This website that I came upon had an article and a video that was very moving. A Mother's Fight, <- the video is displayed at the top of the webpage. It is the struggle of a mother who is telling her story about obesity. I know this doesn't seem like childhood obesity but her story ends up positively helping children overcome obesity. Sonya Branch-Johnson went into the doctor's office one day, only to see her doctor write obese on her paper. She was 300 pounds and in a size 28, but she had no idea that she was overweight. Sonya said, "I would put on heels and you couldn’t tell me I couldn’t fly. Even in a size 28, I thought I was amazing." The doctor told her that not only was she hurting herself, but she was also hurting her children. "I never thought that I didn't love my kids, I never thought I wasn't a good mom. I always pushed that they get a good education. I never thought that I wasn't teaching them to live healthy. I never thought that was something that I was doing wrong. To be a role model for your kids, you’ve got to make those changes yourself.” ”
Sonya, just like many others struggling with obesity, went through all of the steps before she realized that she needed to change her lifestyle. First she experienced denial, then recognition, and finally determination to change for the sake of her children. It all began the day she left the doctor's office. Today, after losing a lot of weight, Sonya is helping at Mt. Washington Pediatric Hospital in Baltimore by encouraging children to overcome their obesity. She says, “I’m kind of that person that in the background is saying, you can do this and in a way, I’m saying to myself that I wish I had that person for me…and that’s what drives me, I’ll do anything for these kids. We can’t quit on them.”
I really enjoyed reading this story and watching the video because stories like these are the ones that should be shown a lot more often. People are always reading disheartening statistic about how the percentages of obesity in both children and adults are increasing. But when people can read stories like Sonya's, they are able to have a goal to set for themselves, and they can realize that people actually can overcome obesity. The percentage of children who are obese and stay obese as adults is very high, but if Sonya can reach out and tell people how she has changes, this could lower that percentage.
Questions: How do you feel after watching the movie about Sonya? Do you think that stories like this are the ones that should be told or do you think statistics are more important?
Bibliography
Change, Facing. A Mother’s Fight Against
Childhood Obesity. 2011. 17 April 2012
<http://facingchange.org/blog/2012/02/15/childhood-obesity/>.
Perkins, Lucian. A Mother's Fight Against
Childhood Obesity. February 2012. 17 April 2012 <http://vimeo.com/groups/poynter/videos/36808025>.
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