Getting Out of Your Comfort Zone

This past summer my family and I really had a great experience with our 11 year old, Hunter’s, baseball team. He plays for a league called, Sunnybrae Little League, in Hamilton, NJ. I called their team the Bad News Bears. And just like the movie, this little team which started out so bad, made it all the way to #2 in the state of New Jersey. Wow what a wonderful victory for them. We spent a lot of time with the families of each of these boys on the team. Sometimes, as an owner of a successful wellness center and a doctor who practices what she preaches, it difficult to sit idly by and just ‘watch.’ I watched a lot of unhealthy practices this summer. I watched lots of soda consumption. I watched lots of fast food and concession stand food consumption. I watched inactivity of the parents, often sitting for hours at a time for pre-game warm-ups and the game itself. And I also saw a lot of stress placed on these little guys. I’m sure all baseball parents know exactly what I’m referring to.

We have setup twice monthly meetings with these parents and will continue to do so throughout the winter. We have them come to our office to learn about healthy eating, exercising with us and learning how to get rid of their ‘stinkin thinkin.’ So far the total weight loss of the group, which is about 12 parents actively participating, is 160. The other day a father emailed me and said "I didn’t realize what a burden to the healthcare system I had become. I was a drain. Now I am taking active steps to take back control of my health and my life. We never had more than 2 or 3 meals per week together at home as a family. Now we are averaging 2 meals together per day, most of them home-cooked."