Introduction/Day 1

Living with Prader-Willi Syndrome is extremely difficult. Most people can't imagine what it is like. Imagine that everything in your life revolves around food. Most people don't consider that almost any activity you do involves food. Going to the mall? People are eating around you and there is a food court with the smells of food. Going to the carnival? Same thing. How about the doctor's office? Suckers and candy for a good visit. Escaping food is nearly impossible. This makes life very difficult. My step-daughter is 17 years old and has PWS. Over the past year she has lived with her biological mother but from 9 to 16 she lived with my husband and I 4 days a week. Now she visits us for a month at a time 3 times a year. I am creating this blog because we just started a month long visit and I weighed my step daughter when she got here. She has gained more than 15 pounds in less than a year. So this time I have decided to take action. I have implemented a strict 800-900 calorie a day diet (as recommended by her nutritionist) and workout regimen. I will outline what we have done each day in the hopes of documenting successful weight loss at the end of this month that can hopefully help others out there in our situation.

Current weight: 176 pounds.
Height: 4 feet, 11 inches.

Meals today:
Breakfast:
3/4 c Kashi blueberry oat cereal (187.5 calories)
1/2 c 1% milk (50 calories)
TOTAL: 237.5

Lunch:
1 Del Taco regular taco (130 calories)
1/2 c raspberries (42 calories)
1 small diet Coke (0 calories)
TOTAL: 172

Dinner:
1 packet of tuna (low sodium) in water (70 calories)
1 carb balance whole wheat tortilla (80 calories)
1 fruit cup (70 calories)
1 tsp olive oil mayo (12 calories)
TOTAL: 232 calories
Snacks:
1 string cheese (80 calories)
1 granny smith apple (90 calories)
TOTAL: 170 calories

DAILY TOTAL: 811 calories

ACTIVITY:
1/2 hour of boxing/low impmact aeorbics
1/2 hour of swimming laps (appx. 4 laps [back and fourth counts as 1]).
10 minutes of climbing stairs (5 times [up and down counts as 1]).
15 minutes of climbing stairs (6 times).
1/2 hour of light exercise (tossing a basketball around, walking uphill).

DAILY TOTAL: Almost 2 hours of activity.

I have implemented a system where each half hour of activity she does she earns 10 minutes of computer time which I will time. So far today she has earned 20 minutes of computer time. As it is only 2:30 in the afternoon, I am hoping she will earn roughly 40 minutes of computer time by the end of the night. Our boxing activities include punches, jabs, and kicks and she did 10 push ups, 30 seconds of jumping jacks (interrupted), plank on her knees, small lunges, small squats (10 of each with 10 lunges on each leg). I laid a resistance band on the ground and had her step from side to side up and down it 5 times. I also had her jump over it and back 10 times. She did 10 crunches. I am not sure what else we will do today. As our elevation is so high I do not want to push her too hard but I want her to be up and moving, which is why I have been doing relatively easy exercises thus far. I will gradually increase the difficulty but as of now my goal is just to keep her moving as much as possible. When I am not actively making her move around, she is just sitting around not moving at all. I hope I do not run out of activities.