Sandra's Success Story
It's common for parent's, and mum's in particular, to talk about how they find themselves having to prepare and cook different meals, at different times, to provide for the needs of different family members. This can be especially so when the family consists of children of different ages where their schedules don't always work together.
Preparing and cooking over a period of time can be tiring, but more than that it can often involve parents having lots of extra snacks with other's meals before and after eating their own.
For example, Sandra was a full-time mum who had 2 pre-kindy children and another 2 at school. Her toddler was exceptionally fussy and anything she prepared for him was either pushed away or thrown on the floor. Meal times became a battle ground for Sandra and she would anticipate that no matter what she did, the food wouldn't go down well.
Sandra tried all kinds of tactics and her friend who had a similar aged child and went through the same process, suggested she keep taking spoons of the food to give her child confidence it was okay to eat. Unfortunately Sandra's child seem to not be growing out of this phase anytime soon and this meant she having an extra set of snacks each day whilst she tried to demonstrate the food was okay to eat.
When her older 2 children came in from school her time was then dedicated to the next food shift. Both of them had different tastes and neither would typically have exactly what the other wanted. So again Sandra found herself spending time in the kitchen preparing and cooking for the older 2 children.
Any scraps were vacuumed up by Sandra as she couldn't bear to see her good food go to waste. It also had the added benefit of giving her energy to make up for what she'd lost during the day doing all the washing, ironing, cleaning, shopping, and entertaining 2 small children.
When her husband came home from work it was their time to spend some quality time while the younger children were in bed. This was the main meal for Sandra as she would eat the same as her husband desite having eaten extra food throughout the day.
Not only was Sandra finding it difficult to drop her postpartum weight she was increasing in weight and finding exercise very difficult being home with the constant responsibilities.
When Sandra joined Be Your Own Overeating Health Coach she felt very out of control with her eating. She had gotten into some really bad habits with her eating and it was easier to continue doing the same old than that to figure out a new way of doing things.
Sandra really wasn't aware of how her eating habits were getting the better of her and increasingly affecting her self-esteem. Her motivation to persist with things just wasn't there anymore and she would find it easier to give in for a quiet life.
The program helps Sandra to prioritise herself for a change. She was able to focus on observing all the things she didn't like about what she was doing and how it was affecting her. She was alarmed by how many things she wanted to change and felt stressed at not knowing where to start.
Starting somewhere was important; that first step may be the hardest but is the most crucial in making other steps happen. Sandra decided to take time to monitor what her fussy eater would actually eat each day i.e., the things he wouldn't object easily to. She knew then she could keep giving him things similar to that each day, whilst at the same time not having to take on board his food for herself.
She realised that one brave move of giving into his needs rather than feeling she should be trying him with different foods every meal, meant she could also get on doing other things whilst he would entertain himself eating. Her daily tasks got done quicker and she was having more time to focus now on herself each day!
