This recent diet has helped me be more aware of just how many calories there are in so many foods. It's staggering how a single meal can eat up the calories your body needs for the whole day.
For example, let's take the Mayo Clinic's Daily Caloric Calculator and figure out how many calories someone would need in a day. I'm an over 40 female. The larger I am weight-wise, the more calories my body needs per day to keep me alive. Let's say I'm lightly active and I weigh 200 pounds. I only need 1800 calories each day to keep my current weight and activity level steady.
1800 calories is not that much when you look at today's menu items. There are burritos at my favorite Mexican restaurant that have more than that in a single burrito. The Cheesecake factory's Shepard's Pie, which I love, has almost 1700 calories which doesn't leave room for cheesecake, or even another meal that day.
I'm not 200 pounds, but I am fairly active so I rate in at 1800 calories on the Mayo Clinic site as well. I have less weight to maintain, but I burn more calories through exercise and therefore need more fuel.
I go to the grocery store, look at menus at restaurants and wonder how we're not all 250 pounds. Knowing what is a reasonable amount I can eat each day, I look at that slice of cheesecake and think, "Do I want that to be half of the food I eat today?" I'm up for splitting a slice of cheesecake. I had ice cream last night. But I do think sometimes there are foods I may never love the same way again if I want to feel healthy and not creep into being overweight.
The Big Boy Update: Less trouble, more trouble. He's gotten to a good age where he can move around, but he's not in constant danger of hurting himself. He can do stairs, both down and up now. And he's interested in toys more than random things like glass plates and fire pokers. So you can relax a little from the constant, "what's he into now?" level of vigilance to, "where did he wander off to?" But he will get into trouble, like when he tried, mightily, to get the laptop plug (think small round end) into the grounding socket in an outlet. So yeah, danger, intermixed with a chance to sit down from time to time.
The Tiny Girl Chronicles: Trauma victim. At lunch today we were at a windy seafood restaurant on the bay. My son had a chicken finger and a few fries on his plate with lots of catsup for dipping. I looked over at the lightweight styrofoam plate his food was on and thought, "this could be trouble." About that time a strong gust caught the flimsy plate and flung it straight into my daughter's face. Call me a bad mother, but I burst out laughing. Her face was covered, pretty as you please, in the most thorough and artistic smattering of catsup you can imagine. She wasn't upset so much as she was stunned. I almost told my husband to not wipe it off before I got a picture, but sense prevailed as he wanted to make sure there wasn't catsup in her eye. She never cried, she just looked confused at what had happened to stop her from enjoying the two french fries she was happily gumming. Which brings up a milestone I almost forgot. She understands how to feed herself now. Yesterday I gave her childrens cracker wheels and arrowroot cookies. She figured out it was her responsibility to put the food in her hand into her mouth. She had an exciting day feeding herself. I think some of it even got into her stomach.
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