I just realized I've mentioned my son Adam, and I've told you he's on our RVL "Lose For MORE" challenge team, but I haven't told you how he's gotten here.
As a Mother, this is a difficult subject to talk about, let alone admit there is a problem with your child. Well, as I started this journey, I had to take a long hard look at my family, and I realized that I had taken my child down the road to obesity right along with me. No, I'm not blind, but you don't want to admit that it's truly a problem that needs to be addressed. Then when you come to that realization, how do you throw the bus into reverse? How to you talk to your child about a weight issue, and not make them feel self conscious, and develop a poor self esteem? It's a fine line for sure. So, it was time to take off the blinders, and take action.
I think back when he was this cute, almost too skinny kid, and I can put my finger on the moment that the tables turned. We enrolled Adam into some after school classes, and I would pick him up from school, and have to rush him to a class that was about 15 miles away. He was always hungry of course, and we weren't going home for our usual after school (healthier) snack, and so McDonalds became our daily routine. Well, guess what, soon enough, that's all he wanted, and what the heck, it was fast and easy. It's not like it happened over night, but sure enough, the pounds slowly began to creep on. The odd thing is that it's just not weight, I think it's all the hormones in their meat (just my opinion), but he started to grow! Now Wayne and I are tall, but not out of the ordinary, however, now my now 14 year old son is pushing 6 ft tall. Hmmmmmmm.
My first course of action was to lead by example. First to jump on board was Wayne, and that was fantastic, because now we had both parents on a roll. Then my doctor hit me square in the eyes, and when she saw how well I was doing, asked how my son was doing. Well, I was honest and said he was still struggling, and she asked..."who does the shopping? Who goes through the drive thru?" Who likes to deny their children of anything, even the foods they love? But she was right, it was time for some tough love. Well of course, Adam was having no part of it. Even though I changed my shopping habits, and stopped the fast food, he was still over eating. Instead of one turkey sandwich, he was eating two or three, and the entire bag of pretzels. Did he do it in front of me, NO, and being a working mom, it was hard to monitor.
Then MonaVie gave me the enormous gift of making me the May "Lose for MORE" Challenge Winner. Now this peaked Adam's interest. What speaks more to a 14 year old than money. I don't really care at this point what motivates him, as long as we can get a foot in the door. After we returned from Salt Lake City, and the Imagine Convention, I told Adam about a young man I met by the name Petey Dandini. Petey is 16 year old boy who has lost over 100 pounds on RVL, and is just an amazing person. I showed Adam his pictures, and I think he could more than relate. He told me he wanted to try the shakes. Wow, you don't even know what a huge step this is. Then we had our first heart to heart about his condition. It was the first time Adam was honest with me about how he felt about his body, and didn't try to convince me that he didn't care. I said "just think Adam, in less than a year, you could be buff like Petey!" He said, "no, I don't need to be buff, I just need to be normal." It was all I could do not to burst into tears right there in front of him, but I kept it together, and promised him that we would work together to make that happen.
Then Monavie gave us another gift. The "Lose For MORE" Team Challenge. Now not only did Mom have Monavie cash, but he could win some for himself! Talk about motivation!! He even let me take a "before" photo of him (he runs from the camera) to post on his RVL website! So our team, as you know, consists of our family (including my sister Laura), and we are off and running! You can read my Blog entry about "The Best Bike Ride Ever" I posted a few days ago, to see how Adam is doing with his exercise.
Weigh in yesterday showed Adam at a 7 pound weight loss in two weeks! I wish I could explain the joy on his face when he stood on that scale! Now it's more than just the thought of winning some money, it's actually becoming much more for him. He sees that he can do it, and it's about how he feels about himself. Wow! That's all, just Wow!
If you want to leave encouraging comments for Adam, I know it would mean a lot to him!
Blessings to you all!
Leah
