Starving into Chunkdom

Its no great secret that one of the prerequisites for membership in our family is that one must be "robust," if you will. Hello, we all know my past and one of the reasons Travis began triathlons was weight control. Amanda is by no means fat, but she does watch her activitiy levels to ensure she doesn't gain, which she is prone to do. Nolan has always been complex.

I've used dietary methods to control his asthma and behavior in the past. Truly and honestly, that did work for him. When I was mistakenly diagnosed as a Celiac I made drastic dietary changes to my own diet, then omitted gluten from the kids' diets when a doctor suspected they might be as well. After genetic testing, we were pronounced OK (thankfully), but I did what we had to do to control our health. We lived.

Nolan is a big guy. He just turned twelve and is 5'6". He has grown three inches in the last five months, but only gained about eight pounds (that's awesome!). He wears the same size pants as Travis and an 8.5 or 9 shoe. I think in another six months he might just be taller than me, and I am tall- 5'8".

During our Celiac phase, the kids were seeing a pediatric gastrologist (I think that's right) who was a royal asshat. He was downright mean to the kids, especially Nolan. I've always taken great pride in the varied and healthful diets I fed the kids- lots of fresh produce, whole grains, minimal junk food and packaged foods. In front of both kids he told me the kids were both fat (yup, used that word) and that they would die if I didn't do something to get their weights under control. He told me to cut calories and carbs, to allow only minimal sugars (to include fruits) and get drastic. So, I did.

I was doing what a doctor told me to and I cut and cut and cut the calories and carbs, limited their fruits and sugary foods and I followed portion control like a crazy person. Nolan went to his sports practices and worked out three, four, sometimes five days a week. At one point, we would leave one practice which lasted about an hour and a half and go to football for two hours, two or three times a week. And he gained weight. So I became more diligent. And he gained more weight. I just about killed myself trying to "help" him and trying to figure it out, hoping that when he hit puberty he would stretch out and get a bit leaner. I've seen how he struggles and how mean other kids are. I listened to that mean doctor tell me about how I was killing my kids.

Coach Avery has been aware of Nolan's weight since November since the kids have to weigh-in for each tourney. Nolan has two wrestle kids much older than he at practice because there are no other big guys. He is immature and they have experience on the mats, and it both helped and hurt him. Coach asked me after Nolan's foot injury if he had gained weight, and he had, a bit, but it came back down when he was able to return to practice.

Last week during the kids' running practice (six one-hundred yard sprints, a three mile run, six more one-hundred yard sprints-they do it twice a week) Coach and I were talking about Nolan. Again, his weight came up and I asked him if he thought Nolan might need more calories. Most days the kids average about 1900-2300 calories. He told me that could be a part of the problem and he told me to try feeding the kids five small meals a day. I went home and did some research and found out for a kid of Nolan's stature and weight and age that he should consume about 4200-4400 calories per day to maintain his weight. TO MAINTAIN IT! Holy crap. I think I might have starved my kid's metabolism to sleep.

I decided that night to make some subtle changes. I bought some non-fat dry milk powder to add to things to boost our protein intake. I got non-fat plain yogurt and frozen fruits, whole wheat flour and just about went broke on fresh produce. I started baking some whole grain muffins and began fixing smoothies in the mornings. I chopped veggies up and put them in a container in the fridge and I keep it full. Now, they eat.

The smoothies are to give them a nutrition boost in the morning. Nolan's school serves breakfast free and he loves eating there, but their serving sizes are small and are probably only about 250 calories total for the meal. So, I make the kids each a smoothie with the NF yogurt, frozen fruit, NF milk powder, a bit of orange juice and ice. They average about 10 ounces and are about 250 calories.

I've added some additional veggies to their lunches. They were already taking carrot and celery sticks, but I got some jicama, extra cukes (I use them a lot) and broccoli and doubled what they take. I also got some cherry tomatoes for Nolan because he loves them and Amanda thinks tomatoes are the anti-Christ.

They eat again when they get home from school. I'm giving them LF cheese sticks, veggies (all they want) and a piece of fruit. And then we have our regular dinners. All in all, I think they've only gained about 500 or 600 calories per day, but I think the scheduling is just as important as the intake. And, all the calories are from clean protiens, produce and LF/NF additions.

Nolan was pissed at first about more attention to what he eats and he stayed that way all day. The next day, he had hurt feelings. Then, by Monday he was raring to go. He ate the way I had taught him and he felt great. He had an awesome practice Monday and woke up ON HIS OWN Tuesday morning when his alarm rang. And since then, he's been a different kid.

Of course, these changes could also be a result of the move going public. He is incredibly relieved that we are finally going to move. The night he found out he came to me and showed me what he was wearing to bed that night. He chose his white pajama pants with red hearts and his Fort Jackson t-shirt and asked me if I could figure it out. I grinned and said no, just so he could tell me it was that he loved Fort Jackson.

Last night was running practice. Over the last three weeks, Nolan had cut 27 minutes off thethree mile run. Yes, 27. Last night, he did both sets of sprints and the three mile run another ten minutes faster than his previous time, which was only the three miles. He finished strong, drank some water and then HE GOT TO WAIT ON HIS SISTER FOR A CHANGE!

Feed your kids. They'll stop being weenies.