Calorie Counters
Four Letter Words
I’ve been a committed yo-yo dieter since the first time I realized I could no longer fit into a size 12. That’s a lifetime ago (fitting into a single digit size was in a lifetime that only existed in my fantasies and even those are getting supersized). Yo-yo-ing predates any pregnancy so that the only thing that could reasonably explain my current weight is an unconditional love of snacking.
Today the yo-yo is going down as I start the second day of my forks over knives diet for the 16th time this calendar year. I actually like the food on Forks Over Knives and/or South Beach diets — especially in the summer. They both make good use of everything in my garden, and the recipes tend to be flavorful.
The problem with any of these diets is the recipes. You don’t just pop something in the microwave oven to preheat from last night. You cut and sautee and brown and separate. That wonderful salad or baked fish is a truck load of work with five or six different kinds of vegetables to be chopped, making me wonder if it’s just a coincidence that diet and work both have four letters.
I know it will be worth it when the dress hanging up at the back of my closet zips without any contortions or grunted prayers to the scale god, but right now it’s just work.
What Happens on the Road
It’s always good to quit when you’re ahead, but first you have to know where you stand.
Get it on
A Fifteen Year Itch
Samantha’s marriage in bit of a dry spell. A fifteen year dry spell. An unexpected find in the basement spurs her to end the drought, and in the process she discovers that the first step to victory is picking the right the fight.
Get it on
Monday, Monday
Thing2 is a little subdued today.
Most mornings by 8 am, he’s chirping with the birds outside, doing a sock-footed slide from room to room hoping to “accidentally” wake the sleeping thirteen-year-old giant in the room near the end of the hall. By 9am, he’s tapping at the door. At 10am, the giant has breakfasted and retreated to his cave and Thing2 dances outside the door with a soft mischievous smile on his face.
“MOOOOOOMMMMM!” usually reverberates through my office no later than noon as Thing2’s latest attempt to “play” with the giant backfires and the accusations fly. The tears dry quickly and round 2 begins shortly after the afternoon snack.
Today,the giant is away at computer camp for the next two, and the house is eerily quiet. The only chirping is coming from the open window. Thing2 has his nose stuck in a book or his head bent over the iPad. We’ll find something special to do this afternoon, but this morning, there’s no dancing or yelling through closed doors. There’s no “he started it”, and it’s too dang quiet.
Brothers Up in Arms
Burying Ground 1850
Left Bedlam to take Thing1 to camp in CT and took the slow route. Having fun sketching as we went but it’s the abandoned farms and buildings, popping out of the affluent and often lush areas that stay in my mind’s eye long enough to migrate to the page of my sketch diary
Abandoned Silo, Dutchess County, NY
It was just a glance as we drove by, but the jagged top of this roofless silo and the forest devouring made me think of a castle that was abOndoned after a battle
My Basket Overfloweth
Halvsies
I’m working my way through a mountain of laundry to get Thing-One ready for sleep-away camp.
It’s the first dry sunny morning in days, so I decided to hang my first load outside instead of on the racks in the laundry room.We have a new compact telescoping line. Our old one died in a thunderstorm, and this one cost way too much. I was sniffing the drying blankets as I hung shirts and shorts and suddenly realized how much more the new laundry line holds than the old one. “Yay,” I said to Katy-the-Wonder-Dog (she does a lot of wondering). Then to myself, “How empty is my life that a bigger laundry line is a highpoint of my morning?” Then I wondered did it really main my life is all that empty, or is my life – most of which occurs between the kitchen and the laundry line – so full that I can actually take a minute and be happy about such a little thing.
I decided to take the half-full approach on this one and went in to start another load.