burning roughly 200 calories per jog helped keep me lean; exercising before school helped keep me focused (without Ridalin!); and chatting with my mom helped cultivate a sweet friendship.
Jogging was the activity that my mother embraced and got me involved with, but maybe jogging isn’t your thing. Try power walking. Not digging power walking? How about Zumba? There are plenty of exercises that you can choose from, but pick something that will elevate your heart rate and sustain it up there for 20+ minutes, then when your daughter gets old enough, bring her along. This cannot be a “New Years Resolution” fling that you entertain for a few weeks then get over it. Your commitment to regular physical activity must be unwavering if you hope to make an impression on your children. You do so much else for your kids; getting fit and inspiring them to get fit, too, should hold the same importance as all of those other things.
Prioritizing the impression that you could make on your daughter’s life just may get the weight off of yourself without focusing on yourself!
