RazNoggle

So far so good this week with limiting my intake. I don’t “need” to eat so much and I haven’t been dealing with hunger issues either. Sensibility is the key. But I have had several “thoughts” about food that I thought I’d send out there. I think that some of people’s problems is that they think to much about food (eating disorders) or not enough. So while I am trying to find my own healthy balance in the food realm these are some thoughts I thunk recently.

I’m pretty sure I fall into the don’t-think-about-food-enough category. I know I don’t have an eating disorder. But what brought this to mind is that yesterday while I was in town with my two little pincushions I stopped at Wendy’s for a bite after the doc’s office and shopping ordeals were over. They have the cheapest combo meals you can get ANYWHERE, seriously, and the sweet tea is simply lovely. I’ve basically given up soda of any kind so a place with good sweet tea is a huge bonus! Anyway, as I was munching through the “natural cut fries with sea salt” I suddenly started to pay attention to what I was eating and I had to admit to myself that it wasn’t really very good. Nope, it just wasn’t. Not that the fries were bad or over fried or whatever else can happen to your fries to make them taste bad. They were perfect specimens of the french fry variety, but the truth is they don’t taste good. SO why, I now ask myself, do I wan’t to pay some place for some food that doesn’t even taste good and is in fact really bad for me??? Hmmm…. good question, self. So since that small “ah-ha” moment, I’ve decided that I need to pay MORE attention to the food I’m eating, and eat for good food, good taste, and good for ya content. Oh yeah!

Along those lines… sorta… I’ve also recently started giving myself permission to NOT eat. Okay, sounds really psychology mumbo for sure, but for me this is what it looks like. I have this HUGE dinner plate (I hate that our dishes are all so stinkin’ big!) and so I absentmindedly fill it up because it LOOKS like it needs to be full. Seriously, the plates look practically naked if you only put on proper portions! Try it! Then I also absentmindedly chow through everything on my plate because I’m a frugal person and I don’t want to waste anything. This is real, people, it goes down deep!! So then I find myself overly full and not always even satisfied because most of the eating experience has been completely mentally unengaging. Recently though, I’ve been trying to be more mentally engaged and when my brain says, “Hey, I’m not enjoying this anymore, and I really don’t think you need any more of it even though you did pile it onto your plate.” I give myself permission to just stop. Okay, so a bit went in the trash or to the dog, he doesn’t mind. Next time I’ll try to be better about taking smaller portions so I don’t HAVE to waste some, but simply eating it because it’s there is a BAD habit. Sorry oversized dinner plate, you’ll just have to look a little underdressed.

On another food note, I am trying to become a better leftovers user. Even though we’re a family of five, most recipes leave us with some leftovers. In the past I/we were notoriously BAD leftover users. Now though, I even plan for leftovers! I’ve learned that most things freeze well and then make an easy dinner on days where I don’t feel like fixin’ something from scratch. I’m also learning to use them in different ways so you don’t feel like you’re having the same meal for 3 days in a row. Last week Stu grilled us a Morton’s Tri-Tip steak. Mmmmm-mmmmm! So that night we had steak and spicy potatoes. THEN I used some of it thin sliced for a steak-n-cheese sandwich for Stu’s lunch. We still had more so I sliced it up thin, added some sweet peppers, and voila! fajitas! That was last night. There was still steak left over after all of that so I chopped it into bite sized chunks and added it to the pot with leftover beans to make some chili for dinner tonight. That’s quite a bit of stretch for one package of steak! Makes me feel good! And it helps with my goal of cutting down our grocery costs.

So for what it’s worth those are some of my recent thoghts for food. Hope you are all having a swell week… it’s almost over is about the best I can say for it, BUT tomorrow is my big first week weigh in. Stay tuned for that ever-so-exciting news. Ha ha ha!

Toodles!

Yesterday I did get in my INSANITY workout AND I got to go for a 2 mile walk! Yay! The walk was more for sanity sake than exercise, but I’ll take that as a bonus. The workout was hard! Ugh! I was thinking about how I asked for INSANITY for Christmas last year. So it’s been nearly a year since I started the program for the first time. Of course we had only done the first week of the program when I found out that Ella was on the way. Ha! I kept at it though for a couple more weeks until the nausea just made it impossible. Kind of wishing now though that I hadn’t stopped. Maybe then I wouldn’t be in such bad shape now. BUT there’s no going back to fix things, only moving ahead to fix things. So that’s what I’m doing. My workout yesterday taught me several important things:
1) I’m a wimp!
2) My abs are in very very sad shape
3) Sweat is yucky
4) It’s going to take a LOT of discipline and hard work to get to where I need to be.

But I think it will be worth it ultimately.

On another topic our Qade boy has been having issues messing his pants recently. Yesterday I just about went through the roof when he not only messed his pants, but in trying to dig it out and put it in the potty so that he didn’t get in trouble, he smeared it all over the bathroom floor/toilet/his plastic pants (which he was wearing because this was the 2nd “accident” of the day) and of course his hands. Oh my! I’m a little at a loss about this right now. I simply can’t figure out WHY on earth this child won’t stay potty trained! He’ll go weeks with no accidents at all. Tell us when/if he needs to go, and take the initiative to go to the bathroom when he needs to. Then he’ll relapse into this cycle where he’s messing himself daily. Even when I tell him to go potty, he’ll go and then poop his pants only minutes later. ARG!!!! No one warns you about this part of parenting, ya know?

So for today, since time-out by itself doesn’t seem to be enough of a motivation not to mess, I took away his pants and unders after his ‘accident.’ He’s going commando and he doesn’t really like it. In fact he was pretty upset about going to nap with no pants. I keep telling him that he can’t have pants and unders if he won’t keep them clean. I think my next line of attack will be to take away his “shows.” He’s quite the couch potato, and perhaps if those get taken away it’ll get his attention. I know everyone says to be patient and “no pressure” on your potty training kids, but it’s been over a year that the child has been “training” and I’m sick of scrubbing poop out of his underwear!

Okay, rant over. *sigh*

On a much happier note, Ella has started sleeping through the night!! We were visiting my family this past weekend, and the first night we were there she didn’t get me up! I was shocked! The second night she again slept till 7:30, but only after keeping us up till 1am! So I don’t count that night. Then when we got back home I thought for sure she’d be back up at 3am, but nopers! Two nights in a row now!! I’m super excited!! She certainly loves her sleep! The longest I can keep her awake during the day is about an hour and a half. She plays with her dangly toys, and sits in her bouncy or bumbo seats just as content as can be. Once she’s tired though she just wants to be swaddled and put in her bed.

Tomorrow is her 2 month check up. Yes, it’s late. She and Myles both have to go in for check-ups and the sad part is, both have to get shots. This makes me very sad. I do NOT like it one bit when my babies have to have shots! So pray for all of us tomorrow. I imagine I’ll have at least 2 little grumpy, sad, not feeling good kids on my hands. Qade will spend the morning with his friends while I take the other 2 in. The thought of having to keep him under control while dealing with the others was way to much stress for this mama to take! It’ll be much happier all around this way.

Well, I must stop procrastinating and get some junk done. I feel like my house is attacking me! There’s so much laundry to fold and a dishwasher to empty and then refill, plus our Christmas cards are here, and need to be addressed and mailed. And I need to squeeze in my workout for today. Stuart has to monitor concessions at a game this evening so he won’t be home till late. We all miss him terribly when he has to be away during the evening. Hopefully we won’t have any major dramas though.

Toodles till next time!

Well, I thought I’d post my yogurt making experiences for all of you and inspire you to give it a whirl yourself! It’s HUGELY economical if your family likes to eat yogurt, and personally I think that it tastes way better than even the good Greek yogurt I was buying at the store. Now for the price of less than 2 of those greek yogurts I can make a whole half gallon of yogurt!!!
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