Teens and Weight Loss
My sister said this recent picture of Evan made her cry because she hasn’t seen this boy smile since he was little. I get that.
A dear reader wrote and asked how Evan was doing. I wanted to update those of you that have seen the picture of my son and read the post about him going off to weight loss camp.
It’s been over a year and a lot happened since last summer. My husband changed jobs and we relocated during Evan’s first year in high school. He did lose 16 lbs at camp but put the weight right back on plus 20 lbs. He didn’t complain about bullying in the new school, but there were a few incidents that he mentioned where someone said something that hurt his feelings.
By the time school was out for summer I was really concerned that he would never take the weight off and his weight would continue to climb. He went out of town in late May to visit his Dad and spend time with an old friend from his pre-school years. Evan and Charles are still friends after 10 years and a separation of 3 ½ years with 650 miles between them. I find that amazing sometimes!
I had lost 10-15 lbs during our relocation, but by Spring I felt it creeping back on. The weight loss was not from dieting, it was mostly stress related due to a number of issues I had at the time. I started a low carb diet on June 1st and lost 15 pounds within the first two weeks and you could really see it in my face. My daughter made the trip to pick up Evan and bring him home about the third week of June and she told him on the drive home about my success. She and her boyfriend really played up how well I was doing because they knew when he saw me that perhaps that would help him make the decision to start a low carb lifestyle as well.
He walked in the house, gave me a hug and I asked if he was ready to do this with me and he agreed. I assured him he would not feel deprived or hungry as I would do the cooking and I was experimenting with low carb recipes. We were going to limit our starch and sugar, but we would eat well. First up, “try these low carb cream cheese muffins I made.”
Evan has lost more than 40 lbs as of today. I’m not sure of the exact number as I write this. He is a new and improved version of himself and I couldn’t be happier for him! No mother wants to see her child feel bad about themselves and be bullied at school because of their weight; it was painful to go through for both of us.
He use to walk with his shoulders slumped and his head down, often kind of dragging his feet. No matter how many times I asked him to stand up straight and hold his head up, the bigger issue was self esteem. He didn’t smile much, especially around other people, most likely from not wanting to draw attention to himself. Now he laughs and smiles daily. He has the best sense of humor and a mind like a sponge so you can bet if he watches the comedy channel he’ll share every joke with you. He admitted a few days ago that he hasn’t been this happy since he was 7 or 8 years old, about the time he started gaining weight.
He has a myspace and has been posting pictures daily of his new friends – a group of five or six kids he hangs around with at school. I can’t ever remember him having more than one friend at school and it was usually the other kid that was also picked on. He has over 200 anime videos on youtube and was #79 most viewed in Japan a couple of weeks ago. People were leaving very nice comments and he told me it made him feel important. We all need to feel important. Evans life has changed because of his weight loss; he’s happy and more confident in his own skin. The best thing I ever did for Evan was start living a low carb lifestyle for myself.
