When I was in 7th grade, my classmate was caught smoking cigarettes by her father. He did not yell or scream; he did not tell her she was ruining her life; he did not lecture her on the dangers of smoking. Instead he sat her down in the living room and had her smoke a cigarette in front of him... one after another... and then another. She basically had to smoke until she threw up. As she related this story to me the next day (embarrassed and a bit green), I was horrified. What kind of father would do this to his child? However, the result was... she never smoked again ( at least not through middle and high school). Dad was a genius. He imprinted upon her the taste of smoking until you puke.
On a similar note:
As a culminating event to our year long study and education of healthy nutrition for the elite athlete, today began the Belly Brain Experiment at CP. There have been some very interesting observations in both behavior, attitude and performance.
Please read on.
As you know, a goal of CP is to develop the best possible version of each individual. And because the things we ingest through the senses transforms us, CP takes great care in providing daily nutrition (intellectually, spiritually, physically) that serves the thinking, compassionate athlete.
Today, we offered something very different - a free reign of 'food' choices that are the antithesis of healthy. (I use the term 'food' loosely here.) Donuts, gummy bears, soda, starburst, Capri Sun, chocolate milk, Chips ahoy, (quite honestly there were things I did not recognize... but some of the students did!) served as post workout choices. This is compared to the usual CP post workout foods: bagels, cream cheese, peanut butter, nuts, fruit, boiled eggs, smoothies, tacos. Lunch today was fried chicken strips and Kraft mac&cheese, compared to regular CP lunches of fresh meats and vegetables.
Some of the students dug in, some grazed, some refused. Healthy choices were also available all day.
The changes in behavior were astonishing - giddy, giggling, angry, foul-mouthed, sleepy, lethargic, vomited, could not add 3+4 (literally), begged for 'real food' (which was available all day), complained of not feeling well. Academy practice was a disaster for these kids, too.
So what is the lesson? Hopefully this will serve as a visceral experience that will imprint on them that the choices they make impact personal performance, attitude, and happiness. Garbage in, garbage out... awesome in , awesome out.
Why are we doing this? To EMPOWER your children. Hopefully, they will begin to understand the POWER they have over who they are and how they behave, by these simple choices.
Below is a great article on gut health.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dr-mark-hyman/5-steps-to-kill-hidden-ba_b_739213.html
~Carol