Free Days

I have learned that there is no real "free day". Sure, I can tell myself that I can eat whatever I want on that day and then get back on track the next. In theory it's a workable plan and I know many have had success at it. I tried out the theory over the past weekend when my hubby was home. We ate out at our favorite breakfast restaurant and then that evening I made Chicago Style Pizza. Perhaps if I had foregone the pizza part of it, all would be well. But, there just comes a point...and you can feel it internally, where you know you've done too much and am not sure how to stop! Well...stopping happened when we ran out of pizza I guess. Obviously, I still am going to have practise that whole moderation thing and knowing when enough is enough. So, any great loss last week I was hoping to have was rather curtailed come Monday morning on my weigh in. And my poor son....his weigh in was with a gain! Ugh...I have to try harder at this thing. Not only for my benefit, but also for my sons'. Free days? Only in the moment....but after that I definately paid!


My son is only 13 years old. His weight problem started about 3 years ago. Before that, he was the typical scrawny kid with a concave stomach and prominant ribcage. Not so much anymore. When I think back on the factors that might have sent him into obesity I can only put it down to change. He went from the baby of the family with 3 older brothers to the only child at home, in a matter of months. We were living in a house that seemed to big and too far from where I worked to make any sense, and he was turning into a latch-key kid. Add to that a certain amount of low self-esteem already apparent and he must have turned to food as a way of covering the pain. Heaven knows I have turned there myself many times! So, diminishing family, a move to a small apartment in the city, a new school...all factors didn't help. The problem doesn't seen to be going away either. With each new growth spurt, he seems to eat his way upwards along with it. He is now at that age where children are cruel and feelings are so easily hurt. I don't like putting him on a "diet" but I am not sure how else to tackle this problem. I have never wanted any of my sons to have to go through the pains and hurts of obesity as a child like I had to endure. So, he and I are doing this together. Keeping him on track proves to be a difficult task though. It's hard enough just keeping ME on task. Argh.