Week 2: Start the Shapedown program

FORT WAYNE, Ind. (WANE) -  For week two of the Extreme Family Makeover, the Reneau family met with the nutrition coach, Dietitian Kathy Wehrle.

"The overall take-home message is you need to get the whole family on board with making changes," Wehrle said. "Do it in a positive tone. Look at a few key areas and set up some goals and document how you do and encourage the kids to do that as well."

The Reneaus started the first week of the Shapedown program. It's a program designed for youth and their families to improve their overall health.

To start, the family set three goals. The first was to eat meals together as a family at the table five days a week.

Eating as a Family:

"Just starting, get the basics down," Wehrle said. "Eat together and get a meal schedule, which doesn't sound glamorous, but basically it's telling the family that they want meal and snack times and beyond that they're not going to do chaotic eating and eating at random."

Wehrle said it's also important that meal time doesn't focus on weight and food issues.

"A family meal needs to be a time of unloading from the day and a time for the family to share time," she said. " Families who eat together, studies have shown, the kids to better in school, are more social, and have higher self esteem."

Mark and Amie Reneau are ready to make family meals the norm, but admit it will take effort.

"With work and homework, trying to make time to sit down and eat together will be difficult," Amie said.

Mark is hopeful the structured eating will create better habits.

"I like the whole idea of being intentional of what we do as a family as far as eating," Mark said. "I know what I think about food and some issues I have with it, but I like the idea of intentional planning meals and even sitting down for a snack. The hardest part will be retraining my  mind and not snacking at night."

Wehrle said this stage starts to touch on the emotional ties to eating, and doesn't ban any certain type of food.

" The last thing you want to do is set up a lot of food rules," she said. "The real scope of this week is balancing out eating over weeks and days and re-correcting relationships with food, slowing down and discovering when you use food to destress or as your friend."

Slash the screen time:

The second goal the Reneaus set was to limit screen time to 14 hours a week, an average of two hours a day. Screen time includes all television, video game and computer time.

" What we say is try to cut it in half to start," Wehrle said. "The average American child watches six hours of media a day. If you watch for six hours cut it to three. Make a plan for the summer. It takes a lot of the idle time the kids have, but make it a special time."

Wehrle suggests taking up new hobbies, reading and of course exercise to fill the time formally filled with TV.

"Mostly find creative ways to do fun stuff," she said.

Riley Reneau, 11, isn't too concerned with cutting his screen time.

"Now in the summer it won't be bad [because I can play outside], but on a rainy day or a snowy day it will be worse," he said.

Mark and Amie also don't seem too worried about meeting that goal.

"Maybe I watch more than I think I do, but I don't feel like it will be a challenge for me," Amie said.

Shapedown's ending goal is to watch an hour or less of media a day.

"I guess I'll have to be more intentional about the TV too and plan out when I'll watch my shows," Mark said.

Get Active:

The third family goal was to be active for 150 minutes a week, which would average out to a 30-minute workout five days a week.

Since learning their way around the YMCA last week, the family is already on their way to meeting that goal.

"It's a lot of fun," Chloe, 10, said. "I like the swimming and the rock wall, the more fun kid stuff."

Riley's also enjoying the rock wall. He's set a goal for himself to try it every time and see how high he can get.  

"I think it's been great. I always like the feeling that I'm losing weight and getting in shape," he said. "I feel free, kind of, like you can do anything afterwards."

Amie said it hasn't been hard for the family to get into the habit of going.

"At this point it's just trying to keep going even though you're sore. It's kind of a motivator. The soreness is encouraging because you feel like you're doing something and making progress," she said.

Mark added that the whole family going together helps keep him motivated.

"There have been a few days I didn't feel like going right then, but I know it's not an option and we are all going to go together," he said.

Mark said he's been feeling a difference of getting active already.

"I feel better right after exercising. I feel better for a couple of hours," he said. "And I notice it at work too. Usually around one or two o'clock, I get drowsy, but I have not noticed it this last week. I think I have more energy."

Get your reward:

Wehrle said when making goals, it's also important to make rewards.

"Sometimes the reward of getting healthy is all it takes for a person or family, but most people need something extra to spur them on for change, something to look forward to after a good week of changing," she said.

But, not all things can be used as rewards.

" In Shapedown we talk about never using food or money for rewards," Wehrle said. "Think of maybe a special day with a parent at the park, or a new baseball cap, or paint your nails at a salon. You want to do something fun."

Reneau Family advice:

Amie: "Go slow. You feel like you're making progress, but take little steps and it's doing it slow so it is a life-long change and not a 12-week "get healthy quick" course. That's the main thing I've learned so far, at least do something."

Mark: "It's not just one thing you are changing. It's not just exercise or not just changing how you eat. It's everything together that you need to change."