The Secret In the Sauce

I had my hubby take a look at my blog last night as he hasn't really known what I've been up to with it. He asked me if it was something I really wanted to do because in writing about Preston and his ADHD, I am giving him a little bit of a stigma or label. I thought about it all last night as he did have a point. This is what I realized: When I had my first miscarriage, I felt relieved when people talked to me about it and told me their personal experiences with having a miscarriage. When I went through my divorce at the age of 27 after having been married for seven years (and no, it wasn't the 'seven year itch') I craved to talk to people that had been through a divorce. I was so young that I really didn't know anybody that had been through it. I had a friend who was struggling in her marriage call me to talk to me about it. When we experience something in our life that is challenging or traumatic, we want to know that we aren't alone. That somebody els...

I just went to the Yahoo main page, where I am always compelled to look at the intriguing stories they do, and found a story this morning about a personal trainer that was intentionally gaining weight. I haven't heard of this other than Hollywood stars that gain weight for certain roles so this definitely peaked my interest. You can read the full article at the following address: http://shine.yahoo.com/channel/health/why-a-personal-trainer-is-making-himself-obese-on-purpose-2583990/ The part that I found most interesting was when he talked about not liking soda in the beginning of this 'journey' to where he now HAS to have one everyday. He admitted to being addicted to all the sugar, white breads and flour, starchy pasta - he loves the taste but found he was hungry again shortly thereafter and craving the same foods. He also had to have his soda to keep the headaches at bay. This made me think of my cute mother who probably has a can of Coke a day but insists that it is...

In all of my reading and research I have made the rule in our home that there is one hour of television watching per day and one hour of video game time on Friday's and Saturday's. I have read nothing positive about video games (only the seeming old wives tale that it improves hand-eye coordination, bah!) and only about the harmful effect they have on kids. One author even noted in his patients the improvement in homework, attitude and decreasing ADHD tendencies when video games were removed from the home. With that said, my therapist passed along the results of a study that was done on whether or not fast-paced television shows has an immediate influence on pre-school children. The results were not surprising but very interesting: http://pediatrics.aappublications.org/content/early/2011/09/08/peds.2010-1919.full.pdf   They are saying these days that kids under two should not be watching television. I have to admit that I have not yet slipped any shows in for...

"Unfortunately for us parents, natural reinforcers are frequently insufficient motivationfor a child to complete an artificial task. Your son, for example, may be a natural slob - a clean room means nothing to him. Or your little girl may be attention deficit and learning disabled, and homework provides no satisfaction - but much frustration - for her. In these cases you must use artificial reinforcers. For smaller children the best ideas are often relatively small things that can be dished out frequently and in little pieces. With older kids, larger rewards that take longer to earn become more feasible." (1-2-3 Magic, 122) - I'll add that kids with ADHD need small things things that can be dished out frequently. I've noticed with Preston that rewards need to be fairly immediate otherwise it isn't worth it to him. It is also good to do things for kids just 'because you are you and I love you.' That is some wonderful advice our therapist gave me. I...

I had another runaway attempt last week by my little Preston and he has been really pushing me to see how patient and in-control I can be. Isn't that sweet of him? I guess when I seem un-breakable somebody is bound to want to see if they can crack me. What a joke! Jillian Michaels has come close to breaking me in her Ripped In 30 workouts and she even quoted Ernest Hemingway, "We are stronger in the places we are broken." "With that being said, I'm going to break you!" And with that being said, Jillian is my pick-me-up for this week. She is wellspring of wisdom and she gives out some pretty fantastic nuggets at the end of her fourth workout which I have quoted below. We all need something extra to help us get through tough moments and I've been repeating after her to keep it in my mind to pull out when I need it most. And I have been needing it more than once a day for the last week or two. Forgive me, I didn't get her quote exactly, bu...