So I was kinda blown away when I checked the blog & saw that I had not blogged for quite a while. Therefore, this blogger should be flogged.
The kids & I went to Palm Desert for our "vacation". We stayed at Marriott Shadow Ridge and I actually discovered a few things about eating habits. Average temp during the day? 110 - 120 degrees. Temp at 1am? 90+.
1. I have personally become a kitchen whore (now wait a minute before y'all start jumping up & down on this one). If there's a kitchen gadget out there I might own it. If there's some bizarre ingredient it's probably stagnant in my cupboards.
I buy tons of crap for my kitchen that it didn't dawn on me until this week that I really (a) don't need and (b) don't use.
We had a 1 bedroom villa (villa = 1 bedroom apartment). Basic necessities including blender, stove/oven, microwave, toaster, pots/pans. There was no: mixer, toaster oven, whisks, different assortment of pyrex bowls or plastic containers, bread machine, juicer, food processor, mini processor, crock pot, funky knives or more than 1 chopping knife, out of this world accessories (who really needs more than 1 set of tongs? or a strawberry huller? or egg slicer? or garlic peeler?) etc. Now some of those I might need to hang on to (mini chop & crock pot) but the rest of that? CRAP!
2. Cooking for yourself & your kids does not need to be energy depriving nor complicated. Usually I get sucked into the recipes (see OCD blog), cookbooks, etc. and then just get down right tired of the whole process.
This time? Yes I bought some ready made foods (waffles, taquitos, chicken tenders, etc) and we had tuna, turkey sandwiches, etc. But we ate either in our "villa" or with our "group" the entire time - there was no eating out, no running to the store for last minute items or ready prepped food, no fast food...zip / zilch / nada. The sides basically consisted of salad, fresh fruit and that's it. And pool side snacks were mainly fresh fruit that we all cut up, gatorade (for dehydration) and water.
So I personally feel that I have over-complicated the whole eating/cooking process.
3. Buy snacks that we all kinda like but not love. Salt & vinegar chips? Cannot be anywhere near my family - my kids can hose those puppies down like vacuums. Regular baked chips? Not their favorite but with no other choice they ate them and didn't overeat them. Same thing with a "treat" - Otter Pops are great for the heat but who can eat more than 1? Just enough to take the "dessert" edge off without anyone (including the adults) scarfing more than a single serving of ice cream.
4. Heat works wonders for the diet (side note - I don't recommend this but just a thought - it's not like I would voluntarily move to the Sahara just to lose a few pounds). We took the kids out for a stroll at The River & we got them Ben & Jerry's. First of all, even though it was so hot, I had no desire to even get an ice cream. My kids? They all chose sorbets & all 3 ended up not even finishing their servings. Instead they ate about 1/2, dumped the rest & sucked up my ice water.
So on to accountability.
Writing my food intake & counting calories in my book is great for me to see but I can always close my eyes, maybe turn the page, possibly spill some Crystal Light Fruit Punch on the journal so that it is no longer legible or just say to myself tomorrow will be better. But it always ends up with excuses. So I decided (drumroll please) to blog my food starting tomorrow (lord help me). I might even go out on a limb and post my weigh on Fridays. Yeah the weight number thing bothers me but it's not like people see me & think oh yeah, she's 170 lbs (well I used to be 165 lbs back in 97-99...boo hoo!)
Maybe this will really help me by being accountable to others - sometimes being accountable to yourself doesn't feel like much accountability. Because I can always side step my own accountability. But if someone else wants me to help them be accountable then oh yeah, I'm on board (does the idiom "Do as I say, not as I do?" sound familiar). I just hear in my head "yeah yeah yeah" and then poof - too many calories consumed.
Further accountability? I started cleaning out my cupboards. And I mean cleaning out the cupboards. Stuff I have not used or which is too complicated to use is going...going...gone. Not only because we are leaving (all final docs submitted to those ever helpful French embassy people (snicker snicker) 1 week ago) but because I feel overburdened with the loads of stuff in my cupboards. I really need to de-clutter my kitchen.
These things are dragging me down man. Like that bread machine that is in cold storage on top of my oven (where I used to stick those darned yellow pages). Or some garlic peeling machine (don't ask) that I never even used but when I bought it I thought I would be happily de-skinning garlic clove after clove (nope - I still do it the original way by hand peeling or smashing with a flat knife - takes the same amount of effort, uses no electricity & does not require any dishwashing). Another example ~ I glanced at the cabinet next to my stove which houses things like salt, pepper, olive oil, vinegars, baking powder, etc. I believe the corn starch housed there has not been touch in more than 1 year (eewwww). Probably more than 1 box each of baking soda & baking powder though not sure why. There are 3 different red wine vinegars, all have been opened & I'm pretty sure all 3 are expired. A Crisco shortening tub that I think I bought in the vincinity of when we moved into the house (hello? that was like 11+ years ago) and I think it was only used once. Since I don't use it why do I still have it? Was I concerned that the world would end and I might need (quite a bit) of Crisco shortening? Or how about the 3 different boxes of sugar substitute for coffee (Splenda, Sweet & Low or Equal) - people, I DO NOT EVEN DRINK COFFEE! There's a jar of ghee (kinda like clarified butter) that I bought when I first learned Arabic cooking that I never used again after that 1st time because it made the food look & taste greasy.
So for fun I will keep a list and also blog that - the trash on what I had (and how many) and if I can even estimate how long I've had it. Waste Mgmt will certainly be happy with us this week!
And that's it. It's scary putting this on the internet (insert spooky sound here) for all the world to see but I'm sure I'll survive (and do not quote Gloria Gaynor here - that's Lindsey's).
Debbie
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