Monday, September 22, 2008

Confessions of Sliding Down the Nutritional Pyramid

I know that we have all seen the email justifying that chocolate is a vegetable or the fifth food group. For the most part, I like to eat healthy. I feel better inside and out. Not to mention fit into my pants more easily. I was raised in a home of balanced homemade meals and Kopps ice cream. My mom’s belief was that we can have anything in moderation and taught us what to eat and what not to eat. However, as kids, weight was never a big deal. My brother and I were always actively involved in sports playing soccer in the backyard to team sports in school. I even was an overachiever and ran track in college. With that much calorie burning, I never had a problem fitting into cute clothes while sitting on the couch eating double stuffed Oreo cookies. Boy, I love those cookies. But as I get older, things have started to stay around like the one Oreo cookie I ate last year.

I used to go to the gym with great regularity. I even belonged to a gym that was on my way home from work, which made it so much easier to just go after work and then continue my day. I would go 2-3 times a week and feel great. But then after I became pregnant, I was too tired to go. (My major pregnancy symptom was exhaustion) I would barely make it through my day before coming home and collapsing. Then Ms. Abigail came along and my free time got shorter. (Who am I kidding? My free time got cut down to the three minutes I get to go the bathroom) No longer was I able to get to the gym and therefore discontinued my membership. (Minor tangent: the gym told me that they can transfer my membership to a nearby gym which was only 15 miles away and $1.25 in tolls each way. Yeah, right.) So I figured that I would get some exercise by purchasing a jogging stroller to take Abby around the neighborhood. Well, we live in Florida and this will only work certain times of the year because even at dawn it is 80 degrees with 200% humidity. I just can’t work out in that. I know that I need to get something in the house and I am more than willing to take any donations for our home gym. Just kidding. Or am I? I am. Not really.

As a mom, I want to make sure that Abby was on a good path for nutrition. There are a few aspects to this. One of the first things is for her to eat right. Of course she will be able to have ice cream and pizza but not every night. We do go out to eat once a week and usually fudge our diets during that time but during the week, we try to indulge our sweet tooth with fruit or something healthy. Abby’s deserts are always fruit, which she loves. Our second thing we do is to not watch TV. I know that soon she will want to watch some cartoon and I am fine with that. But not letting her sit for 2 hours on her tush watching TV. She needs to play and run around. Thankfully day care does not have a TV in the room so she is not used to watching TV and therefore, it is not part of her daily routine. Of course a football game is usually on at our house during the weekend but she has limited patience for that. At this point it is just not as exciting as a cartoon to her. Not to mention, I usually take her and run errands while Josh is glued to his Miami Dolphins (Minor tangent again: Miami just SMACKED the Patriots this weekend. Who would have thought? Sorry Jen. GO FINS!)

With that being said, I have to confess that I went for a fast slide down the Pyramid this weekend. We went to North Carolina this weekend and while we were indulged with pot roast for dinner, Abby got meatballs and spaghetti…three nights in a row. I feel so guilty because we had pot roast and then chicken. Neither of which I knew she would eat. But pasta, she loves. Lunch yesterday was really bad. Because lunch was going to be in the airport, I was not able to make the best meal decisions that I could have made. Not to mention, Abby can be picky and eat things one day but not the next. Yesterday’s lunch consisted of pizza and fries, which I know she loves. Breakfast usually is a multi grain waffle or pancake (with nothing on them) because I don’t have time to make something that is kid proof. Oatmeal, most fruits, yogurt, etc. are all so messy. I just don’t have time to give her bath in the morning as I am trying to cram food down her throat and run out the door to beat the building morning traffic. I also don’t want to give cereal because that is the morning snack for the early kids. At least lunch is usually something with veggies but I am often running to the freezer during the week to make sure that she has dinner.

I am going to continue to hang my head in shame as I confess that I am that mom who will feed her kid junk food. I could see the eyes peering at me feeding my little girl pizza and fries…

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

Minor tangent: John called me at Publix in the check out line to tell me about the Fin Win and I shouted out, drawing attention to myself. It was embarrassing. But that's another week!
Oh, Becca, our slide is a slippery one. But Abby gets great nutrition every other day! A day or two (or three?) delving into the junk category will give her some good memories when she's sighing over her carrots. You're linked!

Anonymous said...

Don't feel badly. I am the mom who took a picture of her kid licking a lollipop at 8:55 in the morning after a quick stop at the bank on the way to Daycare and work. It's really ok.

Allinole said...

As you know, I am very strict with Eli's diet but sometimes you just have to give in. Eli eats pizza, hot dogs and burgers, all which I am not crazy about but sometimes it is the only thing he will eat.

By the way, you are doing a great job with her diet. We have talked about food and the kids and I know what you are feeding Abby is good food.

Anonymous said...

Don't feel bad. I've been trying to get healthy food choices into my kid forever but there are days when he will only eat chicken fingers. I've had to deal with it and move on.

I live in FL too and ran out and got a not-so-cheap jogging stroller for my kids when my second was born in April. It's been used outside MAYBE twice. I keep telling myself that I'll go when the weather gets cooler or when the kids are on the same nap schedule but who am I fooling? It's hard to find the time to exercise, any spare time you DO get is like gold and I would rather plop down on the couch or in front of the computer. I feel your pain.

HeatherPride said...

Honestly, my kid goes on tangents with food and will go through periods of only eating one thing at a time. Seriously, he does not mind going without anything if he can't get the one thing he happens to be eating during that period. We are currently in the middle of a dinosaur chicken nugget with "apple fries" (sliced apples) phase. I feel terrible about it, but I feel worse when he doesn't eat at all. He's so skinny.

steenky bee said...

You shouldn't feel guilty at all. It sounds as though you are very health conscious and one weekend won't be the end of it.

I stopped by via the Spin Cycle. I'm new this week and I wanted to read everyone. Your post was great!

Anonymous said...

Don't beat yourself up - you are just doing what you can.

Keeping up with kids, their diets, time, schedules, it is all hard but you are trying to enforce positive living and eating habits and it seems like you are on the right track.

HarryJack's Mom said...

Hi, Jen brought me here and I have little to say other than I feel your pain about trying to teach them healthy habits. The jogging stroller isn't just for exercise at our house - they view it as totally the fun way to go since it's what we take to the zoo, the fair, etc. It'll all work out in the end - happy weekend!