Fat Camp

When I was a junior in high school my mom worked at a place called the Health Connection.  It was that year, that the Health Connection started what came to be known around our house as "fat camp".  It was a weekly class that taught young adults how to eat, how to exercise, how to count calories and essentially, how to lose weight.  So being the daughter of the person in charge of the Health Connection, I was told by my mother that I had to participate in this fat camp because she had to have a certain number of students in order to have the class. 

I'm sure it was some sort of punishment for something I did.  I was not fat.  Sure I had a little baby weight on me, but I was by no means fat.  In fact, I was the skinniest kid in fat camp, which kind of makes you feel bad.  You don't want to be the skinniest kid in fat camp.  At least I didn't want to be.  I could feel the other kids in the class burning holes into me with their eyes.

Fat camp turned out to be a fun experience.  I did learn a lot about eating in this class.  I learned how to make healthy choices when eating out.  I learned things back then that people to this day still don't know about.  Like portion sizes.  I learned a lot of things that I use to this day to remain a healthy weight.  I also lost the most weight in fat camp.  I didn't need to lose the most weight in fat camp.  The kids in fat camp hated me.

We joked about it then.  It's really no joke now.  We have WAY too many fat kids in our country.  Maybe there's a fat camp near you.    


Here's one of the healthy snacks I learned to make in fat camp:

Here's What You Need:
Rice Cake
Peanut Butter
Raisins

Here's What You Do:
Spread peanut butter (about a tablespoon) onto your rice cake, top with raisins.  Eat.  It's delicious.  And it won't make you fat.  Well, unless you eat 15 of them in one setting.