How I Feel About Eating

A few years ago, I spent a weekend with some cousins. Girl cousins to be exact. And you know what I realized once again? How much girls talk about food and calories and exercise and bodies and weight. Oh.my.gosh. One day we went on a tour of a cave with a total of 440 stairs. On the way out, one of the girls began talking about how, "this should burn off those 20 pieces of licorice that I ate." And then the discussion of calories began. I can hang with the best of them in the calorie counting game, but I just don't think that's how it's meant to be. I believe that food is fuel and obsessing about calories will, in the end make you a sad fatty or a sad skinny, but either way, it only makes your end up sad.

The thing that was most disconcerting about all of this discussion from the girls is that later that night, their 10 year old sister began talking about exercising to burn off the calories she had eaten. What?! A ten year old who is slim and healthy and hasn't even hit puberty and therefore has about 5% body fat is well on her way to developing the body image issues so prevalent in the women of America.

I've noticed a trend on Pinterest. My friends have tons of  "skinny" recipes pinned. Everything from black bean burgers to avacado wraps. These are the acceptable foods. The foods they "should" eat. Alongside this righteous world of slim, there are hundreds of pins of desserts. Desserts they will pine over, but never eat unless they are doing so in binge quantity. It's the world of obsession played out in front of me.

Now I'm pretty obsessive about when I will eat and what I will eat and how I will eat it and all that. If you ever want to get bored, ask me to tell you about inutive eating.

Let me tell you something about our culture as American women. We like to talk about dieting. If someone refuses dessert we either hail them as disciplined and priase their self control or we take the opposing stance telling them we hate them for their discipline and that really they should just give in on their new diet and have a brownie.

Well I'll tell you what, I've had enough of it.

If I want a brownie, I'll eat one. Really, I will. I don't care if it's made with butter (gasp), in fact I don't care if it's made with lard. If I eat a brownie because I want to, I don't want to talk about how many calories are in it or how I'm going to have to bike it off later that afternoon. I don't want guilt or shame or elation or anything else. I just want to enjoy the brownie because I wanted it. The same goes for the things I don't wat to eat. If I don't, I don't, and it's not crazy and we don't need to talk about how I can work it off later or how it's okay to indulge once in a while or how they have a "skinny vegetarian option." If I want to eat  it, I'm going to eat it, regardless of how healthy it is or isn't. And that is neither crazy nor ridiculous. It's intuitive.

Why not eat what we want, when we want, without explanation?

The end.

We Made A Friend

We found this little guy on the way home from work today. Makes me feel better about the times our dog takes it upon himself to venture out and about without permission. 

Don't worry, "Waston," as little man calls him, found his way safely back to his owner, much to the delay of little man who can only say of the experience, "I wish we had a dog like that."

The BABE

First bike ride since surgery, you guys, since MAY.  It was bliss. 

#RockingBody

The Park

If you've never had the experience of walking, ahem...being walked by our dog to the park, let me tell you, you are missing out. 

Monday I took these two to the park where a responsible (read:the opposite of responsible) dog owner felt it was best to keep their girl lady off a leash because hey, there are children and other dogs around, hello. So ensues a little dog "fight" where Sarge maybe ran little man over and at the very least was growling and all that jazz. It was SOOO great. At the end of it all, I feel like little man summed it up best, "That was not awesome!" 

The Giving Tree

When I was a teenager I was really into the idea that I should get a whole collection of children's books together so I could read them to my kids someday. Luckily for me, my mom is one of the best supporters of childhood literacy and took it upon herself to teach all of her children to read. At home. Prior to starting kindergarten. She supported my desire for good children's literature by purchasing good literature for me for every birthday and Christmas I can remember. 

This evening little man was distressed in bed. I went in and offered to read him a bedtime story. He chose one my mother gave him for Christmas. One you can only read with a flashlight. Like I said, my mother is a winner. When we finished, I asked if he wanted to read another. He did so we chose The Giving Tree by Shel Silverstein. A gift from my mother many years ago. Little man said, "Oh yeah! They have this at my library school." He then proceeded to tell me the plot of the entire book. And then I read it to him.

It may have something to do with being snuggled up to a six year old who teaches me daily how to give and how to be less selfish, or it may be something else, but during that last little part where the tree is recounting everything she's given to the boy and how she has nothing left to give, I started crying. Not like tearing up, like full on crying. And how at the end, all she wants is to be with the man. Tears, I'm telling you. And we talked about how the tree was happy when she was making the man happy, but how she was most happy when they were together. 

And I'm sure there's a metaphor in there somewhere, but if nothing else, I'm grateful to have a mother who taught me how to love good books, and I'm grateful for the little man in my life who gets to benefit from her influence. I'm also, naturally, grateful for bed time snuggles and the purity of goodness he brings into my life so effortlessly. 

P.S. If you're interested in being a mother like my mother, may I refer you to the following book, which she used to teach us all how to read.  http://www.amazon.com/Teach-Your-Child-Read-Lessons/dp/0671631985

Totes Adorbs

Christmas Eve Eskimo kisses. This little lady is so cute sometimes I think I can't stand it. 

Tired?

I went in this afternoon to see a patient to follow up on some things from this morning. 

Her: "You must work very hard." 

Me: "Why do you say that?"

Her: "Well, this morning you looked all chipper and bright, and now you look nice, but a little tired."

Um, Thanks? 

A Nice Little Welcome Home

The husband (I got married, did you hear?) and I came home from Puerto Rico yesterday. This morning we picked little man up from Kindergarten and had a nice little relaxed day. While I was unpacking, little man looked at me and said all excited, 

"Are you gonna live here all the time now?" 

"Yeah. All the time. Will that be awesome or not awesome?" 

"Yeah awesome!" 

Melt my heart. 

Mac and Cheese

Dear Liz,

This is basically the same as mac & cheese. Consider saving your money next time. 

Love, 

Yourself

Predictive Text Is At It Again.

Oh man this one killed me. Especially since my #RockingBody quest has me focused on health and fitness over skinniness (It's not a word. I know. I know, but you get my drift).