I hate dieting

Who doesn't hate dieting? I lost about 20 lbs. 6 years ago, and I have had to work SO hard to keep it off all this time. I have to workout about 5 times a week. I have to watch what I eat EVERY day, and I am so tired of it. I just want to be able to eat what I want when I want. I want to eat a hot fudge sundae after dinner every night. I want to be able to snack on jordan almonds all day long. I want to munch on chips and dip when I feel like it. I want to be able to drink orange juice with my breakfast every morning. I want to have a coke when I feel like it. Oh yeah, and I want dessert after lunch too. But, alas, I can not do these things if I want to stay at a healthy weight.

So, I will continue to drink ONLY water every day. I will eat my wheaties with skim milk in the morning without any orange juice. I will indulge in ONLY 5 jordan almonds a day. I will ONLY have a popsicle for dessert each night. I will banish all cookies and chips from my house. I will make myself go running each morning. I will only eat out once a week.

Now, eating out is the ONE time where I eat what I want. So, on our Saturday night date, I had the following amazing dinner: 2 rolls with olive oil, 2 artichoke raviolis, part of an amazing filet mignon, some walnut crusted flounder, and 1/2 of a chocolate cherry torte. The memory of this meal will need to stay with me for this whole week because nothing that good will touch my lips for the next 7 days.

Getting in touch with your inner child

I am 33 years old and I love playing dress-up. Halloween is one of my favorite holidays, and I enjoy dressing up alongside my 3 and 4 year old. Whenever there is a festival or event in town that lends itself to wearing a costume, I do it. I live in Austin, TX and every year there is the "Keep Austin Weird 5K". This year, I wore a flourescent pink wig and a go-go dress. I convinced my husband to dress like DEVO from the "Whip It" video, complete with flower pot hat and sleeveless black turtleneck. We were definitely the weirdest in the bunch, and had our picture taken a lot. Another Austin original event is Eeyore's Birthday party, and people dress up in all sorts of crazy costumes. You'll find me there dressed up as a fairy, with my two little fairy daughters by my side.

I spent a lot of years not dressing up at Halloween or any other occasion for that matter. I think I used to think that I had outgrown that kind of thing. But lately, I've really been thinking that life is short and you have to have fun. My daughters have a huge dress-up box at our house, and play dress-up every single day. It is truly their favorite activity. So, I thought, I have fun wearing cotumes too, so why not indulge myself at Halloween and a few special Austin events each year? My fellow stay-at-home moms may think I'm a little crazy, but in recent years I've become quite comfortable with who I am, and don't place as high a value on what other people think. Plus, when my husband and I are old and grey, we'll have some fun memories of crazy costumes to talk about.

One week in paradise

On Saturday, my husband and I are going to St. John for our 10 year anniversary. My in-laws and my mom have generously offered to babysit our 3 and 4 year olds while we are gone for a WHOLE week. Of course, we locked them in to this commitment when the girls were babies and they thought "by the time your anniversary comes, they will be older and so much easier". Of course, they are older, but also a lot more willful. So, I put them in a morning camp next week, to give our babysitters a little break from their dear grandchildren. I also put together a 4 page document with contact information, directions, ideas for activities, etc. I think everything will go fine. As for me, I am LONG overdue for a break, as is my husband.

We travelled a lot before kids, but I don't think we quite appreciated the vacation like we will this time. After having kids, we've left them with our parents for a couple nights, but never a whole week. We are going back to the place we stayed for our honeymoon in St. John, USVI. It's a house called Cocolobo, and it's an amazing place. It's on a cliff with an amazing view of the ocean. It's also very private, and we have our own pool. St. John is a pretty cool island, but truth be told, it's the house we're going there for. So, as of Saturday night, we will be driving our jeep on some dirt roads to get to Cocolobo. I hope it's everything we remember. We're looking forward to lots of quiet - reading, swimming, hiking, and meals with just the two of us.

I can't believe it's only 2 days away... we've been daydreaming about it for so long.

Wannabe Rollergirl

My husband and I recently went to a Texas Rollergirls roller derby for the first time. It really made me want to be a rollergirl. My husband says NO, and in my heart I know it's unrealistic. For one, I have two small children, and if I got hurt, I don't know we would take care of them (since my husband works full time). Moreover, it's smoky and requires me to be out late. So why do I want to be a rollergirl? First, the way the girls were dressed was so cool - pigtails, fishnet stockings, and miniskirts. What a contrast to how I and other Moms dress! Also, I like rollerskating (or at least I used to when I was a teenager), and trying to shove my way through the pack sounds like a pretty good time. I guess because it's such a stark contrast to my current lifestyle. I guess I'll just daydream about it.

Going to bed hungry

I have 2 girls - ages 3 and 4. I can pretty much count on them going to bed without eating much or any dinner at least 3 times a week. They often don't like what I serve, and I refuse to make them a special meal that I know they would like. I feel kind of guilty about this sometimes, but their pediatrician seemed to think this was quite OK.

I don't try to make them eat anything unreasonable, like especially spicy foods. If they want more of the roll/rice/other carb with dinner, they have to eat some of the other stuff on their plate first. I've heard the theory that you shouldn't place a higher value on one type food than another, but I don't know how else to get them to eat their veggies.

So, most nights when we all sit down to dinner, I get to hear a lot of "I don't like squash" or "I don't want to eat my chilli". So, my husband and I tell them "well, don't eat it if you don't like it, but this is dinner". When my husband has to be out of town, I miss having at least one other person who thinks my dinners are good. When he is home, at least 2 out of 4 of us like the meal.
When he's gone, I feel like I don't want to spend a bunch of effort on a meal that only I will eat.

Both my girls are at a healthy weight/height. I have some friends whose children are very short or very underweight. They make special meals at night for them, and I can understand their concern in putting their kids to bed hungry. If I was in that situation, I might do that too. But since I'm not, I won't make them macaroni and cheese or hot dogs for dinner. They'll just have to eat my turkey burger, brocolli, and black bean salad. Of course, no one will actually eat my black bean salad and I'll have to hear lots of whining about it. I guess that's the way it goes.