(no subject)

[lizzybennet]

I let Josh stay home from preschool today with the promise that he would take a nap. He was so grouchy today, I knew he wouldn't do well at school. He honored his promise and is currently snoozing away. Hopefully he'll wake up happier. Part of his recent unhappiness stems from the fact that we are in the midst of changing our family's eating habits. As a result, Josh has gone on a hunger strike.

We did away with sugary cereals. This went over ok with Zack; he just switched to honey-nut cheerios. Petey still hasn't given the healthy cereals a try. Instead he's started eating boiled eggs and yogurt or toast every morning. Healthy enough. But Josh will try and skip breakfast every single morning. By 9:30 he's falling to pieces because he's so hungry. I always fix him something for breakfast, it's not that I don't offer him food. He just won't eat it. He's holding out for fruit loops or some such goodness that we don't even have in the house anymore. He usually ends up eating a p-nut butter sandwich around 10:00. I guess a kid can live on p-nut butter alone.

Along with getting rid of the sugary cereal, we are also cutting out the soda and non-juice drinks (Carpisuns). My kids can go through a whole box of Caprisuns in less than a day. That's a lot of sugar. The reason we felt compelled to make these changes are because Zack went from a size 8 pants at the beginning of the summer when we got back to the States, to a size 12. As a matter of fact, if it's a slim size 12 it won't fit him. It has to be a husky. I certainly don't blame him. He's only been eating what we allow him to eat, and this summer I was very lax about what they ate. They could pretty much eat anything, I didn't pay much attention. Also, it's not only bad food choices, but he also hit a major growth spurt. Most of his shirts are too short now as well. Zack isn't the only one who suffered from the unsupervised eating. My own weight has sky-rocketed as well, all the way back to where I was two years ago. All 25 lbs, back on. I'm having a hard time finding clothes in my closet that fit me. Anyway, the point is that we are making a family effort to get healthy and change our eating habits.

As for Zack, we aren't letting him know how concerned we are about his weight specifically. I certainly do not want him to feel singled out or for his self esteem to suffer. We just focus on the "family" getting healthy. If he asks a lot of questions about it (and he does when I refuse him an after school ice cream and try and get him to eat fruit instead) I just say it's because my belly has gotten so big lately :) He gives me a hug and says "No it isn't, Mom! You look beautiful." He's such a sweety.

In other news, Chris finally got his jeep. He is so happy! What a relief not to have to drive him to work this morning or pick him up this afternoon. I have to say, I'm happy he's the one driving that thing and not me. It's bouncy and un-air conditioned. Give me my creature comforts!

Comments

[jediwonderboy.livejournal.com]

OOhhh yes... I feel your pain.

>>Along with getting rid of the sugary cereal, we are also cutting out the soda and non-juice drinks (Carpisuns).

we've made these changes as well. I've never seen such off put girls. See, my wife never got to partake in the cocoa puffs and apple jacks when she was a kid, so for a long time, she bought sugar cereal. We started weening off of it this summer, and now that school's started it's just about all gone. There's some fruity pebbles left, I think. The girls can eat sugar cereal on Saturdays, and that's it. And our girls are skinny little things, it's just that there's zilch for nutrition in coco krispies. We've turned them on to some good ones (honey Bunches of Oats have went over well, as have Honey Nut Cheerios, and Cracklin Oat Bran. They like Smart Start, too), but man between that, and chucking all the soda aout of the house, it's been a battle.

[mysteena.livejournal.com]

We let the kids eat sugary cereals on Saturday too. They went through a whole box of cinnamon toast crunch in one day! We'll have to try Smart Start. Right now I've just been buying them "kids" cereals, like Kix, and Life. They like frosted mini wheats too. I guess that's a pretty sugary cereal, but at least it is also whole grain with no dye added. Sometimes when my kids ask for certain things (like that blue ketchup that was out a few years back) I wonder why in the world they would want to eat foods that are colored so weird. I can just imagine the inside of their stomachs coated blue or green from so much artificial coloring! Like you said, it's a battle but they'll thank us for it one day :)

[heidial.livejournal.com]

Yeah for you! I wish you all luck in your new eating goals. I wish I ate better too. I seem to do all right at meals - its the snacks that kill me!

[mysteena.livejournal.com]

Snacks are one of my big downfalls too. It's so hard and requires such huge amounts of self control. But the other day, Zack asked me why we were making all these changes in our family, and I told him it was because during this lifetime we're suppose to work on making ourselves into better people. He accepted that answer, but as I was thinking about it later I realized that I wasn't doing much to make myself better. I sometimes concentrate so much on the family needs that I forget to think about myself. I'm trying this week to really start getting moving and dieting better.

[themenow.livejournal.com]

We just focus on the "family" getting healthy.

What a wonderful thing you're giving Zack - to make it a family thing and not especially just for him. And I love that he says you're beautiful. Does it just make you want to hug him and hang on forever? After reading that, I wanted to hug him and he's not even my kid!

It's so hard to switch from the sugar to the not. We were given desserts today at a luncheon I attended. I got the vegetarian plate - rice with tofu bits. yum. But then we were given these fantastic little dessert plates of the yummiest looking cakes, brownies, treats and I didn't eat a single one. I wanted to but I gave it to my friend Cindy to take back with her.

I'm about to go post about this very thing. But I just wanted to say that I think this is such an awesome thing you are all doing as a family.

[mysteena.livejournal.com]

When he says things like that, I DO want to hug him forever. He is such a sweet, sensitive boy. He's going to make some woman very happy someday! I'm so proud of you for resisting the dessert. That so hard to do. You should be super proud of your self.

[themenow.livejournal.com]

I am, actually, thanks! I used to work with Cindy over at Forestry and it was fun to tell her about not eating the chocolate and stuff for three weeks. She was really impressed and I was really proud of myself. Yay me! Although...urgh, I miss it.