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"Did you know approximately 15 percent of adolescents ages 12 to 19 are overweight? And if anyone caught [SPOILER ALERT] Desperate Housewives on Sunday night--specifically the plot line involving Gabrielle&amp;#x27;s daughter, Juanita, 4--it was illustrated.Gabrielle tells a store clerk that Juanita has some &amp;quot;baby fat&amp;quot; to lose when the clerk reveals she doesn&amp;#x27;t have a larger size princess dress for Juanita to try on. Then at the princess party Gabrielle overhears some other, er, moms say that Juanita has a (cut to standard line when talking about an overweight gal) &amp;quot;pretty face,&amp;quot; but...and that&amp;#x27;s right around the time Gabrielle catches Juanita with a second helping of cake. In an effort to help Juanita lose weight Gabrielle offers to take her to the park so she can &amp;quot;run around&amp;quot; in the fresh air (and I thought this was a good, subtle plan), but when Juanita turns her down, Gabrielle decides to invent a fun, new game where Juanita chases the car home and wins a dog. If you saw the ep you know how the game turned out: Juanita hitched a ride home on the bus. The ep got me thinking about Uncle Brian. The other night at dinner he randomly told me not to let JD &amp;quot;get fat,&amp;quot; because, &amp;quot;it&amp;#x27;s...it&amp;#x27;s just not good,&amp;quot; and then I saw a sadness in his eyes I haven&amp;#x27;t seen in a very long time. I felt very bad, sitting across from him and was immediately reminded of how Brian was treated when he was growing up and dealing with a weight problem. Kids are cruel. Very, very cruel. So I understand why Gabrielle was so stone-cold set on getting Juanita to exercise (not chase a car) and eat healthier. She got really mad when her blind husband, Carlos, started gooping brussels sprouts an otherwise healthy veggie with high-caloric processed cheese. Now this is just a show, but think about how Mc Donald&amp;#x27;s markets their apple slices--with caramel dipping sauce (try lowfat yogurt as a dip--loves!) or all those Hidden Valley Ranch Commercials that boast slopping carrot sticks with creamy dressing (They make really good fat free, FYI). It sort of takes the healthfulness out of the meal, no? How do you keep your family, especially unassumming, yet impressionable kids on a healthy eating and exercise track without being overbearing, or obvious? It&amp;#x27;s key not &amp;quot;to diet&amp;quot; I think...I think &amp;quot;lifestyle&amp;quot; is the word to use, if any. I&amp;#x27;m no expert, though from someone who went through a bout of &amp;quot;I&amp;#x27;m-not-eating-today-because-I-want-to-be-thin-like-the-girls-in-Seventeen mag&amp;quot;--I do know it&amp;#x27;s important not to pressure kids, especially young girls to diet and lose weight. I started my freshman year of HS around 92 pounds, because I thought 115 lbs. at about 5&amp;#x27;3&amp;quot; was just crazy! Yeah Right, Christine! For more information on helping your kids maintain a healthy lifestyle, click here."^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.glamour.com/sex-love-life/blogs/storked/2008/10/childhood-obesity-how-this-des>