Tuesday, August 12, 2008

No Title Came to Mind......

The boys have a week off from school in October. We are already planning to take a fun family vacation that week (tell you more about it later, I am sure), something we haven’t done in the past I can’t remember how long. I’ve set myself a goal of losing some weight before that week. I would put the actual number of pounds I’d really, really like to lose, but I fear that goal may be unreasonable, so I’m just going to do the best I can about eating healthy and exercising and be content with that. I’m actually after changing my habits to healthier eating for life, anyway, not a temporary, quick-fix kind of diet.

Part of that plan involves drinking a lot of water. I was reading a diet plan in a fitness magazine my husband brought home the other day. While the diet was way too heavy on fish for this non-seafood liking woman, the advice about drinking lots of water stuck, and I pretty much know how to eat healthy, it’s just a matter of doing it. It said to drink an ounce of water for every pound I weigh. That’s a lot of water! But I’ve been drinking it, and it does help to curb the appetite enough that I don’t want as much to eat all day. That, and it does a good job of keeping me hydrated in the heat of this very hot August as we swelter toward the end of summer. Then again, the less eating could be happening because I’m just so full of liquid that my eyeballs are floating, necessitating more trips to the necessary room, if you know what I mean, so I just don’t have as much time for extra snacking.

Now if I could just get someone to hide the chocolate chip cookies I’d be floating – literally – through this changing my eating habits and eating better plan nicely. I have had some personal breakthroughs. The last three times we’ve been somewhere that the children have had fries with that, I did not eat a single one. I’m pretty good about not ordering them for myself, but the temptation to eat one or two (who are we kidding here?) of theirs is sometimes too much. Even at Arby’s the other day (by the way, I think I’m going to write that company and ask them to please, please, please put a small side salad on the menu for those of us who occasionally have to go there to appease the roast beef cravings of the little people who live with us but who really cannot eat fried stuff anymore, what do you think?) and their fries are sooo tasty, but I fought the temptation to put one in my mouth and won! Not one fry that day.

Now to the point of this rambling stream of consciousness. (There’s a point? Well, sort of.) Drew is also trying to eat healthier, and part of that is both of us are also cutting way back on the number of diet soda we drink, too. He came home with flavored bottled water yesterday, which he has come to really enjoy during this summer of the Army keeping him away from home more than he is here (almost done with that, the end is in sight, hooray!). Anyway, I was looking at the “natural grape flavored water beverage” with zero calories and zero fat that he had me try yesterday and started laughing. That’s a blog post, I laughed. What, exactly, is a water beverage? A little more than water, a lot less than juice, it’s a water beverage. Interesting. And, for the record, I’ll stick with my plain water, I think.

And while I’m thinking of water, I actually cooked fish last night. And I liked it okay. So did Drew and M – M even asked for seconds and thirds. I have finally found something he likes to eat. Unfortunately it is something I only tolerate and J and Boo didn’t like it so much, but M loved it. Loved the fish. That’s what comes of sending my husband to the store with a grocery list asking for, among everything else, cod fillets. He found several different varieties of fish and brought them all home. This non-seafood liking woman will be eating some fish in the near future it looks like.

And speaking of food, I have one more little quirky thing I have wondered often. What is process cheese food? Aside from being something else I don’t eat anymore, I mean. Not exactly cheese, not exactly food, but package it in thin little individually wrapped squares and grill it between two slices of bread and feed it to the children with tomato soup and call it food because it is actually something they will eat? Sounds about right.

2 comments:

Heather said...

Good for you. Small changes WILL add up.

It's funny,but I actually LOST a few pounds on vacation this year. Lots of walking, my sister's exercise classes, lots of seafood and fresh fruits and veggies.

Despite some indulgences it worked out. There must be something to this moderation thing.

Oh, the french fry. Quite possibly the perfect food. Unfortunately, I got ADDICTED to them during chemo (I had to eat what tasted good as I was down 30lbs you know, LOL) and now I need some sort of 12 step program.

Keep up the good work!

Lisa Hellier said...

I've been trying to drink more water as well. On the fish thing, it's a bit hit in our household. One easy and much loved recipe here is to get plain tilapia filets and sprinkle them with Greek seasoning and dabs of butter/margarine and then bake till done. Husband and I usually have to fight off the boys before it's all said and done.