Weight Loss and Exercise For a Growing Child

Recently I was asked this question: "Dianne, do you know any good websites for ballet? I'd like to know them. Also,How do I lose weight? I want to exercise but I can't get myself to. How can I do that. I'd like to run everyday.When's the best time in the day? Best exercise plan? And also, how do I lose my extra belly fat? I weight about 100 pounds and I'm only 11!I hate eating
healthy foods but if it'll make me skinnier, what good foods should I eat? Thank you for answering these questions!!"

Here is my answer and honestly, I truly tried to keep it short!

"It is wonderful that you are interested in being healthy and strong - losing weight will happen if you eat well and exercise well.

Since you don't like to exercise, but say that you like to run, I assume you are not a dance student. You are eating the wrong foods, to have become overweight. Since I don't know how tall you are, or what kind of skeletal frame you have, I don't know exactly how much you should weigh right now.

Fresh, unprocessed foods are the only foods you should be eating! Is that bad news? That doesn't mean you can't have a piece of pizza on the weekend like when you're with friends, but, daily, you need some lean proteins, (soft cooked eggs, meats, chicken, fish, tofu if you like it --) and fresh vegetables, fruits and salads, at least 50% raw. You can make some yummy dips, from lemon juice and olive oil, grated cheese or sour cream, and add some ranch flavoring, or flavor it as you like with other herbs.

Nuts, celery, fruit and yogurt are great snacks. If you have sweet cravings, you will have to avoid sweets for a couple of weeks altogether to make that go away. You may have headaches and energy highs and lows during that time, but it's kind of like drug withdrawal. Sugar acts like a drug in our bodies. Our system has to get used to running on real food again, with minimal sugar.

Packaged diet foods with artificial flavors are full of unhealthy chemicals. Do you know that when medical researchers want to quickly fatten mice up for an experiment they give them artificial sweeteners? The same kind of food chemicals that are in diet sodas, which make you crave carbs!

If you have true energy problems, ask your parents to take you to your doctor for a general physical. It's good to know that your body is okay. Most medical doctors would say I'm too strict on the diet part, but I am a dancer and that's what works. I do not think you should ever be hungry or feel deprived - but what you choose to snack on stores as fat, or not. Carbs like chips, crackers, and breads are useless calories. They do not build your bones and muscles, or brain cells.

"Protein Power" by the medical doctors Eades and Eades, is an informative book. It explains how the body metabolises efficiently - that is, creates energy for you. The body can do this without any sugar at all! In fact, meats and vegetables have carb content, and that is enough for us.

Oils and fats are extremely important to eat - but, choose the healthy ones. Flax seed oil and olive oil are the most common oils to make salad dressings from. Most store bought salad dressings have heavier oils in them, and nearly always sugar. (And chemicals).

Butter is good for you, and so is the fat in eggs, but keep the yolks soft. Not eating any fat is BAD for you. Just don't eat too much, and how much is not too much, is relative to how often and how hard you exercise.

Here's a book you might like: "Slow Burn" by Stu Mittleman. He is a champion runner. He talks about the right shoes, the right diet, the right training routines, in a lot of detail. http://www.worldultrafit.com is his web site.

This is an overview. You need to read about health and diet and explore what will work for you.

Finally, web sites about ballet: http://www.theballetstore.com has articles, books, DVDs, a store, a full ballet glossary and more; Deborah Vogel's http://www.thebodyseries.com is an excellent site with many technical articles, books about ballet and anatomy, and instructional DVDs; http://www.balletshoesandpointeshoes.blogspot.com has an extensive list of articles regarding all of the above!.

I hope this is helpful.

Dianne"