Fornits
Treatment Abuse, Behavior Modification, Thought Reform => Aspen Education Group => Topic started by: Anonymous on July 31, 2006, 01:01:00 PM
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Anyone have a different experience than this?
http://www.emediawire.com/releases/2006/7/emw417730.htm (http://www.emediawire.com/releases/2006/7/emw417730.htm)
New Studies Reveal Weight Loss Academies for Kids are Achieving Unprecedented Results in Fighting Childhood Obesity
Aspen Education Group?s overweight students and campers lose weight -- and keep it off -- even after returning home.
Cerritos, CA (PRWEB) July 31, 2006 -- Some students lost almost half their body weight during a six-month stint at Aspen Education Group?s Healthy Living Academies? weight loss programs. But could they keep it off after leaving the structured and rigorously health-focused academies? According to results of follow-up studies with students who completed the Healthy Living Academies weight loss programs in 2005, the answer is a resounding ?yes!?
The studies followed the weight loss results of students attending the Academy of the Sierras weight loss boarding school and Wellspring Camps. The first class of students who attended Academy of the Sierras in Reedley, CA for at least six months lost an average of 81 lbs. during the program, and had successfully maintained their entire weight loss at the 10-month follow-up interval. In a separate study, 212 campers who attended Wellspring Camps for at least four weeks not only maintained their average weight loss of 21 lbs. for six to nine months after returning home from camp, but had lost an additional five lbs. at the six- to nine-month follow-up interval.
?These results are unprecedented in the history of weight loss research,? says Dr. Daniel S. Kirschenbaum, a professor at Northwestern University Medical School and Clinical Director of Healthy Living Academies programs. ?The scientific community has never seen weight loss programs consistently produce such rapid and sizeable weight losses that were so well tolerated and maintained over time. The 80-pound average weight loss at the Academy of the Sierras is unparalleled, with the possible exception of far more risky bariatric surgeries.?
Dr. Kirschenbaum added that these results were consistent with 2004 findings from Wellspring Camps. ?In 2004, we studied 79 campers who lost an average of 17 lbs. and found that six to nine months later, they had lost an additional 7.4 lbs.?
The results at Academy of the Sierras (AOS) can be attributed to a strong program based in the science of weight loss and cognitive-behavioral therapy, according to AOS Executive Director Phil Obbard. ?Students who remain for an extended period of time in a structured, healthy environment that supports good nutrition and daily activity routinely show dramatic improvements in self-esteem, mood and outlook. The fact that students maintained weight losses is a testament to their growth and overall emotional well-being.?
?These weight loss results demonstrate that there is hope for many of today?s overweight and obese children,? said Elliot Sainer, CEO of Aspen Education Group. ?With nearly one-third of American children overweight or obese, parents must give their kids the opportunity to learn new skills and behaviors that will lead to long and healthy lives.?
Unlike existing ?diet camps,? Healthy Living Academies? programs were designed by leading researchers using current scientific understanding of the most effective approaches to safe weight loss and permanent behavioral and lifestyle changes. Academy of the Sierras and Wellspring Camps provide behavioral training, such as self- monitoring and goal-setting, for successful long-term weight control, and employ master?s- and doctoral-level therapists to provide cognitive-behavioral therapy that helps campers stay committed to permanent lifestyle change. They also focus on family involvement and have a unique Internet-based ?after-care? program.
Healthy Living Academies operates residential schools and summer programs addressing America?s crisis of pediatric and adolescent obesity. Healthy Living Academies programs include Academy of the Sierras in California, a new campus opening in North Carolina in 2006, Wellspring New York, Wellspring Adventure Camp, Wellspring Adventure Camp California, Wellspring Family Camp, and Wellspring United Kingdom. To learn more about Academy of the Sierras, Wellspring Camps or Healthy Living Academies, visit www.healthylivingacademies.com (http://www.healthylivingacademies.com) or call 866-364-0808.
Healthy Living Academies is a division of Aspen Education Group, the nation?s leading provider of education programs for struggling or underachieving young people. With over 30 programs in 12 states and the United Kingdom, Aspen provides to students and families a comprehensive range of therapeutic interventions, including boarding schools, residential treatment and wilderness therapy. For more information, visit www.aspeneducation.com (http://www.aspeneducation.com) or call 888-972-7736.
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Not everyone is so enamored with this program.
http://livinlavidalocarb.blogspot.com/2 ... obese.html (http://livinlavidalocarb.blogspot.com/2006/07/extreme-low-fat-farm-abusing-obese.html)
Extreme Low-Fat Farm Abusing Obese Kids
The Academy of the Sierras youth diet plan is lacking adequate fat
I was alerted to something quite disturbing today to say the least by my calorie-restriction friend April who told me about a California-based youth "fat farm" called Academy of the Sierras where overweight and obese children are being subject to an extreme low-fat diet consisting of nearly single-digit fat intake daily!
What is most incredible is the diet they have these kids eating is robbing them of some of the essential nutrients their bodies need for them to continue to grow into the healthy adults they are becoming. While they are getting 70g protein and 20g fiber, they are ONLY being fed a measly 10g fat. JUST TEN GRAMS! That's all they get daily. Yikes! They get to eat all the soups, salads, fat-free (and HIGH sugar, by the way) yogurt, fruits and vegetables as part of this wonder diet plan. The leaders of this program claim the kids won't get hungry eating this way.
Well, I guess they don't get as hungry with all of that protein they are eating. But what about the healthy fats these kids NEED for a healthy body and improved overall health? Even the American Heart Association FINALLY admitted this year that proper fat intake is important. Studies have shown eating fat improves mental health. Are these people at the Academy of the Sierras even concerned about the damage they are causing to the developing brains of these children they have been given control over? Helllllloooo?
You would think with the results of a landmark 8-year study on low-fat diets earlier this year showing them to be the big fat lie that people who are livin' la vida low-carb knew them to be would end this madness about being afraid of eating fat as part of a healthy weight loss program. This all-too-obvious fact has apparently left the good folks at the Academy of the Sierras as they continue to live in the past with their dietary recommendations centered around the archaic teachings of Dr. Dean Ornish!
But isn't it borderline child abuse what the leaders of this program are doing to these poor kids? With new research PROVING the theories they are using to induce weight loss in these children -- namely an extreme low-fat diet -- is false, then why would they still insist on using these tactics when there are much better ways to bring about the same results in a healthier manner? They wouldn't need to change their program radically to make it just as effective for weight loss AND be more nutrient-dense.
They could still have the kids eat 70g protein and 20g fiber, but have them instead begin to limit the carbohydrates to 20g daily while allowing 30-40g fat MINIMUM daily and having them avoid sugar, white flour, starchy veggies and processed foods. Why wouldn't this work better for the kids and give them a more palatable menu to eat from?
Wanna see just a sampling of what these kids have to eat now:
low-fat pizza
very lean ground turkey tacos (EWWWW!)
fat free bean burritos
veggie egg white omelettes (where are the yolks?!)
oil-free Asian stir fries
innovative pastas (what the heck is that?!)
spice apple raisin pancakes
bagels with fat-free cream cheese
Berries (the best item on this menu!)
melon wedges
fat-free yogurt
Boca burgers (mmm, mmm Boca--NOT!)
sandwich bar with very lean ham and turkey
Mexican pizza
fat-free soups
fruit salad (can you say sugar?!)
honey chicken
veggie stir-fry
?spinach baked? potatoes (say who what is THAT?!)
frozen yogurt
salad bar with fat-free dressings
carrot sticks
fat-free potato chips with salsa (yucky poo!)
oatmeal raisin bars
Can you tell me what most of those foods contains gobs and gobs of? That's right, CARBOHYDRATES!!! Jeepers creepers people, let's just send the blood sugar of these kids into overdrive now with what we're feeding them. Sheeeeez! I remember eating an obsessively low-fat diet before and it's not fun at all. If my experience is any indication of what is going to happen to these kids when they get back home, then it would not surprise me to hear that most if not all of them rebel at their new way of eating and gain back every single pound they worked so hard to lose. I don't wish that on them, but it is almost inevitable with a low-fat diet as extreme as this one is.
You can express your concerns about this dangerous and abusive weight loss program for these adolescents by e-mailing them directly. You can address your e-mail to Phil Obbard who is the Executive Director for the Academy of the Sierras. Ask him to specifically answer your concerns about the lack of good fats in the diets these kids are being put on and let me know if you hear back from him or another representative. This blatant abuse by the Academy of the Sierra MUST be stopped immediately!"
My other Internet research also indicated that the first three items on the food list above can only be eaten by kids who have earned it (not sure how - through good behavior, high weight loss, whatever).
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Uh, another example of "do the means justify the end"?
People just want to see "results", doesn't matter how you get there, even if it involves abuse or neglect.
I've read research that discourages people from eating "low fat" anything. The fat in dairy products is necessary to metabolyzing it. One should just stick with whole fat products and limit their consumption.
The diet looks very high in sodium to me.
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Im not infavour of sending any kid away to a fat farm, or a boarding school that deals with obesity, but 10 grams of fat per day sounds like plenty. The foods listed all by the original poster sound ok too. I would be more concerned about a family being encouraged to send the overweight kid into some isolating school. To me it sends the message that once again the kid is overweight due to their own actions only instead of treating it asa family issue.
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Some students may be put on Optifast, a liquid diet meal plan, or Meridia, a prescription appetite suppressant, to speed up weight loss.
http://66.102.7.104/search?q=cache:8GZ7 ... lnk&cd=101 (http://66.102.7.104/search?q=cache:8GZ7_omKKtIJ:washingtontimes.com/national/20040629-104007-3403r.htm+%22elliot+sainer%22&hl=en&gl=us&ct=clnk&cd=101)
Novartis's Optifast program is only available at hospitals and health care clinics. Weight reduction typically averages 2-5 pounds a week. Costs $200-$300 a month.
Meridia works on brain chemicals to reduce appetite.
Side effects:
http://www.onlinelawyersource.com/meridia/effects.html (http://www.onlinelawyersource.com/meridia/effects.html)
For only 15# per year?
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/07/ ... 2256.shtml (http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/07/17/health/webmd/main1812256.shtml)
Study funded by Abbott Labs :roll:
http://www.mercy.net/healthinfo/archive/060719.asp (http://www.mercy.net/healthinfo/archive/060719.asp)
And of course, if they aren't working their program they will be sent to ASGs Lone Star Expedition.
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What about the exercise component? Given that parents pay a lot of money to see results, Do they have some kind of forced exercise programme? i would be pretry concerned about that.
i also could not agree with three springs more. Given that someone else buys the food in the house what do the kids come home to?
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above poster was me. forgot to log in
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Optifast. Eeew. It is available over the counter here. I took that stuff for a month once to drop a dress size for a wedding i was in. I have always been on the voluptuous side! Aside from tasting revolting and giving me bad breath, i found I was nauseous and toward the end fainted twice before my boyfriend and sister bullied me into eating again. i cant believe they are feeding that shit to kids. it of course does not encourage any kind of life long change in habits either. I looked fantastic for 1 night in the dress and then put it all back on as soon as any kind of food went into my mouth. I can only imagine what would happen to a kid.
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I found an old article on the effects of optifast on adults. only 30% kept the weight off. There are many unpleasant side effects
http://www.fda.gov/bbs/topics/CONSUMER/CON00070.html (http://www.fda.gov/bbs/topics/CONSUMER/CON00070.html)
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I hate the fat camp thing, like I hate all forced boarding schools.
While I think anorexia is a dangerous disease, the sites with the best weight loss tips if your doctor says you need to lose weight are the pro-anorexia sites.
Even though they take it dangerously far, some of these women have weight loss down to a science, and healthy methods for doing it.
Where they get unhealthy is they don't set an end goal weight, or they set it dangerously low.
The best way to avoid that is to ask your doctor, in advance, what you should weigh or how much you should lose. Ask your doctor how much you should lose a week. Set that as your goal, and when you get there, just maintain instead of losing.
We all know binging and purging, and abusing laxatives and diuretics, and going ultra low carb, and dead crash dieting are bad.
Easy to say, hard to do. But the anorexics' pro-ana websites do have a lot of tips for taking off weight that, in moderation, are healthy.
I was surprised.
I lost ten pounds, and kept it off, just doing portion control.
Julie
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Wups. Make that 14. :-)
Julie
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"While I think anorexia is a dangerous disease, the sites with the best weight loss tips if your doctor says I want you to lose weight are the pro-anorexia sites."
You can't be seroius Julie! i am sure just about every woman alive in the western world between 12 and 60 has at one stage or another struggled with body image issues and done something idiotic in a bid to look good!
To me directing people to a pro ana site is like telling someone to look at the positives of terrorism or paedophilia. "I dont agree with everything but in some aspects they kind of have a point"
Childhood obesity is fairly easily prevented in the first place without the need to count calories or consult doctors at all. Just feed kids real food and have them do active things with their time.
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The site I found talked about portion control, talked about making sure you got the USRDA of vitamins and nutrients, talked about taking just a bite of someone else's dessert instead of ordering the whole thing, talked about which vegetables make the best munchies, talked about how to fight hunger cravings, talked about taking two swallows of water for every bite of food. They also talk about specific exercise routines for burning calories. They talk about eliminating junk food as needless calories empty of nutritive value.
All these are useful tips *so long as* you:
First, start with the sane part of making sure your doctor says you're healthy enough to reduce your calorie intake and undertake an exercise program.
Second, ask your doctor how much she wants you to lose and set an end goal weight where you will stop and simply maintain instead of always seeking to lose more.
Third, ask your doctor how fast it is safe and appropriate for you to lose weight.
Fourth, have what you eat be a balanced diet of nutritious foods.
The dose makes the poison. Weight loss tips that are perfectly appropriate practiced responsibly under your doctor's care if you weigh 200 pounds at 5 foot 2 are unhealthy and dangerous if you weight 95 pounds at 5 foot 2.
They have good weight loss tips.
They also have no sense of proportion and where to stop, and they're going to extremes no competent nutritionist or physician would recommend.
Eating a chocolate bar for dessert: reasonable.
Eating two pounds of chocolate for dessert: stupid.
Losing three pounds a week, if you're overweight and your doctor approves: reasonable.
Losing ten pounds a week without talking to your doctor first: stupid.
Walking a mile a day after talking to your doctor, who approves: reasonable.
Going from doing nothing, flat out of shape, straight to running three miles a day without talking to your doctor first: stupid.
One of the bad things Programs do is destroy people's sense of proportion. One of the worst things about that is that it seems to be the families who already have problems with extremes who get tangled up with the Programs.
Yes, the pro-ana sites have culled through the wide variety of weight loss tips and have things that work.
No, that doesn't make doing extreme things to your body that would shock your doctor A-OK.
Murdering people and diddling children are hardly in the same class with walking a mile or replacing your super-sized cheeseburger combo with a nice ceasar salad with grilled chicken, dressing on the side, taking a daily multivitamin, and drinking your 8 glasses of water.
That whole Program mindset of extremes is what's so wacky about them. It's also the boogie man behind "psychological addiction" and the boogie man behind obsessions like anorexia and other obsessive control behaviors.
"A" friends and "F" friends---Wild extremes instead of the simple old standby, "If Jenny jumped off a bridge, would you do it, too?"
The pro-ana sites have good weight loss tips fat people can use, if said fat people are careful, sensible, and responsible. However, just because the anorexics are jumping off a bridge doesn't mean those of us who need to lose a few pounds have to jump off the bridge, too.
I trust my average fellow human beings to just be garden variety idiots, not colossal, complete, and totally unmitigated idiots.
What part of "see your doctor" did you miss?
Julie
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Well, fwiw, my 2 cents.
I think most people are doomed when they decide to "diet". There's so much crap attached to the word, it should be striken from the English language.
If people just focused on "eating for health", the weight would come off as a natural result. Eat for Health, not Weight Loss.
My son was 60# over when he moved back home. 260 with a nice chubby belly (too much junk and sedentary lifestyle). He lost those 60# in 3 months without much effort at all. He works out 2- 4 times a week, runs ocassionally, but the thing that really did it was giving up junk (most, not even all) and eating my healthy cooking, which he was raised on and loves, btw.
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i couldnt agree more deborah.
As to the pro ana sites. They can only do harm. i have a hunch that the vast majority of people who visit them are not your average girl looking to loose a kilo or 2! Moreover i also dont think that morbidly obese people particularly teenagers always eat because they are hungry! Just as looking a certain way is only 1 part of the issue for anorexic girls.
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You guys could be right.
All I know is I weighed 200 pounds, my doc wanted me to lose weight, I lost 14 pounds at a safe pace. I thought I'd only lost ten, and was afraid I'd put a couple of those back on. I got up the courage to step on the scale and lo and behold I'd lost another four and am down a jean size.
Their advice wasn't all that different from what my doctor was telling me, it was just put in a way that was more inspirational for me.
I didn't apply it all at once and go to extremes. I took one or two tips that were similar to what my doctor said, I took some inspirational thoughts, and I applied them in sensible moderation to make them work for me.
Extremes are bad for people.
Seeing your doctor before beginning any diet or exercise program is a must.
However, these women are obviously dropping weight and keeping it off. Which is a horrible thing for them, because it's extreme and the opposite of what they need.
For *me* it was moderate and healthy. Mostly because I applied it in moderation.
To get back to the whole program thing, it's like when your teenage kid stays out all night and staggers in plastered and smelling of burnt oak leaves. Normal: Ground the kid for a couple of weeks. Extreme: Ship the kid out to a Program.
Back to the Aspen fat farm thing, your teenage kid goes through something and gains twenty to fifty pounds he/she can't afford to carry. Normal: See your doctor, then a nutritionist (which your doctor would refer you to) and go on a healthy diet and exercise schedule as a family, with your teen, to be supportive. Extreme: Ship the kid out to a fat farm.
Same if your kid is anorexic. Normal: See your doctor, get the kid in therapy, practice healthy food and exercise habits as a family to be supportive of your daughter. Extreme: Ship the kid out to a Program.
That's the point I'm trying to make. Moderation good, extremes bad.
People who go to extremes always have a bazillion rationalizations about why extremes are justified in their case. More often than not, those rationalizations are wrong and the extremes do more harm than good.
I'm rambling, because I'm still kicking the whole thought of how extremes apply to the Program issue around in my head.
I think we Program critics are fighting against extremism, more than anything. Program parents, whether the kids are or not, at least view their teens as at the extremes of out of control.
Program Parents then buy into the Programs as a "necessarily" extreme solution to an extreme problem. Then they pass on the Programs' canned justifications for why the teen is so extreme and why the only or best solution has to be so extreme to us and other people they talk to, and keep repeating those justifications as a mantra to themselves.
That's what we're up against.
How to convey that, whether the teen really is extreme or not, you can't fix that extreme with another extreme?
When I was a young driver, I had a hell of a work schedule and was driving home late one night, really tired. My attention wavered and I started to drift off the road, onto a low shoulder. I panicked, and jerked the wheel away from that direction. I then found myself about to run off the road the other way into a three foot bank of red clay. So I jerked the wheel again, away from that direction. Which rolled my car and landed me, stopped, in a grassy field with the (thankfully empty) passenger side of my car caved in.
The right answer to getting me back on the road in that situation would have been a moderate turn of the steering wheel to ease myself back into the center of my lane.
I really was headed for a wreck if I kept going the same way. It really was a dangerous stretch of road that several people had died on.
How do we get across to these parents that moderation is always a better parenting answer to bad teen behavior than panic and extremism?
Julie
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Just as an aside, a collection of tips can be applied moderately.
No Program is moderate---because they all involve uprooting a kid from home and shipping them away. That's extreme.
However, there's all kinds of community based help for various kinds of issues teens can have, and those can be moderate.
Fat farms:
There are a whole lot of weight loss strategies your doctor would approve of, in moderation, if you're overweight to the point your doctor considers it unhealthy. Some of those strategies may even be used in fat farm Programs.
The difference is that tips and strategies that can be healthy and effective at home, in moderation, become a Bad Thing for a kid when you uproot the kid and apply them to her life by force--because shipping the kid off and forcing them to live by those tips turned into mandatory rules is extreme.
Like the pro-ana tips are the same tips and strategies that, applied in moderation under a doctor's supervision, can be good things if you really are fat, are extreme when you apply all of them at once to the point of obsession when you're already underweight.
Moderate and responsible vs. extreme and dangerous.
The point i was trying to make is that forcing a kid into a fat farm is as emotionally dangerous as her forcing herself into anorexia.
It doesn't matter if some of the Program's strategies are similar to what her doctor would have her do. Doing them in a Program is, in itself, inherently extreme--that's what makes it bad for the kid.
I didn't express it very well, but that was the point I was meandering around.
Julie
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I got your point. Childhood obesity is becoming and issue over here as well and large amounts of money are being poured into public campaigns which are encouraging a whole family approach. It is interesting that you raise the issue of the kids esteem as i think that often the difference between the kid who is a little chubby and the kid who is morbidly fat is comfort eating. it slowly becomes a viscious cycle. I shudder to think of the "therapudic" aspect.
i also know from first hand experience that an institutional environment is not the best for healthy eating or positive body image. When i was a boarder ( I am 30 this yr) at a normal girls school, food was an obsession. The food served was all nutritionally sound, the teachers were not bullies or tyrants.
HOWEVER-In the months leading up to a school formal most girls would starve themselves to fit into the perfect dress. I also remember one sunday brunch there was a contest to see how many pancakes could be eaten in one sitting before the girls "threw up" As an adult i recognise that this behaviour is bullimic. As a kid it seemed like as good a way as any to pass the time!
Which reminds me. All girls were required to play a sport or do something physical. There were pretty much 2 factions. the girls who played hockey ot tennis or swam. I was in this faction. we had the most fun and got into the most trouble. We were rowdy and foerver incurring the irritation of the nuns.
Then there were the ballet dancers. The dancers were pretty and vacuous and mainly marking time until they went to university to find a husband. Also they almost all had eating disorders. One had to leave to live in some kind of hospital for a semester. It was not uncommon to go to the loo before heading off to bed to hear one of them hurling away in the stall next to you. One of these girls thought she was pregnant because she skipped her period for 4 months. turned outv she needed to eat something. The thing is that these girls were the envy of the whole school. Their dates to school formals were always the "cool" guys. They all had the most coveted outfits and girls in lower forms (year levels) would fawn all over them. They were poised and waif like. Teachers adored them as perfect models of ladylike behavour.
I also remember that food became a big commodity & obsession. A boarding school tradition here is the tuck box. It is where your parents send you your favourite snack foods from home and you get a box to put it in. By the end of a term girls would trade them for all sorts of favourslike homework, cigarettes, alcohol, introductions to boys. As a girl with attractive older brothers and a mother who overstocked the tuck box I wielded a lot of power.
Did I grow up to be disfunctional overall? probably not to the point of needing therapy, however, i spent my 20s yo yo dieting, obsessed with forbidden foods which would be consumed excessively whenever there was a bad break up or a shitty job interview or some other minor drama. These foods would then be untouched as forbidden till i next fell off the wagon. it was only at 27 that i decided that most women have tits and a bum and it was all too hard so just started eating normally. I have never felt healthier!
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But isn't the whole point of this site that it isn't necessary to move to Russia for that?
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There is that live like prisoner in a gulag thingie they got going on in Russia. I bet after a month or two there you would drop some weight.
I am not really fat but the next time i am condiering a diet ill let you know how that works for me!
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Perhaps it is because I am a Dane I do not understand why you take your kid out and exercise with it yourself.
In Denmark, it have for some time been possible to get a prescription for exercise. Once obtained, the patient with or without his parents can seek an approved physiotherapist or a clinic and get a program, which the patient have to follow. Normally clinics in Denmark also have machines and instructors handy, so motivation in order to aid self-control is possible.
Also program regard proper food can be found on the portal of our healthcare-system - www.sundhed.dk (http://www.sundhed.dk).
When it comes to children they look at us parents as role-models. So if the child have to exercise, the parent must take the first step.
If I were in your shoes, I would first arrange a medical examination in order to discover underdiscovered hearth program and then arrange care for the other children and start exercising together with my child.
Start up with a soft approach (walk etc.). A lot of children ends up in hospital and some dies because their coach does not recognize that the child is totally unprepared for physiacal training. At a camp they do not know about your childs history regarding previous physiacal activities and it is easy for them to push your child over the limit and your child ends up hurt or dead.
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The inside story is beginning to emerge.
Sunday, November 26, 2006
A remote academy teaches heavy teens to lose weight
Teen had given up on weight loss
By BLYTHE BERNHARD
The Orange County Register
REEDLEY ? Over breakfast of Cheerios and skim milk, Melissa Riggs and her friends debate the value of their chewable chocolate vitamins. At 25 calories and 1/2 grams of fat, are they really worth it?
The conversation shifts to whether the lemonade needs more sugar substitute and other creative ways to make their food taste better.
"You guys, last night I put cottage cheese in my spaghetti!" one girl says to a chorus of groans. "It tasted like lasagna, I swear!"
Such talk is common at the Academy of the Sierras, the nation's first weight-loss boarding school. It's the temporary home to 80 boys and girls who wage a battle against excess pounds and the pain that put them there.
Students like Melissa, 17, move to the sparsely populated farmland outside Fresno to be isolated from their families, friends and unhealthy triggers. They keep track of each bite, all of which total around 1,300 calories and less than 12 grams of fat each day.
In 15 weeks, Melissa has lost 54 pounds. At 213, she wants to lose 70 more pounds. She plans to stay through January and then finish her senior year at Woodbridge High in Irvine.
"I want to get healthy, and I'm working really hard," Melissa says after getting up at 6:45 a.m. for the daily two-mile walk on the dusty roads surrounding the school. "Sometimes I'm really not motivated, and I don't want to get up. ... By the end of the day, I'm glad I didn't sleep in."
'AN INSIDE JOB'
With one in five American teenagers considered overweight, a growing segment of the $50 billion weight-loss industry is focused on childhood obesity. While there are dozens of therapeutic boarding schools for behavior problems, the academy is the first devoted to weight loss.
Students must be at least 30 pounds overweight, but most carry an extra 50 to 100 pounds.
The academy costs $5,800 a month. That's about $500 per pound lost each month at the school by the average student, based on the school's weight-loss statistics.
Students take classes in nutrition, cooking and fitness plus typical high school subjects. They exercise about three hours a day and receive at least four hours a week of individual and group therapy. The average stay is nine months.
"Is this a safer version of the real world? Absolutely," says the school's executive director, Phil Obbard, who previously worked for Slim-Fast and has a history degree from Yale University. "Weight loss is that catalyst for behavioral change and emotional growth. We couldn't do what we do if it weren't in this enclosed, safe environment."
Not everyone is sure that temporarily placing kids in artificial surroundings can work in the long run.
The Child Welfare League of America and the American Psychological Association have asked for a federal study of therapeutic boarding schools' methods and effectiveness. Rep. George Miller, D-Martinez, introduced legislation in April that calls for tighter oversight of the schools nationwide.
Dr. Dan Cooper, a UC Irvine pediatrician who treats obesity, agrees that programs can succeed by controlling physical activity and diet.
But Cooper, who is working on a childhood obesity study with the National Institutes of Health, says the bigger challenge comes from outside influences such as family dynamics, lack of exercise options and fast-food marketing.
"How do you change those things?"
School officials report that 15 students who stayed for the 2004-05 school year on average maintained their weight loss for at least 10 months after leaving. Longer-term results are expected next year.
"Those kids who leave successfully, with our blessing ? we've seen 70 to 90 percent who do well," Obbard says.
The program depends on a strict system that gives students privileges for good behavior.
New students may make two 10-minute calls a week. Physical relationships are banned. Field trips, longer calls and other freedoms are earned as students reach exercise, academic and food-monitoring goals.
Some kids rebel by sneaking in cell phones or walking off the campus. Punishment can include extra chores, temporary isolation from other students or time in a nearby wilderness camp.
Some parents of former academy students bristle at the communication barriers and what they consider health risks. Katie Golichnik of Wisconsin says her 15-year-old daughter was told to drop down to 700 calories a day if she didn't lose more than one pound a week.
While some students might eat that little, Obbard says the school doesn't advise it.
"Activity is always more important than food restriction," he says.
Golichnik says a school official chastised her for pulling her daughter out in December after one semester. The girl has continued to lose weight with help from an eating-disorders therapist.
"They had my daughter believing there was no way she could be successful, that nobody can work with teenagers like they can, which obviously wasn't true," Golichnik says.
Justine Novack, 16, of Laguna Hills attended the school for three months last year. She gained weight after leaving and is now on a different regimen of diet and exercise.
"It's such a closed environment that the advice and therapy you get there doesn't work when you get home," she says. "I don't have time to exercise three hours a day."
Some students thrive on the regimen. Dustin Johnson, 18, says his parents told him to go to the academy or they'd kick him out of their house. The senior from Connecticut now loves to play sports, something he had given up when his knees buckled under his 325-pound weight. He's lost 44 pounds in five weeks.
"The first thing I said was thank you to my parents," Johnson says. "I know that four months here will change my life."
Some experts say attitude, rather than intervention, makes the difference in maintaining weight loss.
"Nothing works until you're ready to lose weight," says Abby Ellin, author of "Teenage Waistland: A Former Fat Kid Weighs In on Living Large, Losing Weight, and How Parents Can (and Can't) Help."
"You can have schools, you can have camps, you can have surgery, but ultimately it's an inside job."
THE CHALLENGES
At an all-school meeting, students and staff give out awards for friendship, good grades and fitness. Some students are chided for trying to get out of exercise or littering.
"I know some of you are really depressed but someday you won't be, and do you want this place to be ugly?" asks Molly Carmel, the school's senior clinical director, who has a master's degree in social work.
Administrators acknowledge that many students bring problems beyond their weight ? depression, self-mutilation or behavior disorders.
This year school officials called Tulare County sheriff's deputies to remove a newly admitted problem student.
"Unfortunately, when you're admitting kids from across the country, you're admitting kids without all the information you would need," Obbard says. :rofl:
The Sheriff's Department also visited last month to investigate a relationship between a staff member and a student. :o
"Somebody who works there came across some inappropriate e-mails and notified our department," says Sgt. Chris Douglass, Sheriff's Department spokeswoman.
The case was turned over to the Tulare County District Attorney's Office, and Obbard says the staff member was fired. Charges have not been filed.
Unlike most residential treatment facilities, the school is not required to be licensed by the state departments of health or social services.
Several current and former students say the academy, which costs more than Harvard University, isn't at the academic level of their high schools.
The campus is accredited by the Western Association of Schools and Colleges, a designation that allows most students to transfer the credits to their home schools. Because it is a private school, instructors don't need state teaching credentials.
Katherine Howard, 22, teaches philosophy, world history and English. She says her experience as an obese teenager is an advantage as a teacher.
"I wanted to be a part of this big push to get kids healthy," she says. "It took me until I was 18 to deal with it. I did it entirely by myself. That doesn't work for children."
On a cool day in October, a math teacher shows up 10 minutes late as students wait outside the classroom. Students can be seen knitting scarves during class.
In the school's test kitchen, young chefs rub salmon fillets with seasonings of their choosing. Two boys show off their Cajun-spiced fish. Two girls dip fingers into their sauce to taste it.
The cooking teacher shouts at the girls for touching the sauce and tells them to pack up their work station.
"You failed! You failed! You failed!"
CHANGING HER LIFE
As a baby, Melissa grew at a fast rate and stayed overweight through childhood. She says she used food to deal with a strained relationship with her dad and the stress of changing schools.
At Woodbridge, Melissa was on the swim and water polo teams and performed with a dance chorus. Still, she couldn't shake the weight.
"I didn't want to admit to myself that I was overweight, so I didn't really deal with it," Melissa says. "I didn't really talk about my feelings."
Melissa reluctantly agreed to go to the boarding school in June after her mom suggested it. She wasn't sure it would be any different from her other attempts at dieting.
Now she loves seeing the difference in her face and stomach. She looks forward to compliments for something other than her blue eyes.
For her mother, Leslie Riggs, the result is miraculous.
"She kind of had given up on the idea of losing weight," Riggs says. "The turnaround in her personality and her outlook is worth every penny."
While Melissa is away, her mom and sister Stephanie are following a similar diet and exercise plan. Melissa fears gaining weight at home, but feels ready to face any temptations.
"I train myself to think that unhealthy food is bad for me so when I pass McDonald's or Carl's Jr. I don't want to eat it anymore."
"I don't want to screw up," she says. "I really want to change my life."
CONTACT US: 714-796-6880 or http://www.ocregister.com/ocregister/ho ... 366091.php (http://www.ocregister.com/ocregister/homepage/abox/article_1366091.php)
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What about the British version. Anyone know whether this can get away with limiting phone calls etc? Aardvark?
It would be a good thing to look at as it would be a test of how far Aspen is allowed to go in a commonwealth country.
And while I am on the subject of commonwealth countries, Anyone know why wellsprings has not expanded into Canada? I would imagine it would be fairly easy to do. Are the laws stricter?
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Oh my god... stumbled upon this while searching google for another video.
http://fourfour.typepad.com/fourfour/20 ... n_lif.html (http://fourfour.typepad.com/fourfour/2006/02/larger_than_lif.html)
Have you met Dianne?
If you haven't, you're in for a treat. Dianne is one of a handful of teens profiled in MTV's instant-classic documentary Fat Camp, which premiered last week. A recap of the entire thing would be a monumental task, with all the XXX-sized drama and romantic subplots (a funny thing about fat kids: they hook up, too). Instead of doing that, I'm just going to focus on the genius of Dianne, since she's at least half the reason why Fat Camp is so great, anyway.
Television is full of annoying people, but none hit the spot quite like Dianne. Really, give me Project Dianne over Project RunJay any day.
Where was MTVs Fat Camp filmed? Any ties to the industry?
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dr phil just sent a girl here
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http://fornits.com/wwf/viewtopic.php?p=241084#241084 (http://fornits.com/wwf/viewtopic.php?p=241084#241084)
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http://www.strugglingteens.com/artman/p ... 5606.shtml (http://www.strugglingteens.com/artman/publish/article_5606.shtml)
"Consumers Digest Magazine's first-ever review of weight loss camps Wellspring Camps were rated as the best weight loss camps and substantially superior to traditional weight loss camps." :roll: :evil:
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i went to academy of the sierras and to wellspring new york. i lost 25 pounds total in the 8 months combined at the two places. i lost another 10 before i went, and 5 when i got home. i have since gained back 10 in the 2.5 months that i have been home. almost everyone i know who went there has either gained or maintained. but most gained. my eating disorder (over eating) became increasingly worse while i was there. those places help people lose weight, but only because there are so limited options to what you can eat. while i met the most amazing people there i was miserable my first few months. the staff often power tripped, but over all nothing to bad happened. except one of the teachers ran away with a student.
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except one of the teachers ran away with a student.
Details? Somehow this one didn't make it to the media. What happened?
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i went to academy of the sierras and to wellspring new york. i lost 25 pounds total in the 8 months combined at the two places. i lost another 10 before i went, and 5 when i got home. i have since gained back 10 in the 2.5 months that i have been home. almost everyone i know who went there has either gained or maintained. but most gained. my eating disorder (over eating) became increasingly worse while i was there. those places help people lose weight, but only because there are so limited options to what you can eat. while i met the most amazing people there i was miserable my first few months. the staff often power tripped, but over all nothing to bad happened. except one of the teachers ran away with a student.
I will try not to disappoint you but here is comes: You will slowly regain your old weight, because...
Q1) Who prepare you food at home, at school or elsewhere?
A1) The same people who did it before you went. They have not received special education while you were gone. They make the same kind of food, which caused you to gain weight before you went to AoS.
Q2) Have all in your household changed their eating habit.
A2) Weightloss is not about diet. It is a change in the way we live. No person will be damaged by eating a balanced diet. Maybe other members in your household does not need to loose weight, but that does not mean that they can not benefit by eating the same food as you do.
According to statistic we broke the curve last year regarding overweight by the use of three factors:
1) Offering free stays at our Christmas Seal homes (http://http://www.julemaerket.dk/index.php?id=481). These programs offers voluntary free stays of a 10 week length for children aged 6-14. (The child has to want to go and the school in their homecity are obligated to work closely with the home, so the child are not left behind regarding schooling.)
2) A nationalized "Get-moving-baby" campaign (http://http://www.getmoving.dk/)
3) Exercise on prescription for adults.
Just to say it short: You can loose weight again if you sit down with your family and learn them what you learned at AoS. When they live healthy, you will live healthy and keep your weightloss. They should be interested because AoS are not cheap. I am praying for you.
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a teacher named Mr. rourke(i think his first name is john) ran away with a student named jackie wright. this is what i was told when i was there. he gave her cigarettes so she could get caught and be put on solo. then during her solo they planned it that she would sprint to his car when he pulled up, and after that i heard form someone else they were on their way to mexico. this was on local news, but there arn't any good records on the internet that ive been able to find. mr. rourke had a wife and children. it is not known to the students if they had a physical relationship, but many of us assumed this. mr. rourke had moved up in the summit system a couple weeks before this happened, he was a boulder. the details of the story were given by some of the students who knew the story, so while we dont know the exact details of their escape we know the general picture. i had conversations with jackie about her boyfriend back home, so they both left relationships to do this. the school tried to keep this incident really quiet. mr. rourke was my math and english teacher.
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:rofl:
Pure ownage.
If you read the other thread there's a whole lot of hoo-ha about detainees and their "teachers" getting into romantic relationships. It's unethical and unhealthy. But I have to give props to a man willing to just say fuckit and haul it to Mexico with a girl...