Hi, I'm Devon- Mom to Avery (ASD, age 3.5)

dtherese83

I was glad to find this group.

I am a 30 y/o married mom of 1. My daughter was diagnosed at age 2.5 with ASD (mild/moderate) and we began intensive ABA immediately. September will be our 1 year anniversary of therapy.
She is adorable, affectionate, verbal, and incredibly smart. I have big plans for her in the future but I had completely stopped taking care of myself.

This year has really killed my spirits and my fitness. Since her therapy is in-home I have to be here most of the time. We have some staff that are comfortable with me leaving the house for an hour or so but I used to use that time to run errands. Now I am trying to use that time for fitness.

In the last year I have gone from 156 lbs at my lowest to 194.4lbs and I didn't seem to see it happening. When she was first diagnosed I dropped down because I could barely eat, and when I got comfortable I ate in the evenings and in bed a lot.
Also partially due to a rapid gain from a medication (helping me cope) that caused a 20lbs gain in 2.5 months. I didn't realize it had gotten so out of control until a week ago today, so I came back to MFP to track and motivate myself to use this next year as a year of making strides for both of us.

I just purchased the Jawbone Up24 bracelet and I really enjoy how it motivates me. Even at the park I find myself walking around instead of sitting on the bench. In just one week it has helped me reach my goals and be a constant reminder that I need to be more active. I love how it syncs to MFP too...between the 2 I feel great.

My challenge: to keep this up.
2 weeks of 10,000 steps.
I am at 185, I want to be in the 170's before August.
I want to start in home exercise like yoga to help me build muscle tone
Right now I am setting smaller goals for myself to achieve though because the entire amount seems so overwhelming, but ideally I would like to be back down to 150 (we'll worry about tweaking that number as I get closer).

Thank you for any support you have to offer, and I look forward to getting to know some of your stories!

SideSteel

I would suggest focusing on the process and keeping a reasonable per-week rate of loss as a rough target but don't get too caught up in hitting a specific weight at a certain time.

Generally speaking a rate of .5 to 1% change in bodyweight per week should be a reasonable target rate of weight loss.

Here's a thread that may be helpful to you.

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/1080242-a-guide-to-get-you-started-on-your-path-to-sexypants

How is your daughter doing with the ABA therapy? My son is also 3.5 and was diagnosed right around 3 years of age. He is also verbal and mild to moderate. We have him at St. David's center and he loves it so far.

momjulia101

Hi Devon, I'm Julie and my youngest son just turned 4 and is on the spectrum. He is in a wonderful special education preschool for his developmental delay, but they know that he is also on the spectrum with characteristics of autism and is treated with a lot of therapy for it. We are waiting til he is older to get into an official autism diagnosis, but I know your stress and can totally relate to how hard it is to take care of ourselves. This year has been very stressful for me too, and I know that I need to start taking better care of myself. I will send you a friend request!

dtherese83

Thank you for the thread! I will definitely give it a thorough read. Thank goodness my kiddo still naps!

I HATE exercising but I've been enjoying the long walks to clear my head. I just feel it is so impossible to get in 10K steps per day without eating up tons of my time, so you are right about focusing on long-term vs short term.

ABA is a dream. My team is really amazing and they spend a lot of time doing play instead of tons of "table" time like a lot of companies do. They also use a "normal" tone with her rather than the robotic therapist voice so she is coming along very nicely in her speech and tone.
A year ago she barely responded to her own name, now she speaks in sentences and has had a few rolling conversations.
If anything we need to focus more on sensory and social skills. I feel like we need a ton more OT involved but it is so hard to keep a team of 4 people up to date on what her sensory needs are.
Is St. Davids a similar program to in-home ABA?

dtherese83

Hi Julie! Thank you for the add, I am sorry I took so long to respond. I love having a buddy...it's been pretty lonely on my feed .

I'm glad to hear you are on the way to taking better care of yourself too. We spend so much time invested into our little ones that it is so easy to lose everything else, isn't it?

It sounds like your son is doing great if he is functioning well in preschool. In Wisconsin we have Birth-to-Three and originally she only had a receptive language delay diagnosis at the age of 2, but suspicions arose around 18m for us. After 8 months of seeing no progress with special Ed we took her in to a specialist here called "Autism Intervention Milwaukee" AIM and they finally diagnosed her as mild-moderate ASD.
I remember the diagnosis process was so hard on me emotionally, how have you been holding up?
For about a month after we got our official diagnosis I was sick, crying, catastrophizing, depressed, etc...but when we started therapy she responded so well after the first few weeks that I was just so thankful to have her "back" so to speak. It is so intensive though that sometimes I miss the old days when it was just her and I!

I'll follow you on my feed, thanks again! Also- I did weight watchers before and hated counting points too

momjulia101

Hi! Glad to hear your little girl is ding well with the program she is in! Yes,I totally know how you feel - even though we don't have our son official diagnosed, we know he is somewhere on the spectrum and after his educational diagnosis of developmental delay and them agreeing he shows some autistic characteristics, I was relieved to finally get him where he needs to be, but also went into a depression and constant anxiety mode trying to research and worry all the time. The time I feel the most comfort is when I take him to and from school because I know he is doing well there, but at home it is a lot harder! He will do a lot more for them than he does for me. However, I also want him to have fun with his older brother so I try not to worry myself so much about structure. I think seeing your post has really helped encourage me to stick to my fitness pal better and keep myself in mind more! Thanks for the add!

dtherese83

You are so fortunate to have a school that is focussed on his needs.
We are holding out on moving until she is ready for school so that we can pick the right school district based on whether or not she is ready to be mainstreamed full time.
I hate all this waiting and suspense but then we see amazing things happen. Today she played with dolls in a dollhouse in a totally typical way at the library (we do not own a doll house and have not shown her how to play with one. It was a really breathtaking moment.

joybedford

Hi my name is Joy I have 2 children/young adults on the autistic spectrum and one that is on the spectrum but currently undiagnosed. My children are older than yours at 18 and twins 10, however they still take up a huge portion of my time and need support others of their age don't need. Marcus is 18 he was non verbal till he was 6 and still has no desire for friends and only limited companionship from us, he is very clever just about to start a degree in computing and is living an ordinary if unusual life. Piers has aspergers and ADHD he never had language delay but is prone to violent outbursts he is never still for a single second and is severely underweight thanks to his meds he is very sociable but struggles to maintain friendships. Lydia (where do I start) currently undiagnosed, has a network of friends but I don't know how as she is blunt to the point of rudeness, she often is in her own world and is unaware anyone is speaking to her. She also has a lot of ticks, facial grimacing etc. she is a talented dancer and a little hyperactive.
Now we come to me as well as trying to run a home and deal with my totally wonderful but challenging children I also work full time as a midwife. I have a husband but I deal with the kids therapy school issues alone always have. I have had times of depression/anxiety so I totally get the overwhelming feeling. I gained a ton of weight after the twins were born and then lost it all but have recently regained it due to my own health problems and lack of time/not finding time for me. I am now back trying to gain some control again. All my kids are in mainstream school and doing really well but I often need to fight to make sure their needs are met.
You are a doing a wonderful job keep up the good work our children need us more than most.

KevinPsalm23v4

I have a 12 year old son with ASD - he is very highly functioning and in most cases - you couldn't tell he was - BUT life was not always this good. Because in 2002 Autism was not seen the way it is today so for many, many years we (him and I suffered) through many a trial in finding the right meds and therapy and right school......yes I switched schools three times.

So - I would love to befriend you all and share stories.