Wow.

Well done Tyra! 14 Weeks and 14kgs down/

The Sleekgeek community has been following your inspirational journey which has inspired other parents in our community to get their kids healthy.

Here is a new update from Tyra’s amazing mom Seone Maskell.

MOMMIES AND DADDIES:

As much as it is her/his journey it is YOURS.

Now the only way your little one is going to success is if you are going to give it your 100% and believe me at times it`s going to be tough, especially after an extremely stressful day at work and you just want to curl up into a ball and cry!

You have to always think ahead have healthy snacks on hand and always be prepared.
I will admit as a single mom it is tough and all I seem to do these days is cook, prepare and be my daughter own personally cheerleader keeping her focused and keep telling her over and over how amazing she is!

FOR THE LITTLE MONKEYS:

First and foremost sit the little one down and say we all going to get healthy TOGETHER.

Speak to them like an adult explain the reasons for wanting to get healthy and what you would like to achieve.
I personally did not bring the word diet or loose weight into the mix!! Having an extreme sensitive soul to work with I had to be very careful.

“We are doing this to get HEALTHY not to change you because you are BEAUTIFUL as you are.”
“It is not that I don`t love you as you are and I am not trying to change you …but getting healthy will help with your asthma , chaffing and eczema (OR WHATEVER YOUR LITTLE ONE NEEDS TO OVERCOME).”

 THANK YOU REEBOK! 

Reebok and Sleekgeek send Tyra a voucher to go and spoil herself. Well deserved and she loved it!

Our Story

Tyra has always been such a sensitive child and has always had the world on her shoulders. I have been worrying about her health for the longest time and the way she was being treated by others.

The stares of disgust she would get from strangers was heartbreaking. My heart would break whenever we went anywhere and the children would tease her and tell her she was too fat to play with them.
I could see she was battling to get out the car of off a chair. When she came back from a week with her granny she had really packed on some more weight and the first thing she did when she got in the car was burst into tears and then she asked me if I thought she was FAT!!

Because she had been asked on 2 different occasions why she was so FAT!?

I decided then that WE WERE GOING TO DO SOMETHING ABOUT THIS!

Before her soul was broken and she fell into a dark depression as I feel she was on her way there.

She didn’t even want to go to school anymore or stay at aftercare due to being bullied about her weight.

She had no friends.

Gosh I cannot tell you how helpless I felt…………and so our journey began….

NON FOOD REWARDS

My secret weapon is the STAR CHART … when we discussed why we were going to get healthy, I said we were going to use a star chart with small rewards per week

and larger rewards for completion of an entire chart.

Our BIG reward which was the one to get her really going and focused was an iPad (my one because I was upgrading).

By the time we got to the end of the first chart she was starting to feel different and she was starting to see why we were doing what we were doing.

Our next big reward is to have her hair cut into a bob! (Much to mommy`s horror)

MEASUREMENT

Before picture and weighing # at first I decided NOT to do these.

Only when she asked me she wanted to do it did we start with the progress pictures, measuring and weighing. Do it together let your little one take your measurements too.

NUTRITION

Junk food, fast food and fizzy drink are to be banished explain why.

We do have a treat on Fridays – I would prefer not to but she does look forward to it.

Water water water!! Bought her a cute water bottle and made sure she carried it wherever we went!! Its up to mommy or daddy to make sure the water bottle is always filled and we have to remind the little ones to drink drink drink!

For a treat she does have 100% orange juice!

I have not followed a “DIET” but utilised what I have learnt from me getting healthy and from Sleekgeek!

If you are clueless get help from a certified Professional.
Our daily plan basically comprises of 4 meals a day (breakfast , snack, lunch, snack and supper) and its basically “whole “foods- veggies , fruit, nuts , carbs such as basmati rice, sweet potatoes, rice cakes, oats, protein such as chicken ,fish, little red meat (I am a non-red meat eater so its mainly chicken.)

I would like to go the whole paleo way…

Will eventually head that way when I can really cook properly (I am a useless cook and I burn eggs for example!).

These an awesome website I am getting some of my ideas from called www.paleomom.com .

TOTAL BUY-IN AND SUPPORT

Get everyone on board – (Including teachers) – make sure they got your back when you are not around!! You need to teach you little monkey what is allowed and not allowed (always explain why).
Tyra as now got to the point where if a teacher want to reward her with a sweet she will tell them she is not allowed. She asked the teacher to rather give her an apple (momma was proud!)

BE STRONG

One of my little ladies VICES is bread. We have had several pleading moments when she wanted toast with butter. She was bawling her eyes out and I had to be strong, with tears in my eyes, and say no. I reminded her how wonderful she was feeling and how far she had come.

Get them MOVING!

She has started coming to gym with me and she relishes the fact that she doing what mommy does!!

She has taking a bit of a break because of a cold! She does a lot of school activities such as swimming, canoeing and she already has planned the she’s going to be doing soccer and hockey in the winter.

UPDATE: