...but I've got a wiggly little boy on my lap that I'm trying to keep from being so noisy he wakes up his sister. It takes Brother a while to get riled, but when he does get riled he lets you know about it. I wonder if this bodes well for his two-year-old time?
Anyway, I was going to start this post with a picture of dinner last night, except I didn't take one, but since I owe you a Lose the Baby Weight update I thought I'd tell you about it anyway, and you can imagine that it was served beautifully on prettier plates than I actually have.
I've exercised every day since I started (last Wednesday) except for Saturday and Sunday, which I'm giving myself off both as a reward and because I don't want to exercise in front of the Husband until my technique is better because I take direction worse than a bad actor trying to play Hamlet. (Because I have a problem with the deadly sin of Pride, I guess.)
For dinner we had:
Cube steak with pan sauce and mushrooms
Leftover bow-tie pasta and white sauce (under the pan sauce; the white sauce was pretty much all gone as this was the pasta from the bottom of the bowl)
Steamed carrots
Mixed green salad
And for dessert....
Mystery Church Lady Jello
No, that last wasn't the title of a recipie, though it should be; and no, I don't think the jello met my qualifications for "real food" but there was a reason I said "mostly" real food in that other post. I've been thinking about it, and I think it's something important that I need to be aware of during my healthy-eating quest.
The jello was given to us by a church lady, bless her heart, who felt we needed help what with my broken foot and the new baby and all. It is very sweet and it took me three tries of eating it before I could figure out what was in it. (I think it's tapioca pudding mix, peach jello, and canned peaches.) But the point is that it's food that won't harm me, as long as I don't eat the whole bowlful by myself, and it was provided by God, so I shouldn't toss it out just because it's full of sugar.
This is a point that I don't think most diet books recognize. There is generally a passage that recommends going through your cupboards and fridge and throwing out everything "unhealthy", so you can't possibly mess up and eat the whole bag of Cheese Doodles. Aside from the fact that I know I'm perfectly capable of driving to the store to buy another bag of Cheese Doodles if I want them that bad, there are bigger problems with this strategy.
Not to sound too much like a mother, but there are starving people all over the world, and throwing food out is just plain wasteful. These foods aren't going to go away from your world, so I suggest instead of throwing them out, you 1) stop buying more of them and 2) practice learning to eat them moderately. In other words, eat up the 15 pounds of white pasta (slowly) before you go buy some fancy whole-wheat pasta. (Which I recommend against--tastes like glue--but just eat your regular pasta in sensible amounts.) It's not going to hurt you, if you eat "bad" foods in moderation and replace them slowly with "good" foods.
Secondly, I think it's easy for us to despise what we've already got and think that something that the Lord hasn't given us would make us happy/thin/pretty/good-natured. The Israelites in the desert were given manna, but they whined because they didn't have leeks and cucumbers like in Egypt, and wanted meat. God gives them quails and judges them with a terrible plague, to show them how serious it is to despise a gift from Him. They still whine. And so forth. It's easy to feel superior to the Israelites, because we think we're not nearly so centered on getting what we want as they were. But that is, I'm afraid, merely because we want different things.
It's not right for me to despise what I have--be it clothes, fabric, food, or whatever--and waste or overspend to get something else. The Lord has seen fit to put me where I am and give me the budget I've got. This means that I'm not going to be able to afford fancy organic milk.* To despise the milk I can afford, when God has given me the incredible gift of being in a country with a cheap, safe supply of milk and other foods that have historically been expensive, is simply the sin of covetousness. To despise the Cheese Doodles God has seen fit to bring to my pantry, instead of enjoying them slowly and then not buying them again, is also covetousness. If I'm faithful in what God has asked me to do (eat and exercise for His glory, not mine), then I'll get thinner at the rate He wants me to get thinner. Until then, I've got no business wasting resources He might want me to use someplace else just because I think I need to get thin in a certain way.** There are a scary lot of things this way of thinking can be applied to, aren't there?
And anyway, I couldn't hurt the Church Lady's feelings about her Mystery Jello. And Miss Boo likes to squish the tapioca pearls.
Cheers,
Breanna
*I don't actually think organic milk is any better than regular milk, but while wheeling around Costco last weekend I happened to be at eye-level with the milk price sticker and was staggered that organic milk is THREE TIMES the price of regular milk. Dang.
**And, to those who think I'm overly cheap (you know who you are) may I point out we do ourselves well in beds and recliners and beer at this house. :) We know what's important.
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