The Downfall of the Points System

I am so frustrated that I gained half a pound this week. I know that sounds crazy since it was Christmas. But I really tried hard to stay within my points allowance, and I finished the week 5 points UNDER it!!! At the same time, I know exactly what I did wrong. I have been giving myself a larger allowance for nursing the baby than the system recommends based on how hungry I’ve been, and have been losing about a pound a week. But last week, I wasn’t as hungry through the day and kept ending up with 10 points leftover. Being my reckless self, instead of eating a smart snack when I got hungry in the late evening and leaving points unused, I used the rest of my points on ice cream and Pepsi and cookies, etc. :P

So, lessons learned: First, the downfall of the points system is that if I misuse it instead of listening to my body, I won’t get anywhere. Second, using a lot of points on ice cream and Pepsi isn’t the wisest thing. Yeah, I know, go figure. Third, if I'm not as hungry as I have been, it's time to scale back the points I allow myself a little.

I stand by the Points system though. See my post: Why I Love the Weight Watchers System.  I don’t think I mentioned that, used correctly, it brings a healthier balance to my diet. The way points are calculated basically penalizes me for eating foods high in fat and rewards me for eating foods high in fiber (in my case, especially vegetables).

Technically, This Post Could Be About Food…

An odd thought struck me the other day. I’m sure I’m not the first to have it. But did Mary worry about Jesus? In the last few years, I’ve struggled and I’ve watched my friends struggle as we try to figure out how to care for our children. Starting with pregnancy, “am I eating the right food, did that x-ray at the dentist’s office expose my baby, am I gaining too much weight, am I gaining enough weight, should I have a c-section or an induction or an epidural?” Then the baby comes, “should I nurse or formula feed, is she eating enough, is he sleeping enough, why is she crying, maybe he didn’t get enough milk, is she growing fast enough?” Then they get older and a whole world of questions about safety and health and discipline is discovered. Now I realize Mary didn’t have the choice of an epidural or need to worry about x-rays. But can you imagine nursing the Son of God?  That alone would have been a lot of pressure. Did she second guess herself when He refused to nap, or woke up early? As He grew, did He refuse to eat His fish for dinner? I wonder if God gave Mary complete peace that Baby Jesus was ok, and if she gave up her human worry for confidence that God would provide for all of Jesus’ needs. I’m not sure if these are productive contemplations, but there they are. I know that we can have the Peace of God in our lives, but when the baby is crying, I still have to figure out what she needs, and that is not always easy. At the end of the day, I can rest assured that God will give me wisdom if I listen and that my babies are blessings from Him that He loves and will provide for too.

Please God, quiet the swirling questions in my heart. Thank You for loving us all enough to send Your son to be our Savior. It’s just a few more days until Your Son’s Birthday! Amen

Changing Already

After a couple of my recent posts, I noticed some changes in my attitude and commitment this week. First, partly because I really want to hit my New Year’s goal, I determined we would eat at home and make good choices. This week, with Al working very late every night, would typically have been a lost week. I normally don’t think to fix dinner if he’s not home. But I knew ahead of time that he would be gone and I forced myself to do the grocery shopping and fix dinner for me and Bethany, leaving leftovers for Al. There may have been a little stress eating this week, but not too much! In the last 19 weeks, this was my 2nd lowest week in point consumption!

Second, I started talking to Bethany about foods that are good and bad for us. The times she asked for a third cookie or more chocolate and I told her no, I explained that those foods are made of sugar and sugar is not good for us, so we have to limit how much we eat. Then when I put turkey and vegetables in front of her, I explained why those things are good for us. She seemed to understand.

Third, we had a huge breakthrough with Bethany and her eating habits. For about 2 years now, she has refused to eat most foods. She loves cheese, tortillas, fresh fruit, granola bars, chocolate and cereal. That’s been breakfast, lunch and snacks for a long time. We have always offered her whatever we were eating for dinner, and when she refused, she was not offered anything else. But to no avail, she’s been happy to skip supper completely. We’ve tried different things, a variety of rewards and discipline. Nothing had worked and we had just let it lie. Then this week on Super Nanny (I’ve only seen a few episodes), they taught a 3 year old boy how to eat his dinner. They simply offered him small portions of whatever the family was eating, told him he couldn’t leave the table until he ate his dinner and used timeouts if he got out of his chair. I’m pretty sure we’ve done this before, but I was ready to give it a try again. So Wednesday night, it was just me and the girls. The day had been great, with everyone on schedule, sleeping normal and obeying well. I cooked(!) turkey, mashed potatoes (another of Bethany’s favorites), and green beans. As we sat down at the table, things were so peaceful. So I calmly explained that the rules were changing and told her that she would need to eat her turkey and green beans before she could be excused from the table. We talked about why those foods are good for us. That night she didn’t even fight it! She ate her potatoes first, of course, and stalled a little, but then she ate the rest of her food! Thursday and Friday were a little tougher, but in the end she ate her food before I was done with the dishes. My favorite quote came at lunch on Thursday. Normally she eats the same combo, cheese, a tortilla, and fruit, for lunch everyday. But that day I put turkey and green beans on her plate and explained the new rule again.  She exclaimed “but it’s lunchtime!”  Yep, mommy is messing with the preschooler’s routine.  But she ate it!  Three days and counting!

On To the Next Generation

Carrying the lesson from my previous post forward, what are we teaching our girls about food?  I think we have the tools we need to teach healthy eating habits: knowledge of healthy foods and portions, money and desire to buy and prepare healthy foods, and willingness to set good examples.  Did I miss anything?  Of course, we are still honing our tools.

But what about eating out?  I grew up on the extreme of eating out maybe 4 times a year.  Bethany is growing up on the opposite extreme of eating out 4 times a week.  My family dined out to have fun.  We dine out now for convenience. Obviously, I know we have to cut back.  But how do we handle eating out? Should it be a common thing?  That is not physically healthy.  Should it be rare? What are good reasons to dine out?  How often is it ok?  How do we teach our kids to handle eating out so they don’t grow up craving chicken nuggets and French fries when they are sad or stressed or want to celebrate something?

And what about junk food?  My family rarely had junk food in the house, but now we almost always have junk food in ours.  That has scaled back considerably since I’ve been on Weight Watchers again, but I’ve discovered Hershey Kisses are low in points, if only due to their size, so I keep them in the house all the time. I noticed the other day that they have become our regular afternoon snack, coupled with a granola bar.  I don’t want to banish junk food from the house, lest it becomes forbidden fruit, but we shouldn’t need a chocolate fix every day either.

So how do we avoid eating out and junk food becoming an issue for our kids?  Oh wait, I know that one! We need to develop a healthy attitude ourselves and then model it for the kids.  Now what is a healthy attitude?
Hmmm….

It’s Not a Party Without…

I had an interesting conversation with my sister the other day.  She had read my “About Me” page, and the part where I list out my favorite foods rung a bell for her. “I love Sonic, and Pepsi, and chocolate, and ice cream, and mounds of mashed potatoes and…”  She thought “Sonic, ding! Pepsi, ding! Chocolate, ding!” and so on.  All of those things have been comfort foods for her too.  Being 8 years older than me, she remembers life when we were little and our parents had no money.  Eating out (always at Sonic) was rare, and considered a family fun night.  Pepsi, Ding Dongs, and ice cream were *the* special treat we sometimes had, and always went together.  And we only had mashed potatoes with a roast, and that was the special/celebratory meal that mom cooked for us.  These all represent what we remember as “Party Night at the Readers!”  There’s one mystery solved.  I love those foods because there are many happy memories associated with them.  So now to overcome the thought that it is the food that makes me happy and remember that it is the time with family and the fun we have that warms my heart.  And that true happiness only comes from the hope and love I have found in Christ.

First Fitness Goals

In the absence of Bob & Jillian, I decided I should set a couple of fitness goals at the gym to motivate myself.  They are probably laughable to anyone who knows anything about fitness, but I have to start somewhere, right?  Baby Steps…

#1) Finish a mile in under 15 minutes.  A good walking pace for me is a 17:30 minute mile.  It gets my heart pumping and any faster would require a jog.  But I remember from high school that a 15 minute mile is a basic fitness test, and I remember that I barely passed that test.  So earlier this week I did a 16:30 minute mile and last night I slashed my time to 15:19!

#2) Leg raises - 3 reps of 10.  The equipment at the gym requires me to hold up my body weight while trying to pull my knees up to my chest using my abdominal muscles.  So far, I can do 3 reps of 2.

I feel pretty good about my leg strength.  After all, they’ve been moving my 200 pound body around for years.  So after the treadmill, I do the circuit of machines that work my arms, back and abs.

Thank you, Biggest Loser, for giving me the courage and motivation to go to the gym!  If they can do it, so can I!  And if I can do it, so can you!!!

6 Hours Later…

So, 6 hours after my last post, I felt much, much better.  Bekah finally fell asleep, then she woke up and I fed her.  Bethany was already awake so we loaded up and went to the gym.  I skipped the solid food Bekah should have had because we were running out of time before the childcare closed.  Al got off work and met us there.  We worked out for an hour and then decided to get Wendy’s for dinner, but we both made healthy choices, making the meal just a little more than a normal meal at home.  I went from feeling lethargic, nauseous and depressed to energetic, healthy and happy.  Weird.  I’m not sure I’ve ever noticed exercise altering my mood that much.

What is wrong with me?

I have been stress eating this week.  Al is working long hours to hit a major deadline before Christmas on top of us both having a lot of commitments.  Bekah decided to stop napping in her bed and sleeping through the night the last two weeks.  The duplex seems to be getting smaller, and I’m stressing over when we will get to move and where we will live next.  So, we hit Wendy’s and McDonalds because I didn’t feel like cooking.  Then Applebee’s last night so we could have a little fun time with Daddy before he had to get back to work.  And Chinese food with friends on Sunday and Italian today with my girlfriends, all of whom we haven’t seen as much lately.

But why?  Why is food so comforting to me?  Why don’t I deal with the stress and pressure in more productive ways?  On the upside, my gym finally opened its new facility and now offers inexpensive childcare.  So a couple of days this week, I “escaped” to the gym.  But now I am out of excuses not to get to the gym and pressuring myself to make the time.  But timing a trip to the gym while childcare is available when Bethany and Rebekah are not eating or sleeping (or supposed to be sleeping) is proving difficult.

I struggle with depression, and I feel myself slipping.  So here I am, forcing myself to post on the blog asking for accountability, as I listen to Bekah cry and fight another nap.  And when her nap is over I’m going to feed her, get Bethany up and head to the gym again.  I will pick up and continue on after all my lapses this week.

Oh no, I better get my workout clothes into the dryer if I want to use them in an hour…