Cereal killer

I have officially come up with my February lifestyle change challenge. I had tentatively planned to focus on strengthening my core three times a week, but this past week have brought to a head a much bigger problem of mine.

"Hello. My name is Spie and I am addicted to dry cereal. "

I snack on cereal morning, noon, and night. I guess that I am fortunate that I have somewhat healthy cereals in the house. I currently have been eating boxes of Frosted Mini Wheats like they are going out of style. The Golden Grahams were golden, golden, gone. I have banned Cinnamon Toast Crunch and this past month I realized that I cannot buy granola. (A half cup of granola packs as much calories as one whole cup of mini wheats -- who can eat just 1/2 cup of cereal? Certainly not me.)

So, in the month of February, be it resolved that I, Spie, will NOT snack on dry cereal during the day...light hours.... OH, all right. I, Spie, will not snack on dry cereal. Period.

In other news, I skipped my swim this morning. I participated in an indoor triathlon on Sunday and have been feeling tight and tired ever since. I decided that I have not been doing a good job listening to my body and so I slept in and tried some yoga this morning to loosen up some of the muscles. I felt there is no sense in pushing myself to the point of injury and fatigue during the month of January when my first event is several months away.

However, doing yoga made me realize that I am inflexible.

Right now, Mr. Spie is screaming out somewhere "I could have told you that".

I had difficulty sitting on the floor with my feet out in front of me. As I watched the lady in the On-Demand exercise video easily contort her body in half from a torturous pose called Plow Pose, I recognized that I need to work on my flexibility or as the intensity of my training increases the likelyhood of injury will increase as well. Hopefully, I will get a yoga dvd, mat, and some blocks (yes, I am that inflexible) for Valentines Day as I sent a blantent hint to Mr. Spie in the form of an internet link.

Perhaps the month of February will have to have two challenges.

Good thing that the month is only 28 days long.

Lessons Learned

I have learned several things today that I would like to share with you.

1. I don't know if you can be too rich, I know that you can be too thin. I also can ATTEST that you can eat TOO MUCH chocolate chip cookie dough.... YUCK.

2. I get "geeked" up about weird things.

The prospect of possibly finding goggles that don't raccoon, the perfect water bottle, and this race. I am super excited to be asked to be part of a team and to run!

3. Participating in said race will be a test. -- Not a physical/stamina test, a mental test.

To be clear it's a try to get over being a "parenting control freak" test.

It will be the first time that I am away from my children (overnight)with the exception of giving birth to another child. (To give you an idea of how tight I have my apron tied, I begged and was released to go home 24 hours after the birth of my last child -- no 2 day hospital stay for me, no siree!!) There is no one that can parent my children as well as me. I am not saying that I am flawless, I think that I am marginal at best, but I KNOW that I LOVE them BETTER and MORE than anyone else can.

I am coping with the idea of the race fine now (we may need to revisit closer to the actual date) because I know that my husband will be there to parent -- My second in command, schooled in the Spie method of parenting, familiar enough with the house rules to know when they are broken, capable of feeding them the nutrition that they are accustomed to, etc.... He's not me, a fair substitute at best (joking!!!-maybe..), but am I still somewhat comfortable with it. After this test, we will see if I can cut the apron strings enough to have a grandparent parent for a weekend. (Right now the answer is still a resounding NO!)

4. I have little or no motivation to do my tasks that need to be done today. The in-laws will be here on Saturday for a weekend visit and my house is in shambles... and I am sitting here blogging, because I really do not want to clean. There is clean and then there is in-law clean and I cannot managed to rev myself up to tackle that task yet.

5. Finally, coaching/lessons may actually work...

I complained, maybe publicly --definitely to Mr. Spie, that I did not gain much from my recent swim class. The skills that were taught were beneficial, but they were small changes from my previous stroke. Nonetheless, being the academic pleaser that I am, even after my class was over, I continued to key in on and practice some of the tips that I thought would be the most beneficial. Today, at the end of my swim workout, I had planned to swim a 200 negative split. I decided to time it to check progress. I swam it at a comfortable pace, increasing speed on the last 25 (this was my negative split -- I was tired and the first time in the pool all week after my daughter's flu ravaged the entire family, including me) and whaddaya know??? I came in 3 seconds faster than my previous best, not sprinting/racing, or lets be honest really trying... WHO KNEW?

The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly.

I know that I haven't updated for a while. I am sure that it is a grave disappointment to my 1 reader. However, I have a few moments now, so I am going to do a brief update. Basically I can categorize my thoughts today into three areas...

GOOD:
1. Today is my daughter's 7th birthday. Yea!

2. I talked myself into completing my 1.5 hour continuous run.

3. We are half-way through January. Only 3.5 more months of winter until Spring! (I live in WI and use a realistic seasonal calendar)

4. I made it 5 days thus far without snacking off my children's plates(see previous post). This is a huge accomplishment when you consider that last night my two year old left uneaten sirloin steak on his plate. (mmmm-steak)

BAD:
1. Today we woke up to -13 with a windchill of -30.

2. Because of the windchill, school was cancelled (back when I went to school that NEVER happened)... All of the urchins are home.

3. The birthday girl threw up this morning and promptly told me this is the WORST BIRTHDAY EVER!

4. I tend to agree with her because my plan was to shop for her presents while she was school, so as of right now, she has no birthday presents from her siblings or parents except for funderwear (fun underwear), but what kind of present is that?

UGLY:
1. She didn't make it to the bathroom.

2. It is currently -7 and feels like -26 -- enough said.

3. Tomorrow doesn't look any better. At 6 a.m. it is predicted to be
-8 and feel like -26. I am scheduled to get up and swim at the pool at 5 a.m and the kids may be home again.

4. I have an appointment to get my brows waxed on Saturday. I have never, ever, had this done. I am terrified that I will come out either looking like a scared clown or that this decision will cost me month after month due to upkeep. I think that I was possessed when I made the appointment.

I hope that your day is filled with more GOOD than BAD and UGLY and if you live somewhere warmer than 30 degrees, please wish some of that toasty weather my way!

If it takes 21 days to make a habit.....

how many days does it take to break a habit?

These past few months, inspired by some blogs I read, I have given myself some 30 day challenges. Each month is a challenge that promotes a healthier lifestyle. I planned to carry over each challenge indefinitely each month.

In October, I gave up candy and chips. -- (check)

In November, I began to eat 5 fruits and vegetables a day in addition to continuing October's goal.-- (check)

In December, I gave myself a break and decided to just maintain October's and November's goal. (mostly check -- I missed one day of 5 fruits/veggies getting only 3 and I succumbed on two different occasions to peanut butter balls and truffles)

In January, I have given myself the goal of not snacking food off my children's plates.

I broke that January first at 10 a.m. when I was cutting Captain Destruction's waffles. The next day I broke it again when I snacked off his plate at dinner. Again the next day, and the next day. It is now January 7th and I have still not made one day without snacking off my child's plate!

What is wrong with me? Why can't I keep my hands off my children's food?

(I would like to note that I am not stealing the food out of their mouths. With the exception of the waffle incident, I "sample" after it is apparent that the food no longer interests them and I am not a "you must clean your plate" parent)

Perhaps I am acting out unconsciously because there are starving children in 3rd world countries that could be eating that food.

Perhaps, I am being frugal because I do all the shopping and I know how much that meal cost and throwing away food is like throwing away money.

Perhaps, I am saving a trip to the kitchen for a second helping because it is sitting right there on my child's plate, leaving food for my older children to take in their school lunches the next day saving me the "I don't know what to pack in my lunch." drama.

Perhaps, I just have no self control....

What, that can't be me?! I have self control. I drink water not soda or coffee. I don't eat chips or candy. I eat at least 5 fruits or vegetables each day (usually in their natural state). I exercise 6 days a week, usually at 5 a.m. I follow my workout plans. I don't kick puppies. I like old people. I follow Meg's rules for society -- I don't cut in line and I don't steal Christmas trees.

I HAVE SELF CONTROL...

Well..... considering that outburst coupled with my last post,

Perhaps, I don't.

Confession.... Actually, I know that I don't. I buy the little lunch bags of chips because then I will not eat them. I will not open a new bag of chips. I don't buy cookies -- (notice that I have not given up "baked goods" yet -- just keeping my options open) An open package of cookies is like a $20 bill in the middle of the sidewalk. You snatch that bugger up and pocket it before anyone notices. I have excellent covert mid-day cookie snacking techniques.

I know that I just need to get a couple of days under my belt of non-child-plate-snacking and I will be on the road to recovery. Unfortunately, there is no 7 step program nor patch that I can use. It is all on me.

Who knew that this would be the hardest challenge yet?