I am so happy my South Africa group has 100 members! I have invited all of you lot as well. I also went to check out the cybersex group and there are some pornographic pictures up there now. Surprise surprise!
Don't know why it posted this topic twice...weird
CAL CAN YOU DELETE THIS ONE PLEASE?
A Hogwarts for Obese Kids
Ryan Craig runs a therapeutic boarding school aimed at teaching youngsters to lose weight and keep it off. He explains how it works
SPECIAL REPORT BATTLING OBESITY
• The Food Giants Go on a Diet
• Federal Funds Fight the Fat
• A Hogwarts for Obese Kids
• Weighing Bariatric Surgery's Risks
• From Fat Nation to Fit Nation
• Slideshow: Battling ObesityAs executive director of the Academy of the Sierras in Reedly, Calif., Ryan Craig is developing a niche business with a growing clientele. In September, he started a boarding school for obese children aged 13 to 18. The mission: teaching them to approach weight loss and management as both a behavioral and biological challenge. Advertisement
The school has 13 students so far, is adding one a week, and expects to have an enrollment of 60 by the middle of next year. That's remarkable, considering that Academy of the Sierras costs $5,500 per month, and health insurance typically only pays a third.
Weight loss is a rapidly expanding business for Craig, who's also president of Healthy Living Academies, which ran its first two weight-loss camps during the summer of 2004 -- Camp Wellspring in upstate New York and Wellspring Adventure Camp in Franklin, N.C. Healthy Living is a division of Aspen Education Group, which runs several other therapeutic boarding schools and camps for teens and young adults with behavioral issues. Aspen has rapidly expanded in the past decade with revenues that topped $100 million in 2003, from $28 million in 1998.
BusinessWeek Online's Pallavi Gogoi recently spoke with Craig about his strategies and goals. Here are edited excerpts from their conversation:
Q: How did you come up with the idea of a boarding school for obese children?
A: We're part of the Aspen Education Group, the largest and oldest organization that runs therapeutic boarding schools. We've traditionally handled teens with overly emotional behavior by combining behavioral health care with education. Five years ago we started looking at obesity as a behavioral issue. Our research showed that diets have become more calorie-dense, portion sizes [have] increased, and that's combined with lifestyles that are more sedentary.
Q: What's your curriculum at the school?
A: There are three components to what we do -- a comprehensive weight-loss program with diet and activity management, behavioral change so the students go home with a lifestyle change, and an academic program with an individualized curriculum that replicates what the child would be taking at school.
Q: Do children have other options aside from boarding school?
A: Families with obese children have been able to choose outpatient activities -- visiting with psychologists or nutritionists on the recommendation of their pediatricians. That tends not to be effective because you're not removing the child from the school environment -- engendering or aggravating the behavior. Diet camps are a second option, where a child is active over the summer, loses weight, but gains it back in the fall. That's not effective.
In past couple of years we've developed our program with leading researchers at Yale, the University of California, and Northwestern University, and research shows that obesity is a multidisciplinary problem. We talked to experts like Daniel Kirschenbaum of Northwestern University's Medical School and Kelly Brownell of Yale and expected to hear 12 different things from 12 different experts, but surprisingly we heard a consistent message -- that it was a problem in the areas of nutrition, physical activity, and behavioral psychology.
So you have to avoid fatty foods, you have to be active, and finally the most important thing you can do is self-monitoring to ensure weight loss. [One key is] keeping a detailed written journal of everything you're eating and all the activities you're doing.
SCREW YOU HEND$RSON i am!!! Mark Chapman
District Councillor for Shefford, Campton
(including Chicksands) and Gravenhurst
Vice Chairman of Mid Beds Lib Dems
Member - Liberal Democrats
Eastern Region Executive
Now for the future
Along with my very important role as a District Councillor I will be working towards ensuring a Lib Dem victory at the next General Election.
Yes, this does start now and, with your help, it is achievable. If you have comments or ideas, would like to help in some material way, join the Party or just obtain more information, I will be delighted to hear from you.
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