I’ve just spent a week on Kauai and in Waikiki with my teen. Although we do share mealtimes at home, being with him 24/7 really raised my awareness of just how few vegetables my teen is eating and just how much sugar he’s drinking. It’s tough to make dietary shifts on a holiday, particularly when the majority of meals are being eaten at restaurants, but given that this was a learning/vacation, I realized why increasingly my son’s teachers aren’t seeing him at the start of the school day.
For a few days of our holiday I observed, but didn’t comment, as he drank up to six sugary drinks in a day; gatorades, pops, juice ‘nectars’. I’ve guessed for awhile that his sugary drink intake might be impacting his bad sleep patterns, but as he’s either at school, or often with his friends, it’s nearly impossible for me to gauge just how many of these drinks he consumes when we’re at home. Noticing how he was really struggling with sleep on our holiday I finally bribed him. He loves new clothes, so I made him a deal: drink nothing but water today and I’ll get you that funky T-shirt and those boarding shorts you want.
He agreed. He slept SO well that night and was significantly more prepared to greet the morning while it was still morning the following day.
Now, the trick is, how do I get him to do this at home?
Inspired by this mom blog: Homeschooling mom/bogger
February 22, 2011 at 8:14 pm
I used to have massive sleep issues when I was a teenager. I also used to drink a few cans of soda a day, and copious amounts of fruit juice. I don’t tend to go for pop these days- it’s just not on my radar for cravings. I’m more of a fresh-juice-from-my-juicer made of mostly veggies or plain ol’ water or ginger tea kind of girl. I’m a fantastic sleeper. Give me a bed-like structure- even the hard floor of an airport and a backpack- I can sleep any time and like the dead. It’s quality, I’m telling you.
Reading this made me laugh- BOY, can I relate to Maxx. I had an eye-opening experience very recently- about 2 weeks ago when I consumed a single can of Coke in the afternoon (I remembered how I used to like it, and was somehow drawn to consume it- God knows why.) I could not- for the life of me, get to sleep that night. I was tossing and turning until all hours of the morning wondering what I had done to bring this torture upon myself. And then I realized I had consumed a nice big helping of high-fructose corn syrup a few hours back. It dawned on me that the sugary drink was to blame.
It takes a LOT to get away from the pop. It’s addictive. But there are tricks that I do when the occasional craving strikes me that Maxx should try- I find the allure of soda for me is the fizzy part (DUH, tactile Taurus.) I mix sparkling water with a generous splash of fruit juice, like raspberry or pomegranate. It tastes waaaaaaay better and I get my ‘pop’ fix. Also, things like Kombucha and the odd Knudsens Organic Spritzers fill the gap- without the corn or caffeine content.
… I don’t know where else I’m really going with this- but I blame the vast majority of my sleep problems as a teen on my sugary beverage intake. And I’m a bigger girl- always will be- but when I finished high school and quit the soda, I lost 30 lbs and a whole lot of puffiness from my face. And I gained great sleeping habits.
When you talk about the ONE day all he drank was water- all I could think of was the ONE day I consumed a can of Coke. It’s mind-blowing.