A moment of self pity, please...

For I, unlike the ones among us blessed with perfect DNA, do not have a lightning fast metabolism and can not just eat anything I want. In fact, I feel as though I may not have any metabolism at all. Always such a battle.

Unlike my friend who can eat chocolate, not exercise and loose 10 pounds because she is "watching her fat content more closely", unlike my mom who can go to Curves for three months and loose 9 1/4 inches (hooray mom!!) , unlike my husband, who can drop 20 pounds by switching to a ligher beer...

Nope, that's not me.

I have been keeping a journal of what I’ve been shoving down my throat. It’s amazing how quickly things add up…
First its one rice cake (that’ll be 50 calories, thank you).
Then it’s two rice cakes (now you’re up to 100 calories.)
Then three and four, and the next thing you know, you’ve wasted a meals worth of calories on apple flavored Styrofoam.

Keeping a journal is definately a reality check. You’d be surprised to see what you actually consume during the course of a day without even thinking about it.

I now see that my cup of 6:30am-keep-me-awake-in-traffic-while-lowering-my-cholesterol Cheerios, my 9am package of instant oatmeal, my 12:30pm light turkey sandwich on dry 12-grain bread and my small apple (because lets get realistic, a single stupid yogurt for lunch doesn’t fill anybody up and I need some energy for kickboxing) and yes, my 3:30 rice cakes have used up most of the calories I think I should eat a day.

And what, you may ask, is my magic number? Its certainly not an unrealistic number. I do not want to go over 1500 calories. Not over, I said. So 1400 wouldn't be a bad number either. I read in a fitness magazine that one should never go under 1200 a day (hey, no problem there).

So given what I eat during the day, if I don’t want to go over 1500, then eating 950 calories before 6pm leaves me 550 for both dinner and a glass of cholesterol lowering red wine. That, in reality, is plenty. Yet somehow, last night after I ate my salad for dinner, I was over my limit. How did that happen? I ate too much, that’s how.

I’m feeling down.

I watch the people I work with eat Taylor ham & cheese sandwiches for breakfast and Italian subs for lunch without giving thinking twice about what they are consuming. That’s not to say what they’ve been snacking on or what they plan to have for dinner. And I guarantee they are not planning on doing any kickboxing when they get home either. Then again, that’s why they look like they do. And here I am beating myself up over too many rice cakes. In fact, I’m already making plans for tomorrow to cut my cup of Cheerios in half, to use one piece of bread on my sandwich, perhaps I will skip the apple...

As for tonight, if I don’t eat any rice cakes now, I can squeeze in an extra glass of wine later on…

Boy, I really am my own worst enemy.

Useful Information

I learned the other day that if you cut your dog’s nail too short so that it bleeds and bleeds and bleeds, and the Kwik-Stop is too dried up to use and Ivory soap is not working, that FLOUR is your answer.

And then there’s Oatmeal Trivia…

Did you know, there is an annual spitting-for-distance contest held each year in Raleigh, MS. The record to date is 25 feet 10 inches.

Anddd one more...

Lanolin, an essential ingredient of many expensive cosmetics, is, in its natural form, a foul-smelling, waxy, tarlike substance extracted from the fleece of sheep.