39 posts tagged “food”
I'm not eating the Mexican food, mind you. I'm just smelling it, and it's not really working for me.
Today, in honor of Cino de Mayo, my office threw a Cinco de Mayo potluck. I didn't bring anything (are you kidding me? The Boy didn't fall asleep last night until almost 10!), so I'm not eating any of it, but as my desk is right next to the breakroom, I'm privvy to all the smells wafting from that room. Normally, I'd be all excited about it, but right now...
The Boy has a 4:30 appointment to see Dr. W today (I think my little one has a sinus infection on top of the stomach bug he had this weekend), and I'm going to see if he can see me simultaneously. I'm feeling really nauseous and I have absolutely no appetite - and for those who know me, that alone is a really bad sign.
I like big sandwiches. I've liked big sandwiches since I was at least 10. Thankfully, lettuce has zero points so I can still enjoy a big sandwich. Sadly, the bread and the mayonnaise (other favorite parts) are what drive the point value of this sandwich so high. I just can't bring myself to eat lettuce and pastrami as a meal. Call me crazy.
I decided to get back on Weight Watchers and see if I can lose these last few pounds that are stubbornly cleaving to me.
Side note: "Cleave" is a very funny word. If you use it as I just did, it means "to cling", but if you use it with an object, say "cleave a branch from the tree", it means to separate. Weird, huh? Now back to our regulary-scheduled programming.
Anyway, today is Day One. Since I knew I was going to start today, I binged a bit yesterday on all the junk food I don't want to see my husband eat, namely these delectable vanilla wafer cookies that my sister left me. There are still three (yes, three) boxes of Girl Scout Cookies, but I can stomach watching him devour all of those. Besides, I only really like the Samoas (or Caramel Delights, depending on your region's baker), and there's only nine in that box, anyway.
Later this week, I will also begin my own Month of Good, so I'm still forming my list for that. And Weight Watchers is high on that list.
For me, it's not as much about weight loss as much as it is about watching what I eat and, more importantly, how much I eat. Just to put it into some perspective: so far today, I've had yogurt, a frozen dinner, a salad, a whole bunch of carrots, and I'm just now on my second glass of water. I also walked briskly around Target at lunch, garnering me one point, thus leaving me with nine points for an afternoon snack and dinner. [sigh]
The last time I was on Weight Watchers (right before I got pregnant), I realized there are some foods I refuse to eat in a low-fat form. Mayonnaise is one of those; cheese and milk are another. I happen to like the taste of whole milk, and I like the taste of full-fat cheese, too. I also like my bread, though I'm perfectly happy eating the extra-fiber whole grain stuff. So, if it means I have to forego points in another area, so be it. But these are the kinds of dietary decisions I like to make for myself, rather than listening to someone else tell me that I have to do it a certain way or else.
One of my coworkers just brought me some unsweetened pineapple chunks - zero points! Score!
I've found the first few days really aren't too terrible - it won't get bad for another few weeks. And then I'll have to keep myself from complaining about it.
Okay, maybe it's because I was seriously jonesing for salmon, and maybe it's because I've sat through meetings where the new salmon dish has been discussed, but I do have to say that I just had the best lunch ever.
Lunch today was at the Hard Rock Cafe in Orlando. (Yes, I'm going to plug my company's menu for the duration of the post. Please feel free to skip it if you really don't care to read about my lunch.) It's not an easy place to go when you live here because it's right by Universal Studios and Universal Islands of Adventure, and if you're not going to the parks, there's really no reason to pony up $11 for parking.
Anyway, location and parking aside, lunch was very very good. I had the new salmon entree (which runs about $18) with a side Caesar salad, and both were wonderful. The Parmesan on the salad alone was delicious. Apparently, it's shaved from a big wheel of Parmigiano-Reggiano and left in beautifully large chunks. It was tasty enough for me to contemplate purchasing a wheel myself and eating it in a single sitting (but it would be best if I didn't).
The salmon is a wild Alaskan sock-eye salmon, and quite flavorful. Even without the herb butter, it was fantastically seasoned, but the herb butter and lemon juice made it out of this world. I very nearly scraped the plate clean, it was so good. The sides are cheddar smashed potatoes and steamed vegetables (today it was broccoli), both of which I eagerly devoured, as well. Delicious!
So, the next time you're in the mood for salmon (or a really good burger), might I suggest your local Hard Rock Cafe? Sure, the music might be a little loud and a lot of the servers have tattoos and piercings and such, but the food is awesome!
And where else can you entertain yourself by looking at the world's largest rock & roll memorabilia collection?
The Boy awoke this morning at 4:45. I shouldn't complain; he only woke at 8:45 last night (just before I jumped into the shower), went back down at 9:30, and slept until almost 5 o'clock. But 4:45 in the morning is still way too early for me.
Anyway, this early awakening meant an early start to our day. After some quality time playing with Daddy and a flashlight and a much-needed diaper change, I fed him a hearty breakfast of yogurt, applesauce, and Corn Chex. He then had the opportunity to roam the house and play for about an hour before I took him to school.
Apparently, roaming the house and napping in the car en route expells enough energy that one - who was well-fed just before leaving the house - might suddenly have a concave belly upon entering the classroom.
Such was the case with The Boy. I packed cheese and crackers to give him for a snack, and he eagerly attacked the cheese with a ferocity I had never before seen. Honestly, you'd never guess he had just eaten breakfast a mere two hours prior.
One of the teachers in a different classroom brought in some miniature muffins, and his primary teacher asked if The Boy could have one. I sampled one, decided they would pose a low risk for allergies, and offered him half of a mini-muffin top. As you can guess, the entire piece went into his mouth (and The Boy begrudgingly washed it down with some formula soon after). I broke apart the rest of the muffin into pieces and set them on the high chair tray.
Another little boy in his class, B, was sitting in the high chair next to him, also enjoying a muffin. His muffin, too, was broken into pieces for him, but B is simply not as neat of an eater. So, while The Boy had finished his muffin and returned to his cheese and crackers (the cheese, of course, being the more desirable of the two), B's muffin was in tiny crumbs strewn all over the tray.
Upon seeing B's tray, the primary teacher exclaimed, "B! What did you do to your muffin?" The Boy craned his neck to look at B, saw B pushing muffin crumbs around the tray, and gave B a look that clearly said, "What's wrong with you? That's a waste of a perfectly good muffin," before shoving a piece of cheese into his mouth.
If it's at all possible, interactions like these make me love The Boy even more!
Baby C will not stop eating.
Seriously. The kid can eat. But there's a catch.
He also doesn't let us know when he's done.
Yesterday, I called Chris on my way home from work to ask him to please Google Map or Mapquest our new polling location. I wanted to vote and didn't know where the new polling place was, so I needed his help. Only, when he answered the phone, he casually informed me that he had just finished getting Baby C's and his soiled duds in the washer because the baby threw up after Chris got him out of the car.
"Threw up or spit up?" I asked for clarification.
"It might have been spit up. It didn't smell like vomit. Anyway, there was a lot of it and it was green and had chunks in it and it got all over me, all over him, and onto the sidewalk, too."
Knowing that I sent the baby to school with a container of green beans mixed with pasta, one of apples, and one of avocadoes, I wasn't too alarmed by the green vomit. Or the chunks. But I still asked, "Is he feverish?"
"No," Chris replied. "He doesn't feel hot. He's playing now." Pause. "What did you want me to do?"
"Well, I was going to ask you to Mapquest the new polling place, but since he's spewing stuff, maybe I'll just go straight home."
So, straight home I went. And when I got home, I looked for the green vomit on the sidewalk. There, near the front door, on the plants and on the pavers, were tell-tale pieces of avocado. And some white stuff that could only be milk. I had to keep from laughing.
Sure enough, the baby was fine. Chris was fine. The two of them were playing on the floor together. Chris related the rest of the story to me, and we were both thankful that Baby C waited until he was outside of the car to spit up his late afternoon snack.
"I think he was just overfed," I said.
Chris agreed. "I think so, too. They just finished feeding him when I got there."
Around 5:45, I offered to nurse Baby C (as is my custom, after coming home from work), and the baby greedily latched on. The way he was nursing, you'd think the poor kid had been deprived food for a week. Afterwards, I plopped him back onto the floor to play. Around 6:15, he started behaving like he was hungry. So, like any good mother, I prepared his dinner: corn, with apples for dessert.
He quickly ate the corn, protesting whenever I paused longer than he expected. After finishing the corn, I picked him up and let him stand so that I could feel his tummy. It wasn't very tight, but it certainly wasn't concave. Since he was still trying to chew on his hand, I decided to go ahead and let him have the apples he brought home from school.
Now, Baby C used to turn his head when he was finished, or put his head down, or, at the very least, not willingly open his mouth when he was full. But every time the spoon came near his face, he opened his mouth wide, expecting another bite. And, again, if I dallied too long with the apples, he protested. So, I kept feeding him.
I think you know where this is going.
It didn't happen right away. And there wasn't nearly as much as there was earlier that day when he covered the plants with milk and avocadoes. And it was very obviously applesauce. But I did need to change his pajamas and the protective mat on the changing pad, and he didn't get to nurse one last time after reading Goodnight, Moon.
So, this morning, while feeding him breakfast, I felt his tummy after every few bites to see if he was getting full and just not telling me. He had about 10 bites of banana left when I decided he'd had enough and proceeded to eat the remainder myself.
To which he objected. Loudly.
But after I took him out of the high chair, I knew I had done the right thing. Just as I propped him up, his chin on my shoulder, he let out one very big, very satisfied, "BRAAAAAAAP."
I seem to only be able to remember to do this every other week. Ugh.
Today's flashback: Food Aversions.
I had terrible food aversions to chicken, mushrooms, and chocolate. Now, the mushroom aversion wasn't a big deal. The chicken aversion was troublesome, only because it's a source of protein (and we all know that pregnant women need a good amount of protein). And the chocolate aversion, well, as cruel as it was, it was also a saving grace for my weight!
I discovered the mushroom aversion after I brought some leftover steak and mushrooms to work with me. The mushrooms tasted terrible, as though they had gone bad. And then I recalled a few weeks prior when we were at the now-closed Hard Rock Cafe in Los Angeles (the first HRC in the US, for those playing along at home) when I ordered the vegetarian sandwich and couldn't eat it (though it's one of my favorite sandwiches).
The chicken aversion was much funnier when it made itself manifest. One night, Chris was cooking some ranch chicken, and I called to him from the couch, "Good God, what in the world are you cooking?" The smell was awful, and the thought of even eating any chicken was enough to make me gag. It wasn't until my eighth month that I was finally able to eat chicken again, albeit sparingly and begrudgingly.
Oh, and the chocolate aversion? The sight of it wasn't appealing. The smell of it was just awful. And because of those two things, I couldn't bring myself to even try any of it.
Thank goodness it didn't last forever!
There's a reason I don't eat much sugar. Seriously.
So, today is the one day out of the year that I'm allowed to do whatever I want (within legal limits). My grandmother taught me this and, well, who am I to argue?
For breakfast this morning, I had an avocado at home with the baby. Not exciting, but I like avocado and all the avocados I've been buying lately get mushed up as soon as they're ripe and sent to school with the baby. The funny thing, of course, was as he watched me eat the avocado, he got a little agitated (it is, after all, a food he normally eats), so I had to share some of it.
Then, once I got to work, I was surprised with a container of chocolate covered almonds sitting on my desk (along with a couple of cards and the updated Better Homes and Gardens cookbook that I've been eyeing for several years). Now, I love nuts. (After all, we are what we eat.) I love almonds in particular. And the best almonds in the world (besides roasted and lightly salted) are chocolate covered. So, I had to sample a few.
And a few turned into quite a few.
And quite a few turned into many, until I realized I ate half the container.
That was all before 11 this morning. And now I can feel my body rebelling and ready to crash.
Naptime, anyone?
This morning, on the Today Show, Matt Lauer interviewed a 12-year-old from England who is allergic to just about every food imaginable. The poor thing has a tube attached to his stomach so that he can hook himself up to a feeding bag every night.
So, it could be a whole lot worse than just needing to cut out gluten from my diet so that Baby C's eczema doesn't flare up. He could be allergic to everything. At least he's doing well with rice cereal, apples, avocado and butternut squash (that's all we've tried so far).
I can take great comfort, then, in knowing that as difficult as it may be to completely cut out wheat and gluten from my diet, it could be worse. A whole lot worse.
One of the buyers came out of a meeting at the start of lunch exclaiming, "I can't believe they didn't pack the soy sauce!" It so happened they ordered out for sushi, but the restaurant left out that condiment.
"I have soy sauce," I called. And, sure enough, I reached into my desk drawer and pulled out my little 5-ounce bottle of soy sauce. Sure, it was only half full, but that was more than enough for this group.
No one was surprised that I have soy sauce at my desk. I don't think anyone would bat an eye if I decided, one day, to set up a small kitchenette in my cubicle (complete with toaster oven and portable burner). I think I shock more people by not having a food staple at my desk.
It's almost a little unnerving.
