Words from the Wise...

My mom left a comment on the previous post that reminded me of something funny. Here's what she said:

Long past due in my humble opinion! You have run yourself ragged feeding the troops for years! I think the dinner call and time limit is a great idea as well. Eat it or don't, it doesn't matter but there will be NOTHING else until the next meal even if they threaten to faint or die :). You go girl!!

My mom is not one to go around foisting her opinions on her children. In fact, I would say she shows superhuman strength when it comes to not saying things that I imagine she would like to say. :) She's amazing.

I can remember one time, though, when I had just 2 little ones and my mom came to visit. I think it was probably when I was about to deliver my third child. She was observing my crazy efforts to cater to my picky children's whims for meals and snacks, and finally offered this observation (very gently):

"Honey, I think you've taken the concept of Demand Feeding too far."

hahahahahahahahahHAHAHAAHAHAHAAHAHahahahahahaahaha

Too true!

I've laughed and laughed about that daring comment over the years. An understatement, to be sure!

I'm happy to report that meals are going fine. I have not have to send any complainers to bed yet, so that's great. I was serving lasagna last night and some of my kids don't like pasta with sauce on it, so I decided to refresh the concept of Not Complaining in their minds before it got to be dinner time. I said to my littlest one (4 years old), "Now, you don't want to complain about what we're eating, do you? Because what will happen if you complain?"

He sweetly looked up at me with his big brown eyes and said, "If I complain I get to go on the beddy-bye train."

BINGO!

No complainers, and they all ate and even complimented me on the meal. (even the one that hates sauce the most)

I also taught them the fine art of nicely asking for a small portion if the item is not something they enjoy eating, and the difference between asking in a nice way, and asking in a way that is a form of complaint. They did very well.

My daughter, the picky one, is even showing signs of progress. The first night's meal ended up being something she likes, so there was no challenge there. Then last night she was invited to go to a church supper with a friend of hers. I told her that if she went she would have to follow our rule of trying the food that is served before eating bread and butter or whatever. I was pleased to hear that she did actually give the spaghetti a try even without her mother there to make it happen.

The meal helpers jobs are coming along well too. it's kind of a pain to have to make the effort to round up each kid as it becomes time for their job, but overall I think they are fine with doing what they do. My two kindergarteners are enjoying wiping off the table and setting it. it's great for counting (how many forks do we need?) and sorting, etc.

In my enthusiasm about my 16lb weight loss I started thinking about losing more weight, I realized what all of you probably already know: You can lose a pound a week by decreasing your daily caloric intake by 500 calories. Considering that a lot of people consume way more than 500 calories of coffee, soda, and juice, I am thinking this should be fairly easy for a lot of you. (just think! Give up that little bit of beverages, and in a year you'd be down 52 pounds!!) Unfortunately (or not), I don't drink any coffee, soda, and almost no juice, so it's not as simple for me to cut those things out, but I decided to start keeping track of my calories in order to make sure that the eating stays on track for at least a pound weight loss every week. My workouts are extra.

So, today is day three of keeping a food journal. I have been surprised to see that actually I was already doing pretty well on eating even less than my goal. Yesterday I did feel hungry (and cranky!!) through the day because I knew lasagne was coming up for dinner and I wanted to be able to enjoy it. So, I skimped on the eating earlier and had a nice enjoyable dinner and all was well and still ok in the calories dept.

I don't like having to look at calorie info for every thing, and I do find that it makes me feel paranoid about every little thing I put in my mouth. I don't love that, but think this is probably worth doing for at least a few more days or a week. If I could lose 2 pounds a week that would be really groovy, and I'd be 20 pounds lighter before our trip in June.

Blah blah blah weight loss, blah blah blah boring. Ok, enough! Have a good day!