Trim Healthy Kid Wrap-Up!

I'm so proud of my big girl! She did awesome with her Lent challenge to eat according to Trim Healthy Mama guidelines at my house and give up sugar and sweet treats/foods at her dad's. She officially wrapped up 40 days of Lent this morning!

For those who may be new to my blog, this is Emmy Lou... my karate & softball lovin big kid. She is 8 1/2 years old. She was diagnosed with extreme asthma at 2 months old and juvenile mastocytosis by the time she was 6 months. It's been a never ending journey of meds, especially steroids. She has been on a daily low dose of steroids for a year. Anyone who has experience with steroid, you know they wreak havoc on weight. 

My girl has been in the upper part of weight charts her whole life. We stress nonstop about how pretty, smart, happy, sweet, perfect etc she is. Unfortunately, about a year ago her dad made a comment to her. I don't know if she misunderstood him or if he just had zero tact, but she came home to me sobbing that she was fat and that she couldn't run any races until she lost weight. My baby broke my heart that day. For weeks after she would criticize how she looked in her school uniform (she wears the same brands and size pants/shirts every day). We had a long talk that day about being able to do whatever you put your mind to. Size doesn't matter. She is not fat! She's a healthy, happy, beautiful girl who can run any race she decides to (and she did - a kids triathlon at that!)

We have spent the last year talking about how to make healthy decision and she's had a lot of questions about our THM foods since we started in June. I also made sure that her doc talked to her at her annual visit in August and she assured Emmy Lou that she was perfect!!

My girls go to a Catholic school - hence the uniforms. In January Emmy Lou decided she wanted to go 100% THM the days she was at my house and give up sugar at her dad's for Lent. She just announced it one day out of the blue with absolutely zero prompting from me. Up to that point, the kids had eaten several THM dinners, but they still had free reign on breakfast and dinner. 

On February 10th she started her THM journey. This morning she celebrated 40 days as a THM kid. She ate lots of crossovers, packed all of her own lunches and snacks for school - keeping them on plan, declined off plan treats at events and even managed to stay away from the tempting Girl Scout cookies she's been selling for the past two months (aside from a couple of splurges during a free day on the weekend). She told me this morning she has no interest in going back to the way she was eating.

Here's a Trim Healthy Mama review, kid style!! 

What did you like best about THM? Breakfast and THM treats! My favorites are breakfast burritos, protein shakes and Skinny Peanut Butter Cups!

What's your favorite THM meal? Fried Eggs & Sausage or Bunless Burgers or Chicken and Fried Rice... I like most of them.

What did you like least about THM? The jelly isn't good by itself. I like it with my peanut butter, but it tastes funny by itself. (We use all fruit jelly and natural peanut butter. I promised her we would try making our own jelly next month.)

Is there anything else you didn't like about THM? Nope! I want to keep doing it!

We were at the doc's office yesterday for strep and found out she was last there in January. The nurse brought up that she has lost 2 pounds since her last appointment. That's 3% of her body weight! Again, that wasn't the goal of this at all, but it's crazy what a different 40 days of no sugar about 60% of the time did for her!

She knows what on plan foods are and chooses them herself, I did not police her at all! This was 100% her journey. She helps plan the weekly meal menu and declares herself a Trim Healthy Kid!! 

For the first time in a long time she ENJOYED trying on clothes at the store yesterday. She even had great things to say about herself in the mirror. I also couldn't help but notice how different clothes fit her as she tried them on. The size she was moving into fell off of her and clothes in her regular size looked baggy. It truly is not about her size or weight for either of us. I'd never express or show her that I noticed a different in her body shape. She's too young to have those concerns. 

What I'm most floored about are the NSV's that we have noticed. My kid who usually has to use her nebulizer nonstop all winter for her asthma has used it ONCE in the last 40 days!!! She's barely even had a cough! Her almost daily headaches have backed off and are now a rare occurrence and we've barely had any comments about tummy aches since she changed her eating habits! 

This is my beautiful Emmy Lou's before & after comparison...

Left: End of January and Right: End of March

I forgot to mention the other excitement in our house last week. I officially have TWO softball players!! They both even got to go to the Softball Jamboree last weekend and train with the high school softball team!

Abbycakes at bat!

Emmy Lou picking up where she left off last year!

Abbycakes was very nervous. She's tried out the batting cages a few times at the arcade, but she'd never done the things they worked on. She has quite a little arm for a 5 1/2 year old and she had no problems catching with her bare hands. Putting a glove on her hand threw her for a tiny bit of a loop, but she adjusted. The big girls all thought she was absolutely adorable and gushed over her - which, of course, she ate right up! 

Emmy Lou was beyond happy to be back in action! My kiddo who is not a big sports fanatic absolutely LOVES softball. She claims she like karate more, but that she really REALLY likes softball. When they asked her group who wanted to try pitching, who wanted to try catching and who wanted to try both, she was quick to jump in the catching line stating she had zero interest in pitching. Since Mama was a catcher in her younger days, I didn't argue with her one bit!

It was pretty cute to watch. Abbycakes was Emmy Lou's shadow the entire two hours. At times they had to scoot her over to give Emmy Lou more room! Abbycakes is not a fan of new places, crowds or strangers, so I was proud of her for getting out there and doing it without me by her side. She was very nervous about batting during the "scrimmage" (the little ones hit the ball and ran the bases while the big ones took the field - highly entertaining), but she was the last one to bat (by choice) and hit the ball clear over the pitcher's head! Instinct and cheering took over from there as she ran her first home run!! Okay, not a real home run, she was the last batter, so they needed to get her home!

I think this is going to be a pretty entertaining summer! Softball for two, karate for all, triathlon and half marathon training for Mama... throw in some camping, exploring swimming and just having lots of summer fun and I have a feeling it will be winter again before we are all ready!