Letter To A Teen, About W8Loss2Go

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This is what I’d say to a teen, or even a pretty smart kid, who’s a lot like I was then.

Full disclosure: The Childhood Obesity News blog exists for many reasons. One of them is to show any overweight or obese young person that W8Loss2Go is a good idea, and see if they will give it a try. Which is free, by the way.

Currently, the app is available for the iPhone and will soon be available for free on the App Store. Until it’s on the App Store, the app may downloaded for free.

The agenda is: W8Loss2Go is a good idea. We can’t say it any clearer than that. Here’s something to chew on —  a lot of times, for various kinds of problems, you’ll hear, “It gets better.” You want to say, “Oh right. Just go ahead and tell me, how does it get better? When does this get better thing kick in?”

The answer is, “Right now, if you want it to.” Exactly. The news of the year is, if extra pounds are weighing you down, you don’t have to wait for things to get better. Decide that you’re in it to win it. The treasure can be found, the princess or prince can be rescued, the dragon can be slain. In this quest, the map is W8Loss2Go.

There are ways you can tell if something is worth considering. One of them is, it doesn’t claim to solve all your problems in under 10 seconds. Dr. Pretlow says:

Successful withdrawal from their problem foods may not result in significant user weight loss. Yet, many app users have said that successful withdrawal from their problem foods gave them confidence that they could then withdraw from snacking and excessive amounts at meals.

So it’s no good saying, “I don’t have enough confidence.” Just shut it, because this is how to get confidence. I can’t do 20 sit-ups today. But I can do three, and maybe after a couple of days I will be able to do four. And by next week, chances are I’ll be doing 10. After that, who knows where repetition could take me?

I won’t deny it’s hard to even imagine 20 sit-ups. But maybe imagining it is what a person needs to do. A lot of athletes are into that creative visualization stuff. When you make a little movie in your head, and picture yourself doing the 20 sit-ups, and do it enough times, they say it carves new pathways through your brain, and pretty soon you end up at a different place than before. Maybe even a place where you can do 20 sit-ups in the actual world.

Pathways… there is some kind of Zen saying about crossing a river, stone by slippery stone, only it’s foggy, and every time you land on a new footing you can still only see one more stone ahead of yourself. You just have to trust your gut that the rest of the stones are there.

The point is, “baby steps.” If you live around a baby, you know they don’t make it across the room in a single bound. It might take a few tries. But you can only take one step at a time, so quit beating yourself up about it, if that’s what you’re doing. Then go ahead and roll with it, the idea that all you can do is one step at a time. That’s what staged withdrawal means. Dr. Pretlow says,

The app focuses on staged withdrawal from: 1) problem foods, 2) snacking, and 3) excessive amounts at meals.

That’s right, there is more than one task ahead. But just think about Hercules — he had 12 labors. So far, we have only seen three in this bunch. But the big secret is, by the time you get there, you’ll be ready for the next thing, whatever it may be.

Your responses and feedback are welcome!

Source: “W8Loss2Go App Approach”
Image by W8Loss2Go

 

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The Book

OVERWEIGHT: What Kids Say explores the obesity problem from the often-overlooked perspective of children struggling with being overweight.

About Dr. Robert A. Pretlow

Dr. Robert A. Pretlow is a pediatrician and childhood obesity specialist. He has been researching and spreading awareness on the childhood obesity epidemic in the US for more than a decade.
You can contact Dr. Pretlow at:

Presentations

Dr. Pretlow’s invited presentation at the American Society of Animal Science 2020 Conference
What’s Causing Obesity in Companion Animals and What Can We Do About It

Dr. Pretlow’s invited presentation at the World Obesity Federation 2019 Conference:
Food/Eating Addiction and the Displacement Mechanism

Dr. Pretlow’s Multi-Center Clinical Trial Kick-off Speech 2018:
Obesity: Tackling the Root Cause

Dr. Pretlow’s 2017 Workshop on
Treatment of Obesity Using the Addiction Model

Dr. Pretlow’s invited presentation for
TEC and UNC 2016

Dr. Pretlow’s invited presentation at the 2015 Obesity Summit in London, UK.

Dr. Pretlow’s invited keynote at the 2014 European Childhood Obesity Group Congress in Salzburg, Austria.

Dr. Pretlow’s presentation at the 2013 European Congress on Obesity in Liverpool, UK.

Dr. Pretlow’s presentation at the 2011 International Conference on Childhood Obesity in Lisbon, Portugal.

Dr. Pretlow’s presentation at the 2010 Uniting Against Childhood Obesity Conference in Houston, TX.

Food & Health Resources