Hi all,

My name is Alana and I had posted a topic back in July about my daughter's weight issues and that I had decided to go low carb.  Then I kind of fell off the face of the forum.  Sorry for that.  I wanted to let you know that we didn't fall off the wagon.  Low carb living has been a success and even though I decided to go low carb for my daughter's sake, I am at my lowest weight in 7 years.  My daughter, Salena (9 years old), weighed 106 lbs at the beginning of summer and now she weighs 105 lbs and is an inch taller.  She had lost more in August, but I made the mistake of allowing her to have smoothies for breakfast once school started, especially if we were running late.  I noticed that I was losing weight like crazy and she had started gaining weight again.  Then I realized that the only difference in our diets were the smoothies, she was having them, but I wasn't.  I was observing her behavior around food and noticed that she started to want smoothies when she got home from school also.  It was clear that she was in full blown sugar addiction mode and smoothies had become her new fix.  So I cut smoothies from the morning menu and her weight is slowly declining, though she has moved to liking apples and oranges frequently and I know it is slowing down her progress.  We have one day a week that we eat one "regular" meal at a restaurant, but I plan to gradually lessen those meals types as my cooking abilities improve.  My next goal is to make a xylitol sweetened cheesecake with a crushed walnut crust.  

@Doug and Sherri - I know that you have some cooking videos on the website, but have you considered making a cooking DVD or having weekly cooking classes via Skype?  I have attention deficit disorder and have difficultly making anything from a written recipe, eg, when attempting to make jello, I didn't finish reading the back of the box and almost didn't add the 2 cups of cold water after the powder dissolved in the 2 cups of hot water.  Luckily, my stepfather knew how make jello and notified me of my oversight.  I know that video demonstrations are incredibly helpful when I'm cooking, especially if Salena and I are trying to make something together.

I will do my best to stay active in the FTS community from now on.  Thank you for providing great support for all of us!

Alana

Hi, my name is Alana.  My 8 year old daughter, Salena, weighs 104 lbs and is 22 lbs over the maximum healthy weight for her height. Though I don't think that she has been teased about her weight, she tells me that she doesn't like to play tag because kids always tag her knowing that she's the slowest runner.  She has always been off the charts even when she was breastfed (22 lbs at 3 months old / 36 lbs at one year old).  I have always asked myself why she was gaining SO much weight when I have always fed her healthy foods.  I don't mean healthy in the way that the general public views healthy "Oh, look, this can of spaghetti o's has vitamins and minerals in it!", I mean everything organic from health food stores and very few processed foods.  My mom is a bonafide hippy health-nut control freak, so I know what health is.       

   Salena started to grow into her weight as a toddler, never skinny, but looking less like the Michelin tire man.  Then she started kindergarten.  I immediately had to go talk to the teacher about bringing in a separate snack for Salena.  She tried to assure me that the crackers, goldfish, occasional oreos, and other crap snacks were all "FDA Approved".  I told her that FDA didn't have any clout with me and that my daughter's health was paramount.  I kept snacks for Salena in her classroom during the entire kindergarten year.  The next year something was definitely different.  I had less control over her food, so even if her home packed lunch was healthy, there were other elements that were out of my control.  In first grade, after spring break, I made the BIG mistake of letting her have school lunch for the remaining two months of school.  She put on a rather visible amount of weight.

   In second grade, school lunch was only for emergencies.  During the summer after second grade, my mom declared war on the weight.  Salena lost a noticeable amount of weight, not yet in the healthy zone, but she was on her way.  Then came third grade.  It seemed that she and her classmates were being rewarded with candy at least a few times a week and by different teachers.  One day she said that she got four lollipops.  She has put on more that twenty pounds in the last school year and resembles the Michelin tire man, again. 

   Now we are embarking on the FTS way of life.  She's excited about the things that she'll be able to eat now, like the peanut butter fudge.  We have been making our own soda with xylitol and sparkling mineral water.  Making pancakes with coconut flour.  I've found replacements for breads, pastas, cakes and cookies.  The problem is that my daughter is addicted fruit juices and I haven't figured out how to replace those yet.  Over the past two years she has become unwilling to eat many meats and it has been increasingly difficult to find protein that she will eat.  Strangely, she likes broccoli.  I had been disguising hemp seeds in home made smoothies, but that won't work on the FTS plan.  Any ideas for the picky kid who loves Jamba Juice?