Eat three 'appals' and do 34 'pooshups': Horrified mother finds handwritten diet and exercise regime in her seven-year-old daughter's bedroom



Mother Amy Cheney left stunned after discovering the to-do-style 'diyet'



Food list amounted to just 580 calories - a third of the recommended daily allowance for a seven-year-old girl



Increasing number of young girls under 10 are concerned about their weight



A mother has told of her horror after finding a diet and exercise regime handwritten by her daughter who is just seven-years-old.



Mother-of-three Amy Cheney found the to-do-style list outlining her young daughter's weight-loss plan 'innocently sitting on the floor' in her bedroom among her Polly Pockets and friendship bracelets.



The fitness regime headed 'diyet' features a list of what her daughter plans to eat every day as well as how much exercise she must complete. There are boxes next to each step for her to tick when she has successfully completed a task.



Shock: Mother-of-three Amy Cheney found this 'diyet' listing food and a daily exercise regime in her seven-year-old daughter's bedroom

Ms Cheney, a writer who lives in Australia with her family, told of her shock that a seven-year-old would even know what a diet is - let alone create one.



Writing on the Australian lifestyle site Mama Mia , she said: 'I found this today in my daughter’s room. My daughter is seven.

'Diyet. Jesus. Where did she learn the word diet? How does she even know what a freaking diet is?

'Whose fault is this? Is it mine because I let her play with Barbies? Because sometimes she’s allowed to watch Total Drama Action? Is it because when I draw with her I can only draw stick figures?'

Anxious: Amy Cheney said she felt physically ill when she discovered her daughter's handwritten diet

The note says the schoolgirl can eat two 'yoget', three 'appals', one 'per' and two 'keewee froots' a day - amounting to around a measly 580 calories.



According to the NHS, a 1991 report found that the average girl aged between seven and ten needs around 1,740 calories a day.



This means Ms Cheney's daughter would have only been consuming one third of her recommended daily calorie allowance if she followed her strict diet regime.



On top of this, the girls writes that she must complete a total of 34 'pooshups', 32 star jumps, three bike rides and runs up and down the driveway three times a day.



After reading the demanding list, her horrified mother wrote: 'I felt sick. Physically ill. Like someone had knocked the air from my chest.



'I could feel myself getting increasingly anxious the more words I was able to interpret from her seven-year-old spelling.'



Ms Cheney then questions how her daughter came to hear about diets and decide she needed to be on one.



She continued: 'I am smart about this stuff. I have a degree in early childhood studies. Our family focuses on and promotes healthy eating and healthy bodies. Our attitudes are reasonable and balanced. Weight has never been an issue in our home – it is, for the most part, irrelevant.'



Ms Cheney suggests that the media's obsession celebrity and how women look may have played a role.

She said: 'I am tired of the beauty and body obsessed arena we live in. I am tired of women being portrayed as objects to be saluted and admired or shunned and shamed depending on whether they measure up to societies idealistic standards.

A SEVEN-YEAR OLD GIRL'S 580 CALORIE 'DIYET' Amy Cheney's seven-year-old daughter's diet, listed below, amounted to just 580 calories - a third of the healthy recommended daily allowance for girls aged between seven and 10.

Here is what she wrote:

17 pooshups 2 times a day

16 star jumps 2 time a day

2 yoget (around 70 calories each)

3 appals (around 80 calories each)

1 per (around 100 calories)

2 keewee froots (around 50 calories each)

5 glases of water

Rid my bike 3 times a day

Rariry a meniy thing as you can find

Jog/run up and down the driv way 3 times

'How dare you sneak into my home with your ridiculous standards and embed them in my little girls head, polluting her innocence with your pathetic ideals.'



After speaking to her daughter about the to-do list, Ms Cheney reveals how she admitted a schoolfriend who was on a diet had told her about them.



Ms Cheney said: 'So together we chatted about diets and beautiful healthy bodies and the gift that they are.



'I am not naive. I know this will not be the last time I talk about food and weight and bodies with my daughter. I am just ultra p***** that it had to start when she was seven.'



But, according to recent research, Ms Cheney's daughter appears to be one of a growing number of girls who are becoming obsessed about their weight before they've even hit puberty.



A study of 31,354 children by the Schools Health Education Unit last year revealed that half of the Year Eight girls questioned — those aged just 12 to 13 — already wanted to lose weight. The beginnings of this attitude can be seen long before that.



An Ofsted survey in 2010 revealed that, for a third of ten-year-old girls and 22 per cent of ten-year-old boys, their main worry is how their bodies look.

