The kids had a cooking birthday party this weekend. They made (white) english muffin pizzas, Cups of Dirt (chocolate pudding, crushed Oreos and gummy worms), and decorated cupcakes. My son has newly found allergies to soy, dairy, nuts and egg whites. I brought all his food: allergen free bread, homemade (allergen free) cupcakes and icing, and pudding made with rice milk (which did not congeal. ick.).  HIS meal was healthy. Hers was not. HE did not eat his meal, She did.

What should I do? I know the stuff she’s eating is bad for her, but I’m not sure how to tell her she can’t have 4 of the only 8 foods she eats! Occationally, fine. I get it. Don’t interfere; you don’t want them to rebel. But their diet, with all these birthday parties, is turning into more than occasion!

Any advice? How do you teach your kids about healthy living?

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Filed under: Kid Stuff |
Article tags: Birthday, Healthy living, kids eating healthy, Rule of Three Diet

Posted: November 11th, 2007 under Kid Stuff.
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 How does one develop an aversion to  food? Specifically, Halloween candy?  I really need to know.

I started out my day in the right mindset to leave the candy alone, but after lunch, my sweet-tooth hit me hard and I caved in to some chocolate eyeballs (shhhh! Don’t tell the kids; they came from their bags).

I tried to be good this Halloween. I even risked, and probably ruined, my neighborhood candy-giver reputation, and gave out Halloween shaped pretsels instead of candy (I won’t eat pretsels, and I would have eaten all the chocolate, so at least I had something left to give out!)

My memory lapsed a bit, and I didn’t anticipate the candy that the kiddos would bring home!  Now what!? My son is, (in this case) conveniently allergic to peanuts. Do you know what candies have peanuts?  All the good ones!  Reeces, Peanut M&M’s, Snickers. I’m sure there is a lot more, but that’s all he brought home.  And somehow, my daughter brought home different, and equally as good, chocolates than he did. (I could care less about the pure-sugar candies….I WANT CHOCOLATE!!!)

The kids leave their candy bags around the house and the chocolate is silently shouting out to me, “Come eaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaat meeeeeeeeee!!!”

Grr! Go Away!  I guess I should mention that my kids are 2 and 4. There is no way that they could eat all that candy, or would notice if, say, half of it went missing!

Maybe I should think of it like I’m stealing *food* out of the mouths of my children. I don’t like filling them up with sugar, and I want to throw it all away or just let them have one a day. I try to set a good example for them, but part of me reverts to my fun childhood memories of Halloween and says, “What the hell? Let them eat it all until their stomachs hurt!”

What do you do with Halloween candy in your house?

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Filed under: Motivation |
Article tags: chocolate, food aversion, Halloween candy, Rule of Three Diet

Posted: November 1st, 2007 under Motivation.
Comments: 2

 Tonight’s dinner was, hands down, the most stressful meal I’ve ever made (aside from Thanksgiving dinner). What did you make, you ask? Spaghetti and freakin’ meatballs (damn meatball song)!  I was planning on a simple meal of beef fajitas. Beef, onion, green pepper, tortilla and salsa. OOOOOOHHHHHH NO!  Beau calls about three, asking if we have any spaghetti in the house. Hmmmm…. wonder what he wants. I tell him we’re having fajitas and using the meat that he took out of the freezer last night but didn’t use. Even though this was not the planned meal, my ‘good wife’ mode kicked in, and I remembered that you could make your own ground beef in a food processor. So the internet search began for steak meatballs. I came up with a recipe that asked for steak, pork and veal. I had two of the three and thus my hellacious evening began.  

I started cooking at 3:30. The meal wasn’t finished until 5:30. Two solid hours of cooking! Oh. Did I mention I was trying to raise two children in the process? One was excited that she could cut, and called the other to show him the scissors. He got ahold of them, and was ‘cutting the air’ with them, using both hands. Her hand got in the way. My scissor-monster got in time out two times and argued with me about both of them ending up with more time than he expected. I was so busy in the kitchen that I was annoyed at my children when they’d ask for something or where something was, and I would practically yell at them for doing so. This really stressed me out. I don’t like ignoring my kids, but I just could not stop or those stupid little meatballs would burn! (which some of them did because the recipe told me to set my pan on high, but don’t let the oil smoke. Well, it didn’t smoke, but it was TOO high!! They ended up cooking perfectly on LOW. Stupid recipe).

The worst part?  Beau didn’t LOVE it. I envisioned him going for seconds and thirds and giving a loving belch afterward (not really). First, I had him try the two sauces. Two sauces? Yes, two sauces. There were so many stupid meatballs that the sauce I lovingly created from scratch only covered half of them. So I got out another skillet and covered the other half of the meatballs with bottled sauce. He liked the bottled sauce better (stupid Prego).

Dinner was served, he handed me some of his spaghetti squash (which I serve with the pasta) and whispered “I don’t like that.”

He picked at the meatballs and said, “This looks like turkey meat.”

“It’s not”

“Why does it look so white inside? Did you sneak something in there?”

“Carrots”

“Oh. I can taste them”. (Long Pause) ”What’s wrong?”

 I pouted that I slaved over this dinner FOR HIM and he didn’t like it.

“What are you talking about? Look! I’m eating it! I like the meatballs! I love it!”

Whatever.  Next time I’m buying frozen.

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Article tags: homemade ground beef and pork, Italian, Rule of Three Diet, Spaghetti and Meatballs

Posted: October 29th, 2007 under Daily Journal.
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Last night, after dinner while I’m cleaning up, I start singing On Top Of Spaghetti to my kids for the first time. I had only sung the first three verses (up to where the meatball turns into mush) and my newly-4-year-old son started to cry!  I was watching his intent little face watch me as I was singing the song. It went from joy to concern to almost fear. By the time I sang “mush”, he was in tears. Small, but very concerned and sad ones. Small, to the point where I thought he had been taking drama lessons on the side from my 2 year old daughter. But since this was his first attempt at theatrics, I played along, not yet sure if he was indeed playing me or not.

I gave all sorts of concern. Picked him up into my lap.  His big frown just kept saying, “I don’t like that song” but he didn’t know why. He told me he was scared of the song. I asked what part? He didn’t know, but amidst a sea of tears, he kept asking me about that stupid meatball!  “Why did it go under a bush?” “what happened to it?” All the while, my “Me Too! Girl”, was climbing on my back,  half choking me, telling me she too, was scared of the song and didn’t like it (roll eyes).

My conclusion is that his tears were real because he asked me about the meatball several times today, and started making comparisons with his baseballs, and how they don’t roll under bushes, just into the street. 

Poor little guy. It’ll probably be a long time before he’ll try this Italian classic.

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Filed under: Daily Journal, Kid Stuff |
Article tags: drama queen, kids, on top of spaghetti, Rule of Three Diet

Posted: October 25th, 2007 under Daily Journal, Kid Stuff.
Comments: 8

Wednesday night is kid’s night at our house. My son got a cook book for his birthday and he gets to choose the recipe we make for kid’s night. I let them stand on chairs and alternate helping me with everything. Last week he chose roasted sausages and winter vegetables. It was a hit. Tonight he chose Italian Tuna Pasta. He can not read, so he chooses by looking at all the pictures. I wanted to post the recipe because both my kids liked it! Did you see that?  My picky 2 year old liked it (well, the sauce anyway. My carbohydrate-loving daughter does not like pasta). This recipe is from Kids’ Fun & Healthy Cookbook:

Ingredients:
2 1/2 C pasta bows
2 T Olive Oil
2 large cloves garlic (crushed)
1 tsp. dried oregano (optional)
2 tsp. tomato puree
2 15.5 oz. cans chopped tomatoes
1/2 tsp sugar (optional)
6 oz. canned tuna in Olive Oil (drained)
salt & pepper

Directions: (summarized)
1. Cook pasta until tender.
2. Heal oil in saucepan, Saute garlic for about 1 min. Stir in the oregano, tomatoes and the puree.
3. Bring the sauce to a boil and reduce heat. Half cover the pan and simmer for 15 min, until sauce has reduced by 1/3 and thickened.
4. Stir tuna into the sauce. Heat through, adding sugar if necessary.
5. Drain pasta, reserving 2 T of the water. Return pasta and water to the saucepan. Stir in sauce until pasta is coated.

Add chickpeas for a protein boost (I was planning on doing this, but I forgot)
If you try the recipe, let me know what you think.

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Article tags: Fun and Healthy Cookbook, Kids in the Kitchen, Rule of Three Diet

Posted: October 24th, 2007 under Daily Journal, Kid Stuff.
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I can’t hold it back anymore. What is it with older ladies thinking they need to ”dress to impress” at the gym?  About a month ago, I wanted to blog about somone I saw in my gym, but didn’t feel I had enough content to have a blog post. Then today, there was another one, so now, I have twice as much to say. ha! 

A month ago: Here I am, minding my own business on the treadmill. On the machines next to me were two women running and chatting (I was impressed. I sure can’t talk and run). Then it happened. A horrendous sight imposed upon us. Strolling in front of us was a woman in her late-fifties. Her frizzy hair was a disaster, but I guess that didn’t matter because it was obvious she was trying to draw attention, um, elsewhere.  She had large implants (D’s?) without a bra! Just a thin grey shirt. Please people! I’m all for implants if you want them, but wear a bra at the gym! No one wants to see grandma with her highbeams on! All three of us on the treadmills had to pick our jaws up off the floor. We looked at each other to be sure we were indeed seeing the atrocity in front of us. One of the women made a loud comment and we all snickered. I felt like I was in high school. I wonder if ‘boob-grandma’ heard her as I haven’t seen her in the gym since. 

Today: Another woman. In her fourties. Spandex capris and a sports bra.  I think I counted 3 ab rolls and I didn’t want to try to count the dimples when she turned around. Ew.

My assessment: I am a self admitted fashion amateur, but I do know that women should always wear a sports bra at the gym. And I know that if you can count belly rolls or leg dimples you should wear shirts and pants, respectively. 

Excuse me. I’m going to go throw up.

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Filed under: Daily Journal, Motivation |
Article tags: ab rolls, appropriate gym attire, fake boobs, fashion, Rule of Three Diet

Posted: October 22nd, 2007 under Daily Journal, Motivation.
Comments: 7

Just when I tell the world I want to post every day, I have nothing to say. Sorry, all.  I’ll post when I have something good to blog about.

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Filed under: Daily Journal |
Article tags: Irony, Jessica Seinfeld, nothing to say, Rule of Three Diet

Posted: October 18th, 2007 under Daily Journal.
Comments: 2

 Success! I did my Yo-Yo Workout at the Gym today. I ran my top speed for the entire 3 minutes! I have been trying to do this for a few weeks, and would only last about a minute, and need to reduce my speed to finish out the 3 minute running block. Now my goal is to do this for a few more weeks until it becomes comfortable, and then I’ll up my starting speed, thus increasing my top speed. The machine I used did not let me enter my weight and age, so I don’t know how accurate this count is, but it said I burned 400 calories in 30 minutes! I think that’s pretty good, considering magazines like Shape give you half hour workouts to burn about 250 calories.

I was reading my Wellness magazine today, and came across an article titled Melt the Last 10 Pounds. I love getting little tips like this, but I particularly liked #6:

6. GO FOR THE CALORIE BURN
Have you been heeding the advice that longer, lower-intensity exercise bouts maximize fat burning? That may be why the scale isn’t moving for you. While it’s true that the percentage of calories from fat that you burn does decrease as you up your exercise intensity, when you’re trying to lose weight, you want to burn as many calories as you can, whether from fat or carbohydrates. If you double your exercise intensity, you double the rate at which you burn calories – both fat and carbs. Add an incline to your treadmill workouts or notch up the intensity on your workout machine of choice.

 This goes along with what I said in my Diet Tips and Strategies Page (the 3rd one):

When you work out, try to work out hard! The harder you work out, the better it is for your body. Hey, you’re there anyway, you might as well get the most out of your time.  Don’t let that overwhelm you though, just walking and breaking a sweat is better than nothing at all, so get moving!

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Filed under: Daily Journal, My Favorite Workouts, Strategy |
Article tags: Burning Calories, Diet Tips, Motivation, Rule of Three Diet, Shape, Wellness

Posted: October 10th, 2007 under Daily Journal, My Favorite Workouts, Strategy.
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 I had some time to myself today to do some birthday shopping. Since I only have about 4 pair of pants that fit me, I headed to Old Navy because that’s one of my favorite on-a-budget places to get clothes.  For $97, I walked away with 4 pairs of pants, 2 tank tops, 1 pair of jeans, a hoodie tank and a nightie. Woo Hoo!

Shopping today took a lot longer than I would have liked. Since I have lost a bit of weight and have been working out, I wanted to know what size I was. I walked into the dressing room with 2 pairs of pants, an 8 and a 6.  The 6 was my ‘hopeful pant’ (the one I was hoping to fit into) Guess what? The 6’s were too big.  I had the girl run and get me a 4 and it fit perfectly! “Who knew I was half the size I thought I was!” I giggled. She smiled as I strutted out on cloud nine.

I thought I had a slight case of Body Dysmorphic Disorder until I found an article which stated:

…the Gap is one of a number of major U.S. retailers that have been trying to influence shoppers’ sales decisions by offering inflated sizes. Across the country, at stores like DKNY, French Connection, Old Navy and J. Crew, retailers are giving relatively large clothing a lower, more flattering size label, a practice known in the industry as “vanity sizing.”

Well there goes my ego.  I thought it curious a few years ago, when I lost all my baby weight, and was in a size 0, 1, 2 or 4, depending on where I shopped.  J. Crew  wanted me to think I didn’t exsist at a size 0. I was a 1 at Arden B, The Gap had me at a 2 and at Old Navy, I was an Extra Small and a size 2-4 (yes, I was really thin).

I raced home (not feeling as thin as I was three and a half years ago) to try on my old Old Navy 4’s. I’m thinking, “yeah! I’ve got more clothes to wear!” Surprise! They didn’t fit. So how is it that I was able to purchase Old Navy 4’s today? Because it has gotten worse! In just the last three and a half years, the clothes have gotten bigger, but the sizes have stayed the same. That’s appalling. These rapacious companies are preying on women’s desires to be thin to sell clothing.

“Who me? A size 4? Really?  Wow!  I thought I was a 6 when I walked in the store!?”  Reality check: You’re still a 6, Kim. The Jig is Up, Vanity Sizing Companies… you can’t fool me anymore.

 EDIT: Diet Blog has a very similar blog post about Vanity Sizing

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Article tags: Body Dysmorphic Disorder, Old Navy, Rule of Three Diet, Vanity Sizing

Posted: October 9th, 2007 under Daily Journal.
Comments: 1

The only fruits and vegetables my daughter will eat is applesauce, bananas, and dried cranberries. I offer her everything I make every time I serve it, but she turns her nose up at everything. Sometimes I can get her to try something, but that’s just when she knows she can get a Hershey Kiss for dessert. My son is a lot better at trying vegetables, but tends not to eat them. He prefers fruit. We are stuck in a ‘boring’ rut. I am not a short order cook, so if I serve something, and they don’t eat, they go hungry. I don’t want them to go hungry, so I’ll usually make at least one thing I know they’ll eat.  

My Mother In Law (MIL) called me this afternoon and told me to turn on Oprah because her guest, Jessica Seinfeld, was talking about how to get your kids to eat vegetables.  Jessica has just released a new book called Deceptively Delicious.  My MIL said she was going to order one for me, and I can’t wait for it to get here. Not only is the book (and Jessica) cute as a button, it’s all about ways to sneak vegetables into your kids’ (and your) diet. Her secret is adding similarly colored pureed vegetables to your favorite foods.

Jessica Seinfeld has a brand new blog (via Oprah’s website) which I have added to my blogroll. Though she only has one entry so far, she already has a lot of recipes and I’m very excited to try them because I think my kids will actually eat these things. On Oprah today, Jessica said that she started with all of her kid’s favorite foods. That is perfect because are my kids favorite foods too! I know this has got to be a good thing because my picky husband told me the banana bread with peanut butter and cauliflower puree (as seen on the show) sounded good!

Check it out and let me know what you think! I’d love to know if you try any of the recipes too.

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Filed under: Food Information |
Article tags: Blog, Jessica Seinfeld, Oprah, Rule of Three Diet, vegetables

Posted: October 8th, 2007 under Food Information.
Comments: 1