How to Make Fat Camp Even More Embarrassing

[Christine Barber]

If you look up fat camps on Google, you’ll quickly see this line: “Why (Insert name of camp here) is NOT a fat camp.”
The new camps are trying desperately to veer away from the image that they feed only meals of crackers and water to kids that were forced to attend as punishment.
Like fat kids in the school locker room, the fat camps got tried of being the butt of the joke. They now call themselves fitness or weight-loss camps.
Instead, they trumpet their focus on nutrition, counseling and self-regulatory training. As well as the good time to be had by all. There's swimming! Horse-back riding! Hiking!
Some programs are going even further in their quest to be different by realizing that when a camper goes home, they will still be faced with the same environment that colluded with them in getting fat in the first place. I’m talking about you, parents. And those sugary breakfast cereals you buy. And the “finish all the food on your plate” mentality.
So, the programs have decided that the whole family needs to take responsibility for the healthy environment. They make everyone come to fat camp. I mean, fitness camp.
The parents attend cooking classes and learn how to shop healthy while their children get busy losing weight. More importantly, the parents go through therapy as well to learn how to talk about losing weight without injecting negative words or downright insults.
And I think all this is just great. Really. It combats one of the biggest problems in losing weight and that is your home environment. It’s great. Just great. Really.
But (you knew there was a “but” coming), what teenager wants to go fat camp with their parents?
I mean, going to fat camp is TOTALLY embarrassing. You certainly wouldn’t tell your friends about fat camp. It’s not quite as impressive as going 4-wheeling in Baja for your summer vacation.
And now you’ve got mom and dad with you? I can only think of one way to describe it: “oh God no.”
I would have just DIED of embarrassment if I went to fat camp as a teenager. And if my parents had gone with me, I would have hidden under my bunk.
But maybe after I'd come out, I could have finally talked with my mom and dad about being overweight and how that was impacting me. Hmmm … then I’d DIE of embarrassment again as soon as my parents decided to go swimming. Parents should never be allowed in swimsuits. NEVER!