The 12-week program is open to 8- to 14-year-old children who are struggling with their weight as a result of little exercise and poor eating habits. With two hour-long sessions a week, kids split their time between exercise and meetings with a nutritionist.
“There is a call for this in the community,” said program director Jodi Reneaud, who runs the health and fitness courses at the YMCA. “Most people I’ve talked to, like school nurses, have said ‘Thank you so much for this.’ Every parent I’ve talked to knows they need to do something.”
Parents are active participants in the program. Once a week, the parents and children meet with Jay Mar, a nutritionist who extols the virtues of smaller portions and healthier eating.
In one class, Mar fielded questions from parents seeking healthier alternatives for the dinner table.
“We don’t like calories,” he said. “Unless we’re burning them.”
The session was an awakening for some parents, like Anna Ayvazyah, the mother of two in the program who learned that the path to weight loss can begin in the kitchen.
“This has been an eye-opener for me,” she said. “I thought olive oil was good for you, but after learning all the calories in it, well, I’m going to be much more careful with what we buy from now on.”
Childhood obesity is an epidemic in the United States that affects millions of youths, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found.
“The prevalence of overweight children aged 6 to 11 more than doubled in the past 20 years, going from 7% in 1980 to 18.8% in 2004,” according to a study by the organization.
Obesity among children is also a problem in California, a state some consider to be a paragon of physical fitness, Reneaud said.
