Back at it

Sept 25th. Can it really be that I haven’t posted here in four and half months? What the heck have I been doing?

Let me tell you, my family and I have been doing a lot in those 4.5 months. Hilary went through chemo and radiation treatments and kicked cancer to the curb. I ran a couple of 5k races. Liam and I both had surgery – on the same day, at 2 different hospitals. We had family visits, celebrated 2 major holidays, got back into a school routine, twice – September and January (those pesky holiday breaks throw everything out of whack). Liam was in his first Shakespeare production. I got hearing aids. And we’ve survived a couple of snow storms.

Not surprisingly, I gained too much weight and undid any health improvements I had gained during my training for the half marathon.

And I’m okay with that.

Sometimes, you just have to ride the wave that life throws at you, knowing that eventually it will settle down and you can pick yourself up and get back at it.

That’s what I’m doing now.

One of the best motivations for me is to commit to (and pay) for a race. So I’ve signed up for 3! I’m sticking with 5ks this year, so I’ve decided to run the Bluenose 5k in May then Soul Sisters and Ocean Breeze in June. While the first race is still more than 3 months away, I need to get back into shape. My focus so far this year has been healthy eating, and it’s paying off. I lost 5 pounds in January. Of course, having surgery really helped to kick start the process. And I’m still learning which foods I can tolerate without my gallbladder.

To help with my recovery I started doing some simple stretching routines. It’s amazing how great that little bit of movement felt after being fairly sedentary for so long. I then added in walking, working to increase my pace and distance. I haven’t actually started running again…. but I feel ready! Tonight I’m going to the gym with a friend for a free trial. I really don’t see me as a gym–goer, but hey, it’s free! I’ll check out the equipment, and get in a good work out, and maybe even run on the treadmill. Our sidewalks are covered in snow right now, so I’m going to have to come up with an indoor running solution for the next month or so. I still have some track passes for the indoor track from last winter, so I’m sure that is where I’ll ultimately end up. Or the snow could melt… stranger things have happened.

So the journey continues.

Obsessed

“Mama, are you still obsessed?” asked my 11 year old son from the couch. It took me a minute to figure out what he was talking about. I had just finished my weekly weigh-in with the Wii Fit. Did he think I was obsessed with weighing myself? Obsessed with weight loss? But then it dawned on me. He was asking if I was still obese.

Obese. Such an unobtrusive word to be packed with such power.

While I love the Wii Fit for weighing myself, I really can’t stand the stupid cartoon of the balance board that shouts out “That’s Obese!” every time I weigh in. In fact, I no longer turn on the volume when I weigh myself.  I know that I’m obese. I don’t need it shouted at me every couple of days. And I don't need my 11 year old son to hear it either.

Liam and I talked about what it means to be obese, and why I weigh myself. I try not to talk about being on a diet, or eating “bad” foods. While he currently struggles with gaining weight and has a lot of food issues, I want him to have a healthy relationship with food and his weight. Girls are often seen as the ones who struggle with body image issues and eating disorders, but it can hit boys too.

Parenting is a hard gig, full of potholes and pitfalls.  Fighting against peer pressure and the media makes it even harder.  Add in my own struggles and it seems like a perfect storm.  I'm hoping that Liam and I can keep up an open and honest dialogue about food, body image, weight, exercise and health.  I also hope that if I lead by example, he will follow.

How do you handle body image and weight issues with your children?

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Statistics for Eating Disorders in Males
source: National Eating Disorder Information Center

• Four percent of boys in grades nine and ten reported anabolic steroid use in a 2002 study, showing that body preoccupation and attempts to alter one’s body are issues affecting both men and women.
  Boyce, W. F. (2004). Young people in Canada: their health and well-being. Ottawa, Ontario: Health Canada.


• The fashion industry has long dictated that female models be tall and waif-like; however, male models are now facing increasing pressure to slim down and appear more androgynous, in order to book top fashion jobs.
  Trebay, G. (2008, February 7). The Vanishing Point. The New York Times. Retrieved from www.nytimes.com


• In a survey of adolescents in grades 7-12, 30% of girls and 25% of boys reported teasing by peers about their weight. Such teasing has been found to persist in the home as well - 29% of girls and 16% of boys reported having been teased by a family member about their weight.
  Eisenberg, M. E. & Neumark-Sztainer, D. (2003). Associations of Weight-Based Teasing and Emotional Well-Being Among Adolescents. Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine, 157(6), 733-738.


• Health Canada found that almost one in every two girls and almost one in every five boys of grade 10 either were on a diet or wanted to lose weight.
  Trends in the Health of Canadian Youth. A report based on the data collected through the 1989/90, 1993/94 and 1997/98 survey cycles for the World Health Organization Cross-National Collaborative Study: Health Behaviours in School-Age Children (HBSC). The trend comparisons report on data collected from among 11-, 13- and 15-year-olds in Canada. This report includes data from a selection of other countries as well as data from grade 6, 7, 8, 9 and 10 students in Canada. The report can be found at the following website: www.phac-aspc.gc.ca