7 Quick Takes Re: Nothing in Particular (& the diet)

• Hard to get used to: Vegetables with breakfast. It would be one thing if I had time to make omelets in the morning, but I don't. So, V8 it is. Which is fine, I like V8. What's a diet without it, really?


• They stress you're not supposed to have High Fructose Corn Syrup. I get that, sure. But I'm not eating non-fat, sugar-free PLAIN yogurt. Gross. I got a Yoplait NF/SF blackberry yogurt yesterday at the store, which is a perfectly acceptable yogurt in any other diet scenario. And since I dislike yogurt SO much, but need my dairy servings, guess what, South Beach? HFCS. Pbbbllltt. Still: I like having to be conscious of HFCS. Like all you other organic-minded people. Makes me feel like I'm part of the IN crowd.


• Enough about the diet, How're your mom-n-them? My Mom and I had a fun phone conversation Wednesday. We talk at least one weekday afternoon while I'm driving to get the kids. And while I'm sitting in the parking lot putting off getting the kids. (Ha. It's impossible lately to talk WITH the kids in the vicinity.) We chatted about the idea of parents moving to where their kids/grandkids live. Surprisingly, 3 generations on my Mom's side have learned to be Moms without our OWN Moms around every day. I wish it weren't that way at times, but on the other hand, there's truth to the saying, "Two things you can give your children: One is roots, the other, wings." How often do you talk with your Mom?


• From the Less Philosophical Files: KT refuses barettes and ponytails these days, so I got her hair cut shorter than usual. It's better. Still doesn't stop her from getting maple syrup and who-knows-what-else in it! She's a little pixie with this hair.
• I've just had a very odd Twitter encounter. Someone found my account by happenstance, I think, and started following me. There are some striking similarities between him and my cousin (who's almost a brother to me). Both are pianists/composers, in that soft, Windham-Hill-records style; both grew up in north Florida; both are gentle souls with a Christian mission and generous outlook. I'm really intrigued at why/how this person found my account - he lives in my town.
• We're south-Georgia-bound this evening, to pick up AJ. I have missed that boy. I've even caught myself missing him beside my bed in the early morning when I wake up. (For some reason he has taken to coming into our bedroom again. He curls up on the floor with an extra pillow and his blanket. I always have to be careful I don't step on him in my half-dazed, 5:30 a.m. state.) I can't wait for a good AJ-cuddle.

• After we get him, it's one week and then school starts! Summer has flown by. I'm already anxious for fall weather, though, like the rest of the country. I'm wanting to hike the mountain and have picnics, and these 100-degree days just won't do.

More quick takes here... happy weekend!

Jumping In?

I think I'm going to try it (South Beach Diet). Just had my cottage cheese and V8 for the morning. If I commit, I'm starting in Phase 2. Which is basically a good Weight Watchers-like, sensible diet plan. I don't really believe in Phase 1. I am wise to the fact that it's water weight that you're losing at first, and more important, I call bullshit on the idea that you can "eliminate" carby cravings completely. Don't think so. I will never stop loving Cheeze-Its, no matter how much lean turkey and string cheese I eat! While I would love to lose a quick 5 pounds and thus be extra motivated, I'm pretty much unwilling to give up apples and Triscuits. They are my workday staples and they're allowed in Phase 2.

Besides that, I only want to lose about 8 pounds and the FAQs say I don't have to start with Phase 1, in that case. So there. All hail the FAQs! I'm signed up for the free trial period online, and I can use the site for $20 through the end of August. That seems like a fair minimum amount to contribute towards better eating.

I'm happy that there are no calories to count. Giant relief. I am sick to death of trying to track calories/points. However, the idea that you only eat until you're satisfied is daunting. I eat very fast. I never really KNOW that I'm satisfied, until I'm past the point -- until I'm Very Full. So that will be the biggest challenge, I think.

I've got questions, of course, but scouring the Message Boards today to find answers. Is decaf coffee really required? Do grape tomatoes count or are they too sweet? Etc.

DH is worried he's going to have to eat "yucky stuff" to help me. He is sweet to be supportive but I'm not going to make him eat yucky stuff. It's fun to have a new project, even if it does continue the annoying, near-obsessive thinking about food. At least in the beginning.

Diet dichotomy

I was just doing some research on the South Beach Diet website, debating whether or not to sign up for their online tools. I'm probably buying the book today.

In my subsequent click, I searched for a slow-cooker Buffalo Wings recipe, since I have a package of wings in my freezer this week. HA! (Didn't find one -- I'll likely marinate, then grill them. I guess that might even fit into the South Beach scenario, sort-of.) It just felt funny to look up a diet and then look up WINGS.

Anyway, I feel like I need a food PLAN. I not only NEED, but WANT some new recipes for dinners and lunches. I mean, I basically know how to cook more healthfully, but I resort instead to all my old habits. I was thinking Phase One of SBD might be a good idea, because lordy, have I had eaten some garbage lately. Dumb eating episodes like last night's Animal Crackers binge, for instance. Which was a "finish with something sweet" antidote to the chips-n-salsa episode ten minutes before. All that because I'd forced myself to eat a small dinner, since I'd had a giant fast-food lunch. SIGH.

I'm thinking the Intervention aspect of Phase One would stop all that nonsense in its tracks, if I could stick with it for 2 weeks. (Even though, according to the plan, I could technically start in Phase Two, having less than 10 pounds to lose.)

I know Mighty Maggie's a fan of the SBD. Anyone else tried it with success?

p.s. Changed my template because something weird was going on with it! I'll miss those big ol' flowers.

Day One, Operation Flex-Time, A Success!

Aside from the fact that I stupidly forgot to TURN ON MY ALARM for the Crack-O-Dawn, yesterday's first flex-time day went off without a single hitch. AJ woke me, for some reason, at 5:34, which was only 15 minutes past my intended alarm, so I hurried through showering and getting dressed. Since it was a real "project," I had been excited to prep the night before:

1. Made sandwiches for lunch, for me and DH;
2. Cut banana bread for the kids' breakfast;
3. Put my makeup in a bag to take with me;
4. Set the coffee pot (with a couple of extra scoops!).

I think the makeup was the key. I don't spend a lot of time on makeup, but taking it out of the morning process sped things up quite a bit, and I put it on when my computer was booting up and no one else was at the office yet, at 6:30 a.m. Total genius if I do say so myself.

My other shining moment was making sure I did NOT log into Facebook, my personal email, or Google Reader during that first hour. I knew that playing online would make me feel cheated, like "Why did I get up this early to do nothing?" So I got some things DONE. It was quite a productive day, work-wise. The extra caffeine hopped me up noticeably, but I was also running around for other reasons so it was fine.

DH said the kids were perfect at home, and they were dressed and ready to go well before we usually are on regular days. Makes me think this is going to work. But no guarantees... it could totally fall apart tomorrow. (You: Especially if you don't set the alarm, smart-box.)

A weekend

Sometimes when I think back on weekends, I'm like, "What did we even DO?" So, to answer my own question:

Friday night, we had oven-baked chicken strips, rice (mac-n-cheese for the kids), and green beans for dinner. We gave the kids baths. They chased each other around naked. We read stories; I put KT to bed while AJ and his Daddy watched their shows (Ben10 and GeneratorRex). We went downstairs and I read a couple pages of my book. I sacked out. DH played some video games.

Saturday, we had breakfast (sausage/pancake on a stick for kids, and turkey-sausage muffins for me and DH). We watched cartoons. The little ones played in the living room (KT is getting Ad.Or.A.Ble, playing with her dolls. Putting them to bed, rocking/patting, talking to them.) while I dusted and DH got the yard mowed. After that, the kids and I went to Target for school supplies, Barbie clothes (on clearance!), and for AJ to frivolously spend a birthday gift card. ($30 for a toy he later declared "Lame.") We brought lunch home. Kids were happy to drink Sprite. We played some more, I think I ordered AJ's 1st-grade textbooks to the tune of $226, and DH and I took our showers. Then I went to Mass to do my once-monthly cantoring gig. I think I decided to rejoin the church choir, because my sight reading skills have definitely dwindled. Can't let that happen, even though choir is a giant commitment that tires me just thinking about it. When I came home, KT had napped a little (Thank the Lord), and I threw together some pizzas for dinner. Stories, bed, annnnd ZONK! on the couch again.

Sunday morning we all went to Mass. KT wore her beautiful Strasbourg Children dress, bought on sale, that I adore. It's a little big, which I hope means she'll also be able to wear it next summer. They were mostly good, we saw a lot of acquaintances, including our neighbor who told me I need to sign up to be a lector, and the little girl who wrote "I am going to marrey you" in AJ's yearbook. Hee. Dunkin Donuts afterwards. KT went, and then announced to the whole restaurant, "I WENT PEE PEE!" She is doing quite well with potty training but I'm SO weary of it. AJ had his 45 minutes of screen-time, then we wrote his birthday thank-yous, about which he pitched a major fit. He got through it. Spaghetti-Ohs for lunch. Played outside, a fabulous bubble-blowing party. DH and I decided we need to get a battery-powered bubble machine, and move our deck chairs to the driveway where we can crack open a drink while the kids run around. Why have we not thought of this before?! We had popsicles for snack, then went inside because it was starting to rain. Kids "helped" me make banana bread. No naps. Cleaned a potty. Watched some baseball, and some dumb kids' movie on Disney while doing laundry. Wanted dinner out, but because of no naps, we opted to make turkey burgers instead. Kids "helped." DH continued with laundry because he is the best. Baths -- I'm enjoying my 10 minute break to read now that they're old enough to play relatively safely in the bath -- a serious talk with AJ about why he needs to STOP jumping on the bed with KT around, stories, and bed. I managed to stay awake to watch a weird show on Animal Planet, and some Family Guy. We went to bed around 10.

I don't know if we are extremely boring or totally normal. What did you do this weekend?

A few Yatt stories for ya

Admittedly, Yatt moving in next-door has not been nearly as bad as I would have imagined about a year ago. Too bad for the blog, right?? But in fact, because she's one of the only other women here with a toddler, I do find that I relate to her, moreso than to the ladies in Customer Care, for instance.

But not to worry: She definitely provides cringey and eye-rolly moments. Some reasons to QUICKLY get up and find somewhere else to be. Some Golden Opportunities To Practice Patience. And since I know that some of my readers are as catty and immature as I am, I thought I would share. I'm a giver.

1. Did I mention Yatt is pregnant with #2? I bet I didn't. And you know how much fun a know-it-all is when she is expecting!! She doesn't share every detail of her uterine landscape with me (yet), but I'm ready for it. She does refer to her baby by the name they plan to give him, which has always bugged me. WORSE SINCE HIS NAME IS THE NAME OF MY COLLEGE BOYFRIEND, HA HA! Okay, that's pretty funny - just as I was typing this up, I realized that's the most annoying part about it. And lord forbid if she's feeling a little pain from baby M @ t t h e w (GAH). EDITED: (Wasn't nice anyway) He's only 23 weeks along or something, but one day she acted like his feet were pushing into her ribcage. I wanted to tell her, ummm, he isn't big enough or turned enough to be kicking your ribs, dumbass. (Whoops, let that one slip. She really is a very nice person.)

2. LOUD EATER ZOMG. I didn't know this before because she was a good 20 feet away. But holy cannoli. (Warning: hyperbole ahead.) This week it's been a giant Wal-Mart bag of trail mix, and another giant Wal-Mart bag of dried fruit for snacks. Including banana chips. POPS 'em in her open mouth and CRACKS every nut so that the people in Suite 414 down the hall can probably ALSO feel the tremor. *!!*!* This is my #1 pet peeve in any human. No lie. Obnoxious mouth noises are the work of the Devil himself.

3. The other day, she went thru the drive-thru at Starbucks. (Yet another similarity between us! We both love Sbux! I swear it's stupid how alike we actually are.) And she's pregnant. So evidently her coffee, which was supposed to have been decaf, made her feel very jumpy. Well, instead of pouring it down the drain, getting some water and moving on with her life, she felt the need to call them up. Just to tell them that she thought, and didn't appreciate, their giving her a caffeinated coffee. "I'm Pregnant," she told the guy authoritatively. "And this coffee has me wiggin' out." (She DID say "wiggin'.") Like he could do anything about it at that point! I know that guy, since I frequent there as much as she does, and he is always overly nice and accommodating. I heard her refuse whatever free beverage he offered in apology (if she didn't want something, why did she bother calling?), but she reiterated 2 or 3 times that she is PREGNANT. Then she asked me later, "Did you hear me talking to Starbucks earlier?"

YES. I COULDN'T ACTUALLY HAVE MISSED IT.

Ohhhh, I think it's going to be a delightful gestation.

Advice for the shopping impaired

I’m wearing one of those giant rings that are popular these days. It’s awesome, and so NOT ME. I am just not stylish in any way. Well, maybe one way – I usually have decent hair, only because I like to keep it short, and in order for short hair to be decent hair, it needs a good cut and shape. But clothing and accessories-wise, forget it. I am five-dollar tee shirts and 2 pairs of Payless shoes all summer. I am the same cheap purse from April through November. I am a solid or a floral print, period. I bore myself! But these big showy rings, I like. (They do get in the way of typing, though, and washing hands.)

When I bought them, I was doing my shopping for work. And because the layout had already been decided, I knew I needed items in shades of blue or orange. I want to share this with you because it was so helpful: just shopping for a few things, all in the same color family, was a VERY comfortable way to do it. I felt freed, somehow, from all of my usual constraints:

• The racks and racks of clothes didn’t overwhelm me, because my eyes went only to the colors I was looking for.
• I shopped for the layout – as in, what will look good grouped together on the page, with a clean, white background. Imagining things in groups that way was a totally new perspective that helped me vary what I chose.
• I shopped by department. After I’d found a blouse, for example, I knew I could move on to shoes. I was DONE with blouses. No need to dilly-dally or make sure I’d found everything I could find. Time to move on.

I’ve always been a visual learner, I guess, but didn’t realize it until now. Taking copious notes in school was actually my way of visualizing. Here’s a peek at what I bought that day:


I think this would work if you have a monthly clothes budget, too. Or if your girlfriend invites you shopping, and you allot $150 to spend on yourself, for instance. Think of a few items you might like: a new necklace or bracelet, one shirt, a pair of shoes, and one other accessory. Depending on where you go, you could do all of that – in one color family. You don’t want everything the same, of course – instead, you want a red/pink/black floral print, a fire-engine red purse, a silver necklace, maybe with pink Swaroski crystals, and black/red strappy sandals. It doesn’t all have to be “an outfit,” but it could if you wanted it to. You might never buy black/red strappy sandals if you didn’t shop within that color. But hey! Look at you now! Stylish!

I’m just dying to try this again. We took the kids to the mall during July 4th weekend – they never go there so it was very exciting for them (AJ especially wanted to hit the gumball machine kiosk). That day, we were shopping for DH, not for me, but as I walked around Macy’s I decided the next time I shop, it’s going to be this method. Rainbow Brite Shopping. I’ll let you know how it goes.

Long, with sub-heads

I’ve missed writing. Was asked to complete a 200-word article yesterday at the office and I realized it had been a while since I’d done any writing there, either. Too busy doing database work and Google Adwords and yucky things like that. But there are words that want to be shared today.

The Via Experiment
I’m trying my first cup of Starbucks Via today. It’s pretty decent, happy to report. I mean, Instant Coffee… I was definitely skeptical, but nothing could be worse than office coffee (have I said that before?) and sometimes I don’t feeeeeel like making a pot the night before, and sometimes I also don’t feel like stopping at the drive-thru. In fact. IN. FACT… I’m even a little sick of my usual orders at The McDonalds Of Coffee, which are, in rotation:

• Grande non-fat no-whip toffee nut latte
• Grande non-fat no-whip peppermint mocha
• Grande skinny vanilla (latte)
• Tall Pike Place Roast in a Grande cup w/skim and Splenda.

All delicious. The first one there is courtesy of my sister, a Seattleite (Seattle-r?). I believe she suggested it the first time I visited The First Starbucks – the one whose sign is brown, not green – and it stuck. I have been drinking Toffee Nut lattes for about 10 years, I guess. I am sure you’re riveted by my salvation history in coffee. The password to login to my computer is currently Coffeecoff33. A while back it was St*rbucks. You might say I’m a big fan.

The Birthday Boy and the Bloggers
It’s birthday weekend again at our house – AJ is SIX. His new haircut makes him look so handsome and GROWN, and the dental hygienist said one of his teeth is loose! My big boy. His dinner of choice last night ended up being an homage to some of my favorite bloggers. I thought of Lag Liv’s recent post, and family tradition, because AJ chose an at-home dinner. Typically we go out for birthdays, but instead he wanted Brinner – breakfast for dinner. So we had Pancakes and over-processed bacon (“Fully Cooked” from a box, because I can’t stand to see a skillet full of grease when cooking real bacon, blech). The meal made me think of Mir, because of the bacon (obvs), but also because I made a “6” shaped pancake and stuck a candle in it, a la Otto. Everyone was impressed and it made things festive. You see what good the Internet is doing in this world? We're celebrating this weekend with all the grandparents and a large costumed rodent.

I have been so proud of AJ lately, helping me with Terrible-Twos-infected KT (she complies when HE asks her to eat her yogurtfortheloveagod), playing nicely with her, cleaning up his things (sometimes), and all those other responsible things that kids actually CAN do as they get older. Last night for the first time, we let him cut his own pancakes using a knife; he only licked the syrup off the knife once.

[update: 2nd cup of Via. Mmmm.]

The Bookworm Again
I have returned to reading. Finally! I'm so glad to have received a Kindle for my birthday (thanks, DH!), and in the last 2 months, the books I've read have included:

• Eclipse, by Stephanie Meyer. I gave in to the hype of the movie. I had read the first 2 books last year sometime, and I'm glad I took a long break. It's fun remembering, and I do really like the series, despite its teenagey-lame-bad-metaphors. I’ve yet to see any movies, but they’re in the queue for this weekend or next.
• Escape, by Carolyn Jessop. This was on my wish list forever, and it’s the first thing I read on the Kindle. It’s about the FLDS, which you may know is one of my deep curiosities/interests. Those poor people. I learned a lot. I still wonder why she kept the name Jessop, though! Good grief, I would have rid myself of THAT connection toute de suite. I guess it was for publicity’s sake.
• The Help, by Kathryn Stockett. I still can’t believe this was her first novel. Amazing, funny story about the South in the sixties. Sometimes I get weary of that difficult topic – there seem to be a LOT of novels about it – but this one was entirely different. It was more a story about women, really, even though race relations was a huge part of it. I lapped it up like sweet cream. So good.
• Commencement, by J. Courtney Sullivan. This was a book club choice and I liked it, but didn’t love it. (Fiction about 4 girls who attended Smith College.) The ending made me mad, and I like having a real reaction to a book even if it’s a negative reaction. What I don’t like is when I start one and don’t get interested enough to finish it, like happened with
• The Lost City of Z, by David Grann. It’s still sitting on my nightstand but I’m unsure if I’ll revisit it this year or not. I want to be interested in it (non-fiction about a late 19th-century explorer of jungles and tribes), but so far... eh.

I always like blog posts about the books you’re reading, so I thought I’d share my latest. If you’ve stumbled on something you think I should read, please share!

Happy weekend!