Rude Awakening

I took Jack in for his 6 year appointment on Monday and we got some very surprising news. First of all, the kid is 50 inches tall and 73 pounds. Technically, he's just barely considered overweight for his height (and that's bad enough). The worst thing though is that his blood pressure was high! She said part of it might just be that he was bouncing off the walls, but even after sitting it was high enough for concern. I have to take him in later this week to have his cholesterol, insulin, and some other things tested. In the meantime, I've got him exercising more and eating less. I hate it. I absolutely hate that my kid has to be on a "diet." We don't tell him he's on a diet or that he's overweight, but I did explain to him that his blood pressure is concerning and he needs to make better food choices and work out his heart a little extra so it can work better. What does he hear? That he can't have ice cream, chicken strips, corn dogs, french fries, pizza, or chocolate milk. I haven't told him specifically that he can't have those things, but he gets that those aren't good choices and he knows they are off limits for a while. It truly sucks. He got in a really bad eating routine this year during school when he wouldn't eat lunch at school and then was starving after school and eating Cheez-Its, string cheese, or whatever else he could find buried in the cabinet. The one thing I can always get him to eat is Subway so for lunch the last few days I've been getting him a 6 inch sandwich on wheat, asking them to pull out some of the bread, turkey, one slice of cheese, lots of lettuce, tomatoes, cucumbers, and very little ranch dressing. He has grapes, oranges, apples, or carrot chips at home with his sandwich. It's truly the only way I can get veggies in this kid so I tell them to really pile on the veggies. I have that Sneaky Chef cookbook somewhere so I need to dig that out and see how I can cram more veggies in him. I'm also having him eat a banana each day for the potassium as well. We are going out of town this weekend again so eating out with him will be challenging I'm sure, but we'll make it work. I know that sets off major cravings for him though, just like it does for me. It sucks and he will probably fight it for his entire life. I feel for him because I've had to fight it my entire life as well and he's a lot younger than I was when I first started fighting my weight. We've also been spending a lot of time playing outside the past couple days and I'm anxious to get him back into a house with a yard so he has a place to run. I think having him stuck in this damn apartment has added to the problem. I know it certainly hasn't helped my weight loss any. There's no place to walk or run, no playground, no place to play soccer, and just no place to be outside playing. The kids and I really miss those things. We hate being inside. Matt is the freak that loves all this time indoors and being crammed in like sardines. It probably has something to do with him only being home 2 hours a day. Just saying...