Inspiring story of Rikhil!
Rikhil is 12 years old, 7th grade student. A happy child with infectious smile.
He is a foodie and enjoys eating variety of food. He is a happy child if his taste buds are activated. His favourite foods are curds, egg, paneer, rice which he enjoys occasionally. He also likes to consume fish/chicken once a week or fortnight.
Rikhil was diagnosed with Cerebral Palsy at 1 year of age, the cells responsible for his gross motors were damaged. It has affected his muscle tone, movement and motor skills. It hinders the body’s ability to move in a coordinated way.
As his movement is restricted, he goes for guided swimming sessions 2 days a week and physiotherapy 2 days a week. He attends regular school from morning to late afternoon.
The challenge he is currently facing is his increasing weight. He would get up from the floor to stand all by himself 4 years ago which he can’t do now due to increased weight. He weighs 46.5 kg now.
He has put on 9 kgs in the last 1.5 years. Also, his foot arch has collapsed due to compensation of weaker muscles. The doctor has been insisting on cutting down his weight.
As there is limited physical activity present, it becomes more challenging to work on maintaining or reducing his weight.
He also frequently catches cough, cold, runny nose and congestion. And used nebulizer as and when needed occasionally.
He had tried controlling the diet- reducing junk food a year ago when he even lost a kilo but could not sustain it for long. As it was difficult for him to follow such strict diet long term.
His mother has experienced the benefits of clean eating and is very sure that its going to help her son with the weight issues.
The first and very important step was to get him on board, to make him understand the
importance of him eating clean and assure him that he is not going to miss out on anything that he likes, or he will not be forcefully consuming anything that he dislikes.
After the discussions he willingly agreed to give it a try for a couple of months.
After studying is his existing timetable and we finalized a plan only after discussing with him and after getting his consent.
He started responding well to the food changes which were introduced gradually. Every week based on the feedback from him, we could introduce cleaner food options in his diet. By 4th week to our surprise, he was ready to start with the higher level of clean eating.
His mother has been a biggest support in Rikhil’s clean eating journey.
She learnt the recipes of his favorite dishes and made sure he is not deprived of his favorite food items.
Initially she found it very challenging to prepare variety of dishes with fruits and veggies, but she was determined to make this happen and so took efforts in planning every meal.
Do you want to have a look at some of his tiffin boxes and snack plates?
Grains free meals
His tiffin boxes packed for school
This is how she made his favorite food on children’s day! He was overjoyed to see his favorite food being served the whole day!
Initially he was craving for his favorite bread and found it difficult to consume sprouts!
We introduced his favorite home baked bread sandwiches once in 2 weeks and gave him break in sprouts consumption.
Her efforts started paying off, as he has lost almost 4 kgs of weight in the last 8 weeks, without decreasing his food intake and he is quite comfortable with this new lifestyle change.
We also introduced sun and water therapies after a month. Which resulted in reduction of his chronic congestion and runny nose.
For him staying away from his sea food was challenging.
Also introducing veggies in the diet on regular basis was not so easy for his mother.
But his mother took lot of efforts to make the veggies interesting for him daily.
This is what Rikhil shared when I asked him about his clean eating journey so far –
What did you enjoy most about clean eating?
‘’I can still eat my favorite foods without any guilt to put on weight. I get more variety on my plate than before. Salads with dips are a treat!’’
How do you feel in body?
“It shows on the scale. I never thought i could have a fruit meal and sustain for so long.”
Would you recommend clean eating and why?
Yes! because you can live disease free without visiting doctors and harm animals. I have challenged my mom to make foods tasty equivalent to milk products. Pasta has been a successful one. Hoping for more ?
If everyone in the family is supportive of the change and if we can make it a team effort, then implementing clean eating is not difficult.As they say, if there is a will, there is a way! 🙂
Rikhil at his young age is an inspiration to many, who are trying to change their eating habits in order to achieve their health goals.
I wish Rikhil, all the very best in his endeavor in bettering his health.