Saturday, April 18, 2015

Training and Conversation

After last nights struggle with running we gave it another try tonight. I wanted to sort of rearrange her days anyway so that she did not have to try to run on days she has swimming. I am happy to report success!!!! We walked the 5 minutes, ran the full 5 minutes and walked home... more than the required 5 minutes. Ayden Jane started the running strong and then only about 2 minutes in she started to doubt herself. We sang a few silly songs - she loves that but then she asked if she could hold the timer. She ran holding onto it and watching it tick down. It was interesting that once she had it in her hand she calmed right down. At 5 minutes in she was actually cruising along pretty well and I think we just might make it 6 minutes at our next training run.  Yay!!

I really have no idea how much of the 5k she will be able to run but days like today make her so proud of herself.

Now earlier in the day we took the dogs for a walk. And yes, it was one of  'those' walks. You know the ones where her mind is in full gear. The topic of conversation was well complicated. I'll do my best.

We have started weighing Ayden Jane about once a week. I don't make a deal out of it but she knows what numbers it says and that we are trying to just not let the number go up. She had a bit of again this past week and I had told her (a few days ago when we weighed her) that I thought the cause was related to her snacking more than she needs. I have given her a bit more control over food and she is down at the neighbors a lot so she is making more of her own choices. Luckily she really wants to make the good ones. Mostly, she wanted to know why if a food was something she is allowed to eat, it can be too much for her.

We had a long conversation about how there needs to be a balance between the amount of food/energy we eat and how much we use up. I explained how if we eat more energy than we can use, our bodies will store it and then we have to just carry it around and it makes things like running and climbing and monkey bars harder to do.

It was hard to tell her that her body, because of PWS, makes these things even harder to balance. That her body is not good at using any of that stored energy but very good at storing it. We talked about how extra snacks that she does not need will add up.

I did not push things and didn't use the words skinny or fat. Her understanding and just plain acceptance that her body works differently is astounding. Seriously. She is 7 and is perfectly happy to skip all sugars and eat a diet different from her friends. She knows she can't really trust her body to tell her when she needs food and when she full. Add to all of this, new information of just how challenging it is to balance all of this.

Her response? I get it mom. And now I know why sometimes the answer to things is yes and other times it's no. You are just trying to keep my balance and some days are different than others. She really is amazing.

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