Eat all the things!

Yuck.  Breakfast was a fail today.  Because I was saving the last of the cow's milk for Charlotte and Emily (who will not accept any kind of non-dairy milk substitute) I was forced opened a box of whole grain rice milk from the pantry that I had bought back when Emily was sick and off dairy.  I shook it up in a drink shaker with ice (I can't stand warm milk of any sort...dairy or non) and poured if over my bowl of cereal.

A couple days ago when I was trying unsuccessfully to prove to Will that pecans aren't THAT bad nutritionally I noticed that pine nuts are actually quite high in protein but low/moderate in carbs fat and calories comparatively.  So why not try them on my cereal instead?

2 biscuits Barbara's Bakery shredded wheat with whole grain rice milk, blueberries, pine nuts and erythritol, scrambled egg with salsa and pineapple

Because they were awful, that's why not.  The "milk" tasted like sweetened water and somehow accentuated the metallic-ness of the pine nuts, or maybe it was the blueberries.  I couldn't tell because it was just a big old bowl of nasty.  It was so gross I didn't finish all of it.  I will be keeping my pine nuts safely tucked away in the cabinet at breakfast from here on out.

Today was round two of FNP's Coffee Madness, so after preschool drop-off I headed out to Dublin Roasters.  I knew they roasted coffee and sold it through local natural food stores but I didn't realize they had a whole coffee shop thing going on too.  I really liked it there!  It was spacious with a very earthy/fair-tradey feel PLUS the lady working there gave Charlotte a free honey straw (much better than the dum-dum lollipop a bank teller gave her yesterday as an apology for bonking her in the head with a door)!  I tried the VOLT blend, which I assume is what they serve at VOLT, and it was quite tasty.

Then I went to finish signing Emily up for Kindergarten.  I didn't bring the correct proof of residency last time so I had to go give them the rest of the papers they needed.  Can I just say something here?  Of course I can, it's my blog.  SO, it seems things have gotten pretty ridiculous when it comes to how much of your business you are forced to share with the school your child attends.  I had to circle what kind of "dwelling" we live in, I have to have a form filled out by Emily's dentist stating that it appears her teeth are well cared-for, she has to have proof that she's had a physical, and she has to get a blood test to prove she doesn't have high lead levels.  Now I understand making sure they've had all their immunizations (although I still have a big problem with how it is all handled...another post for another time) because yeah, if your kid comes to school with a contagious disease then they could affect the other kids negatively.  But how do my child's teeth or what kind of house they live in affect anyone?  If it's to make sure that your child isn't being abused or living in poverty, wouldn't that be better noticed by your child's teacher since if you live in a cardboard box you probably won't go around admitting that on school forms anyway?  I am all for identifying and reaching out to kids in bad situations, but as usual I think the way they're going about it will help very few while making all the other kids' parents have to jump through hoops and feel like we are being subtly accused of being incompetent parents who have to have the school system checking over our shoulder to make sure we're doing everything right.

Once I got over my indignation, I headed to Bodypump, then after picking up Emily we set out to spend a fun afternoon downtown in the gorgeous weather.  Every time we drive through Everedy Square Emily points at the ice cream sign on Frederick Ice Cream and Fudge Co. and asks if we can get ice cream there sometime.  I had my coupon for coffee at Frederick Coffee Co. which is right across the street (lots of shops in that vicinity that start with Frederick and end with Company!) and there is a playground down the street so we just hung out in the area for awhile.

For lunch at the coffee shop Emily had quiche lorraine, Charlotte had a PB&J with banana on wheat bread (although they forgot the bananas) and I had an "Asian Twist" salad.

Greens, sprouts, edamame, processed-tasting chicken, Asian salad dressing

The girls behaved wonderfully and the people who work there are super-nice, but I was not all that impressed with the coffee or the salad at this place.  Dublin Roasters wins this round!

When we went across the street to "Make Emily's dreams come true" (her words, not mine) the girls, of course, picked out the nastiest kind of ice cream possible.  Cotton Candy (shudder).  See?  I'm not ALWAYS a super-stickler for healthy eating with my kids.  Today was just the kind of day that lent itself to letting loose a bit, what with the beautiful sun and 70 degree temperatures outside!

Mmmm, dye and sugar

We took a very drippy walk 2 blocks down the street to the playground, where they still had a see-saw and a merry go round!  You don't see that kind of awesomely dangerous equipment on new playgrounds these days.

On the way back to the car we stopped by Stone Hearth Bakery to get a loaf of whole wheat bread, but when I asked the owner which ones were 100% whole grain he told me none of them were!  He only uses 50% whole grain because using 100% whole grain "makes the bread too hard".  This makes me angry for several reasons.  #1, I have been told by several different people before that some of the breads there are 100% whole grain (although now that I think back on it it seemed to be different kinds each time) and #2, I have had plenty of 100% whole grain breads that are delicious.  It just takes a little more effort and fiddling with the recipe.  So I have been lied to many times there.  I will not be going back :-(

But overall we had a lovely time today, then we went home and Charlotte took a 3-hour nap.  Hooray!  And I remembered to make my smoothie before she went to sleep, double hooray!

1 orange, whole grain rice milk, plain nonfat greek yogurt, flax seeds, 10 almonds, vanilla extract and nutmeg

That was not the end of the day though, because there's always dinner to make and grocery shopping to do. We hit MOM once Charlotte woke up because the girls snack on the dozens of samples around the store which keeps them happier and I can shop longer without meltdowns so everybody wins.  I can't wait until my $20 for $10 coupon I just bought on Eversave kicks in!

I was pretty desperate to eat everything this afternoon, but I tried to focus on fruits and veggies so that I would still be overdoing it but not quite as badly.

This is a pear

Carrot with hummus (not all of the hummus pictured was consumed)

1 Tbsp peanut butter

1 spear pineapple

I wanted to do something for dinner to get rid of all the extra beans I made up for chili last week, so I made a HUGE pot of taco soup for dinner, and we'll freeze most of it for later.

Taco soup, Cabot 50% light cheddar, 1/4 avocado, 4 mini whole wheat flax cornbread muffins

I will admit, this is a picture of Will's dinner.  I had the exact same thing, but mine was consumed bit by bit as I was standing in the kitchen cooking.  I took a taste of the soup to test the seasonings and then just kept eating.  Luckily after I had consumed just about 1 bowl's worth I grabbed a KeVita and drank until my stomach was uncomfortably full to stop myself from eating more.  This particular loss of control was very tough to fight.  When I want to eat that badly, my head is completely out of sync with my stomach and being so full only diminished my urge to eat marginally.  I stopped myself from eating any more than I had originally intended to eat, but it was SO hard and I certainly did not consume my dinner in a dignified fashion.  I think it's important to sit down and actually ENJOY your food, not just snork it down while you are doing other things in the kitchen.  I wish I knew how to fix whatever is wrong with me eating-wise so that I didn't have these mental breaks!

After the initial fullness went away I STILL felt like I was in danger of doing some naughty eating so I started snacking on more 0-point plant-based things.

Pickles

Beautiful grapes that unfortunately turned out to have seeds :-(  I gave most of these to Charlotte

I do not like grapes with seeds and/or slipskins!  For some reason I am just fine with "table" grapes but when I eat grapes with seeds my lips really itch in an allergic reaction-y kind of way.  These just looked so yummy and it has been so hard recently to find grapes that are organic or failing that at least grown in the US that when I saw them I snatched them up.  Will'll love these though.

And yes, there was even more fruit consumed after that.

A "Pango" Will gave me

To be fair I forgot the banana that is usually in my smoothie so this wasn't technically "extra"

Then I had dessert, to kind of psychologically put an end to my eating for the day.

the end of my Theos mint dark chocolate bar

 Over the course of the evening I drank 2 Zevias to keep my stomach full and my mind off eating.

So I ate a TON of food and beverages today and I still didn't eat SUPER well, but everything I ate that was "extra" was at least a healthy (or 0 points anyway) snack vs. the more calorie-dense things I would rather have been eating.

I feel good about the fact that I was able to more or less direct my eating, even if I wasn't able to stop it, and how I feel psychologically about my eating has more to do with my long-term success than anything else so that's good I guess.  I'll keep focusing on taking baby steps and at least doing things "less wrong" even if I still can't seem to make myself do them all the way right.