MEND-Internal Triggers

It's been a full day here today. After normal, everyday chores the boys did some work before dinner, then we were out this afternoon.

The boys started the day with doing some work on the American Civil War. This lead to a discussion into the slave trade and the reasons why it was so hard for some people to give up. J looked on the internet and looked at some of the weapons that were used. It was quite an eye opener for D to realise that planes were not used in this war. I suppose with the news coverage of wars they see today, it is not surprising.

After this J and I caught up with our reading for MEND. It was all about portion sizes and it was very comforting to realise that on the whole, we were getting them right. We have made a conscious effort to reduce them over the last couple of months. J was pleased we didn't have to reduce any more.

After dinner, J caught the bus and went swimming for an hour before today's MEND session.

It was quite an emotional session this afternoon as we were talking about internal triggers for eating. The children were asked about bullying, the reasons for bullying and the effects it had. To show them that no one deserved to be bullied they were asked to say what made them special as individuals. Parents then had to say what made the child special and one of the volunteers did the same.

This process was to help the children realise it didn't matter what others said, they were special and shouldn't feel bad about themselves. I think we all sometimes have problems with self esteem and it is good to be reminded of our good points from time to time.

We only have two weeks of MEND left and I am pleased to say that J has enjoyed the whole programme.