From the Land of Sick Kids and Pretty Flowers
Today is an unusual day. My daughter woke me at 5 a.m. with fever. It shot up too high by 7:00 and I believed it was strep. So we were at the doctor's office by 9 a.m. My diagnosis was confirmed. Then I went for supplies and medicine. Then I got home and called the landlord about some repairs, and was watering flowers, and getting ready to do some work for my job and the phone rang. School nurse calling with Grandson in the office and reports of throwing up. So off I went to pick him up. Fortunately the Motrin had kicked in and daughter was okay to leave alone long enough for me to go get him. When her fever gets high as it can with strep she gets scared and delirious, has bad dreams, etc. As soon as grandson and I got home landlord showed up. Then I tried to get grandson settled with school work because even though he threw up he seemed to be feeling rather good.
The point of all this is that my day was derailed from the start. It was going to be a day at the office and an errand run to get screens made for the rental house. That was all that was on the agenda. I called in to work, but planned to work from home, but no work has been produced as yet... When I thought I was going to have one feverish child at home, I actually thought I'd have a productive work day. But with landlord trying to fix things, grandson needing lunch, and homework assistance, fever baby needing comfort, and so on, about all I did was keep up with my e-mails.
In spite of all of this, my eating has not been derailed, which is the main reason I stopped to write this post. When I get nervous, or unexpected things happen, especially ones that make me miss work, the eating urge often kicks in. Since I ate to soothe myself, grabbing a handful of something usually accompanied any type of stressful situation. It is almost 3 p.m. and so far I have managed not to do that. In fact, I made a very tasty "sober" lunch earlier - I mixed some pinto beans, salsa, jalapeno peppers together in a green tortilla (cilantro and jalapeno), baked it in the oven for a while and then put a heap of fresh greens on the side with some celery and carrots. The whole deal was within my range for lunch, and very filling. It was a nice change, too.
Yesterday I stocked up with ready to eat things. I washed and bagged a supply of fresh leaf lettuce, cabbage, celery, carrots, broccoli, and then I cooked ground turkey, measured and bagged that, and so on. I grocery shopped and have ready to eat proteins like tuna, salmon, etc. I am very very prepared. I have a selection, too. I also went to the gym first thing yesterday morning. I did a good workout, half cardio, half weights, equal time devoted to both. I am sore today. A good sore. A pleasant reminder. We also had fresh air and a walk with the dog, although it was a lazy walk, more for family time than exercise. We were all tired yesterday and now I realize the kids were unusually tired because they were both getting sick. And me, well, lack of sleep probably. I believe that yesterday's efforts have helped out with today's success.
When I was chopping and washing and measuring and bagging and cooking and cleaning up the food preparation dishes yesterday I had the thought that maybe this was just too much trouble, and did I really want to have to do all that work??? Today I appreciate it, and I am hoping to reap the benefits of that labor all week long. Often my plans to eat healthy have been thwarted by simply not having an easy choice at the time. That split second or even two minutes where I am really hungry, too tired to even comprehend actually cooking meat, or washing lettuce, etc., is often when I go astray. So now I can just reach for the bags of veggies, the already cooked lean proteins, and so on. I can whip up an attractive meal with less mess and fuss.
So today I have not given in to the occasional impulse to grab some food so far and hopefully I will continue to turn to other things if I feel stressed. One thing that cheers me up is looking at all the flowers I have blooming, especially that basket of red petunias, they are a mood enhancer, much more vivacious in person than in the photo. I already surrendered to the fact that not much work is going to get finished for the job, but perhaps later. I may be able to do some now, since fever child is sleeping and not so sick child apparently got on his computer. It is quiet now. I just wanted to check in and report something positive for the day.
The point of all this is that my day was derailed from the start. It was going to be a day at the office and an errand run to get screens made for the rental house. That was all that was on the agenda. I called in to work, but planned to work from home, but no work has been produced as yet... When I thought I was going to have one feverish child at home, I actually thought I'd have a productive work day. But with landlord trying to fix things, grandson needing lunch, and homework assistance, fever baby needing comfort, and so on, about all I did was keep up with my e-mails.
In spite of all of this, my eating has not been derailed, which is the main reason I stopped to write this post. When I get nervous, or unexpected things happen, especially ones that make me miss work, the eating urge often kicks in. Since I ate to soothe myself, grabbing a handful of something usually accompanied any type of stressful situation. It is almost 3 p.m. and so far I have managed not to do that. In fact, I made a very tasty "sober" lunch earlier - I mixed some pinto beans, salsa, jalapeno peppers together in a green tortilla (cilantro and jalapeno), baked it in the oven for a while and then put a heap of fresh greens on the side with some celery and carrots. The whole deal was within my range for lunch, and very filling. It was a nice change, too.
Yesterday I stocked up with ready to eat things. I washed and bagged a supply of fresh leaf lettuce, cabbage, celery, carrots, broccoli, and then I cooked ground turkey, measured and bagged that, and so on. I grocery shopped and have ready to eat proteins like tuna, salmon, etc. I am very very prepared. I have a selection, too. I also went to the gym first thing yesterday morning. I did a good workout, half cardio, half weights, equal time devoted to both. I am sore today. A good sore. A pleasant reminder. We also had fresh air and a walk with the dog, although it was a lazy walk, more for family time than exercise. We were all tired yesterday and now I realize the kids were unusually tired because they were both getting sick. And me, well, lack of sleep probably. I believe that yesterday's efforts have helped out with today's success.
When I was chopping and washing and measuring and bagging and cooking and cleaning up the food preparation dishes yesterday I had the thought that maybe this was just too much trouble, and did I really want to have to do all that work??? Today I appreciate it, and I am hoping to reap the benefits of that labor all week long. Often my plans to eat healthy have been thwarted by simply not having an easy choice at the time. That split second or even two minutes where I am really hungry, too tired to even comprehend actually cooking meat, or washing lettuce, etc., is often when I go astray. So now I can just reach for the bags of veggies, the already cooked lean proteins, and so on. I can whip up an attractive meal with less mess and fuss.
So today I have not given in to the occasional impulse to grab some food so far and hopefully I will continue to turn to other things if I feel stressed. One thing that cheers me up is looking at all the flowers I have blooming, especially that basket of red petunias, they are a mood enhancer, much more vivacious in person than in the photo. I already surrendered to the fact that not much work is going to get finished for the job, but perhaps later. I may be able to do some now, since fever child is sleeping and not so sick child apparently got on his computer. It is quiet now. I just wanted to check in and report something positive for the day.
posted by Cindy at
2:42 PM
1 Comments:
this reminded me of a period of time in which i got together with a friend once a week to cook and prepare our diet foods.
we'd alternate weekly who would bring the recipes and the groceries, and we'd divvy up the results and then have great food, ready to eat, all week long.
it was wonderful and a great time. don't know why we stopped. glad to hear you're doing well. pretty petunias.
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