Day Thirty-Nine: Out of The Mouths of Babes

The kid just asked me very seriously: "Mom, when can you have Oreos again?"

I've been declining food left and right from her for almost 40 days. Cupcakes and zucchini bread from school. French fries and lemonade at home. She realized today that we haven't baked anything nor have we been to our favorite Chinese food place in a "long, long time." I realized today that she's just like me ...

We are food sharers.

I told her I could have Oreos again in about 50 days. You should have seen her face. *GASP* The horror ...

But despite her/our affection for Oreos and other baked goods, she inspires me on the PCP. She likes bananas and yogurt and eggs and sugarless applesauce. She thinks it's amusing to watch me eat yogurt or a banana with a grimace. I'd like to be more like her sometimes. She eats when she is hungry; she stops when she is not. She loves to be active, and today we went for a bike ride. "I just love to be outside!" she cooed. And fall soccer is coming up, and she loves to pretend she is Cheetara not because she is yellow (her favorite), beautiful or the lone female adult character of the Thundercats, but "because she is a fast runner."

Recently she picked up the word "fat" from one of her buddies; I don't use that word and we had a very serious talk about how often that is a hurtful word, which like "stupid" and "shut up," we shall not use. She's not uttered it since. And likewise she is noticing my new eating and exercise habits (she loooooooves to help me pick out new fruit and veg each week, she loooooooves when we go to the park so I can exercise on the weekends). I hope this PCP mentality is seeping into her brain as much as mine.

Day Twenty-Seven: Love Me Tender

I cannot believe I went this long to decide and have my Indulgence No. 1. I could have used more this last week actually when cravings for chocolate were all-consuming. But when the time came, I had a flood of ideas on how to use my 200-400 calorie indulgence.

Often times, food for me is also about the experience: the restaurant, the view, the location, the ambiance, the crowd. And in the spirit of summer, I chose s'mores for my first indulgence. Since one was approximately 140 calories, I had two. They were glorious! I made them over the fire pit on the patio. It as dark, it was damp from afternoon thunderstorms, and there were coyotes off in the field behind my house howling away. But the s'mores were so worth it. I definitely felt a slight ache in my stomach about 10 minutes after I ate and I used a fair trade dark chocolate, which always contributes that lovey dovey feeling I get after a delish dessert. I'm feeling pretty head over heels smiley right now. Ahhhhh.

Day Twenty-Six: Let Them Eat Cake

Surprise: another weekend throws a wrench into the PCP plan. We have out of state guests for the weekend, which sucks up a lot of time typically spent on planning exercise and food.

Instead I woefully under-ate yesterday. I had taken someone to the Antiques Roadshow in Denver yesterday; tickets said expect two hours. YEAH, not two hours total, but two hours standing in line to just get in to see an appraiser(s). We were there for five hours. I carried this wooden box with an unknown brass instrument (later to be determined some Asian detonation tool for torpedoes, they thought) for these five hours; it weighs nearly 20 pounds. Think about it. Lugging 20 pounds around for five hours. Today my back and upper body muscles are en fuego. (And today my guests want to go for a hike? Mercy!) But yesterday trying to plan ahead, I had packed two drinkable yogurts in a small bag of ice, an apple and a bag of baby carrots. All of which I left in my purse which I left in my car. By the time we got out of the Colorado Convention Center, it was past dinner time so lunch was a moot point. I snarfed down my snacks in the car (YUM) and then had a decent dinner filled with greek tabouleh, zucchini, beets from the garden (not just any garden: my garden!) and a simple burger. The grandparents had brought my little one a Dairy Queen ice cream cake because she starts kindergarten next month. Being the only grandchild has its perks, eh? And while I knew I had an indulgence this week (200-400 calories? think of the possibilities!), this was not my kind of indulgence. Which I know for some people is blasphemous. But I am fully aware that I get three indulgences during these 90 days, so I want to make them count. And if I'm going to get the shakes or nausea from an indulgence, it better taste like heaven in my mouth. So, unbelievable even to me, I declined the ice cream cake and have plans for either tonight or tomorrow for my indulgence.

Also, since I was stuck in the land of old people and even older things yesterday, I missed my PCP exercises and so did Day 25 this a.m. and plan to do Day 26 tonight. I did the a.m. exercises at the park, and now have blood blisters from doing tricep dips on a grated playground surface. Oops. The V-sits and inclined pull-ups continue to torture me. Sweet.