Category: weight loss

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Birthday treats and burritos oh my!

To add to my list of eating challenges this week: two in-class birthday celebrations were this week (yesterday and today) and two are next week. Since we are all about child-invovlement in Montessoriland, we have the kids pick a special something and they bake it with my lovely teaching assistant. WHO ROCKS THE KITCHEN LIKE NOBODYS BUSINESS.

So yesterday we had strawberry and creamcheese muffins sprinkled with sugar, and today we had brownies with melted chocolate chips (in mini muffin cups, so that was better). How do you not eat when a four year old offers you a treat they’ve baked themselves??? (And I’ve smelled baking all morning long!!!)

Tonight we ended up not going to the graduation party and went to Qdoba instead. While in line, I made a very hard decision—the decision to forego the burrrito. What else is there at Qdoba? Funny you should ask–they actually have a lovely tortilla soup and a variety of small soft tacos. And it was good.

In other news, the Babe has become obsessed with naming everyone. It’s like she just figured out that every person has a specific name, so now it’s her task to point and name everyone she knows (repeatedly). She can name the 8 or so children she sees on a daily basis, her teachers, several of her 10 cousins, her grandparents (Gram is Ama, Gramps is Baca)–competely amazing!

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98%

That’s what I scored on my annual review today. You know, because it looks bad to have 100%, because then obviously, you’re playing favorites or something. But now I have a lovely, glowing review in my file to read on really low days, and a glowing review to justify my very nice salary offer for next school year.

And my unpleasant coworkers??? Two are leaving. Which will make life SOO much better. Seriously, who’s happy to hear that 50% of the teaching staff is quitting? I AM. I’ve haven’t felt this good about work in a long time. And what’s funny is that now that it’s out in the open, they are happier people too. And maybe we’ll hire a teacher I’d be comfortable with my kid having for a teacher. That’d be a good thing too.

Another reason for my joy is probably that I ended up eating cheesecake for lunch. I remembered my fruit salad for today’s celebration….but forgot my entree. And since only my assistant (whom I LOVE) and myself brought anything to eat for today’s pitch-in, I had cheesecake and fruit salad for lunch. (the boss brought flowers and balloons, someone else made really good coffee…the other five people just ignored the posting). Based on my previous post, I shall be eating nothing but lettuce from now until the weekend. (NOT)

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Second week’s menu and more

Since it worked so well to blog my menu last week, I’m doing the same this week. Planning ahead is key, even when things get hectic.

This week’s breakfast of choice: Eggo’s Nutrigrain Waffles and 1 tbsp. all-fruit spread

Lunches this week are mainly “day after” left overs from the dinners listed below:

Tuesday: grilled chicken drumsticks, baked potatoes, steamed veggies

Wednesday: super-veggie and ground turkey marinara and pasta

Thursday: turkey enchilada casserole (this is a repeat from last week–I made 2 and froze one–we’ll see if it thaws OK)

Friday: graduation party

Saturday: church festival

Sunday: birthday open house

Monday: veggie alfredo sauce and pasta

My super-social weekend leads me to my next meandering….SOCIAL EATING. Yikes, stripes. Nearly every Tales blog that I read mentioned challenges over Mother’s Day weekend. The month of May is a lot like December but no one notices because it’s outside–between Mother’s Day, Memorial Day, first communions, graduations and other social functions, it’s a little nuts. Planning a menu at home is hard enough–planning how to eat at a function is harder.

What I have found is that if nothing special’s going on, I can’t eat like something special is going on. This way, when situations arise, I can indulge a little without feeling guilty. If I see my week laid out before me like it is above, I know I have to stick to my guns as much as possible on “normal” days. And even on days like tomorrow, when we are doing our monthly “staff birthday” at work. There’s no need to indulge, I don’t really even care for most of my coworkers. (which is another story all together that I’ll get into once a few more things fall into place)

So…….for social situations I :

a) always bring something I know is “safe” for me to eat–fruit salad, veggie tray, low-cal dip and baked chips, stuff like that

b) eat a little of what interests me, but try not to over do it

c) eat well leading up to the event–low cal breakfast, getting all my water in, low cal lunch.

Some people say to eat before you go (think Scarlett in the Gone with the Wind)—that doesn’t work for me, because when I see a food table, I MUST GRAZE. But if it’s a breakfast or lunch occassion, I won’t eat much the rest of the day.

We’ll see how that goes for me, now won’t we??