There are many things that motivate all of us. What gets your wheels going? What things would you jump out windows for? Maybe you're motivated by love or money, your image, a promotion, revenge or maybe for just a pat on the back.
My journey to health was birthed from simply my extreme motivation to see my little boy be well.
This is a story not many people, friends or family know of, but I hope will encourage someone.
Before I became a mom, I never really cared too much about eating or living extremely healthy. I'm sure I enjoyed a carrot or two... over the span of a year and smothered in ranch dressing, that is! I was never really overweight so hey, what's the big deal? I grew up with the smell of bleach permeating our house every Saturday morning and to me, that meant we were "super clean".
As a middle schooler, we would stop by our local grocery store and I got to pick out what I wanted in my lunch for that day. It always included Doritos, a Snicker's bar and I also managed to convince my mom to pick me up a baklava and a chocolate milk for the ride to school. After school, I met my fellow cheerleading friends at the soccer field with my regular, a Quarter Pounder with cheese, fries and Coke. I scarfed it all down before we started our warm-ups.
Not a very impressive start in the early years of living healthy. Even after four years of college and a nursing degree, I still didn't think too much about living a real healthy lifestyle. Not until years later when I found myself with my hands up in the air, very frustrated and confused with my son and his complete erratic behavior.
My oldest son was born a whopping 9 pounds and 3 ounces so there was no question that his life began well. He wasn't the "perfect" baby, but we managed through the early years and did fairly well. It wasn't until he was in the middle of his first grade year of school that my world began to change.
He began acting out... lying... hitting... becoming destructive and even stealing. Yes, my little 6 year old boy was stealing. And these behaviors weren't just occasional... they were occurring daily. It broke my and my husband's heart to hear day after day from his teacher the issues arising with our son. You may not believe this, but before this school year, we had never seen this type of behavior in our home. It was utterly shocking.
To be honest, we had had our occasional bouts of the "battle of the wills" with him, but nothing compared to what we were hearing from his teacher. Things were not adding up in my head and my maternal instincts began to come alive... thankfully. I knew there was something wrong with my son and I was determined to figure it out.
I was so blessed to meet a lady who is now a dear friend of mine at a Kindermusik class who recommended the book, "Is This Your Child?". The title alone spoke to me ~ NO, this was not my child! I immediately got my hands on a copy and started devouring each page. I could feel the anxiety, fear and frustration, slowly begin lifting from my inner emotional roller coaster... I felt God was telling me, "There are answers and you will find them".
This was where it all started for me.
Part 2 to be continued...
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