Striving for excellence motivates you; striving for perfection is demoralizing.
- Harriet Braiker
Let's just get the confessions over with, shall we? I admit it. I'm sitting here at 11:03 pm eating my dinner. Actually, we'll call it my breakfast, lunch and dinner, because it's basically the only meal I've had today. Breakfast was a protein bar on the go. Lunch I had to choose between feeding myself or feeding my two month old. He won, of course. I got by on a chicken nugget and a piece of string cheese. I munched a little while I made and served supper late, and somehow I squeezed in my exercise while the baby cried and now here I am.
I'm such a whiner. At least my dinner is leftover broccoli, salmon and quinoa. (That's pronounced "Keen-wah" just so I can sound really smart.) That's got to count for something.
My other confession: I got a sunburn. I put sunblock on, but I always forget my shoulders and back. I realize this is not a step in the healthy direction. I realize it will be my own fault when I get skin cancer.
Needless to say, I'm a bit frustrated about everything today. It's one of those days where this whole idea of improving in all of these areas seems to big and too unreasonable for where I am.
As well, the goals themselves do not mesh well. I don't know how to have our family eat healthy, have our fill and still spend a reasonable amount of money on groceries. But then I wonder, what IS a reasonable amount? I only know what I spend. It seems out of control - but I look through the cabinets and fridge and wonder what was frivolous. If I skimp on fruit we run out within a couple days. If I don't get two of this or three of that I end up scraping together unbalanced meals and trying to stretch everything out to the next week.
My family goes through a lot of food in a week. Is this normal? Do everyone's kids eat every last pea and carrot and piece of meat on their plate, ask for more, and then still constantly whine about being hungry? (Just so we're clear, I don't feed them every time they ask. They get three meals and two snacks a day. Unless I indulge in a shower, then I come down to find half the grapes I just bought for the week mysteriously missing off their branches... and it seems that "Not me" was the culprit.) And I don't know, does everyone's husband polish off a bag of tortilla chips in a sitting and go back looking for more? (Sorry, MacGyver, just trying to be real. It's obviously not hurting your figure at all.)
I don't even want to think about what it's going to be like when we have four teenagers in the house...
One week in and I'm discouraged about this whole being more financially responsible business. It just seems like an impossible dream. And I totally sound like a whiner today. I don't blame you if you stopped reading three paragraphs before this. I wish I had.
But my new policy about complete honesty requires I tell you today that I am doubting my ability to pull this off. I guess we'll just have to wait and see how it goes.
Thanks for sticking with me. And as for the quote - I'm pretty sure that's the source of my problem. I'm striving for perfection when all that is required to make a change is striving toward excellence.
I'm just going to have to figure out what that means in a tangible sense. If you have any thoughts or opinions, leave a message, here or on facebook. I'm really enjoying hearing from everyone!
Teenagers in the house......yeah, that will break the food budget.....I can tell you that from experience!!!! :) Hang in there, Mandy.....I'm impressed with what you are doing! Good job!
ReplyDeleteAnd, I'm just curious......how did the MacGyver name get started??? I'm sensing there's a story behind that one.
Love reading your posts! Love your transparency!
I'll pray for you before I go to bed tonight.....oh wait, it's this morning already! Good morning! :)
haha, my husband sat down and ate an ENTIRE bag of cheese puffs (the large family size) for snack the other day. really? one cheese puff adds 5lbs to my scale! :P (and for the record, *I* did not buy them, his mom gave them to us). I don't spend our small grocery budget on junk.
ReplyDeleteI really have no good advice for you (encouraging, huh?). :) I will say that you do need to allow for those days of chaos! Right now, my goal has been taken down to 4 'healthy, good, manageable' days a week. If my goals are not reachable or realistic, then i have a tendency to quit altogether, and very easily.
As far as the apparently starving kids, ;), what about more fiber in their meals and snacks? once again, i have very little knowledge in this area. my kids aren't huge eaters and i have the problem of getting rid of the food before it's bad! i just know from being in weight watchers that the more fiber, the more filled. just a thought.
and i have a yummy quinoa recipe you might like. :) i'll post in no your fb.
hang in there! i'll be praying for you in the areas of this post!!
and if it helps, you have convicted me of eating after 9!! (as far as snacking, not catching up on dinner!) ;) so THANK YOU for that!!
and thank the Lord for string cheese or somedays i wouldn't have had the chance to eat anything!!! :)
Kim, thank you for the encouragement! There is no doubt you understand this frustration very well! :) And I explained the name in the second post called "Introductions."
ReplyDeleteAmy, I'm going to have try that recipe. All I know to do with it is cook it and throw some salt on it.
And they do get a lot of fiber. I know it makes me totally full but for some reason it's not enough for their skinny little selves.
And I've decided to go with 10 pm. It's a more reasonable goal and I go to bed pretty late anyway. But now you've convicted me that I've convicted you because I have not under any certain terms mastered that one yet...
You are talking my language, Mandy!! I remember so vividly going to McD's with friends when Cameron and Liam were small and they were getting one happy meal to split between 2 kids and mine wanted an extra hamburger after eating a whole one ;) Our grocery "budget" is insane. Mike makes a really good amount of $$, but I spend it all at Kroger-Ha! Seriously, our grocery budget is $400 dollars more than our mortgage each month.
ReplyDeleteI have also found that I try to do well on the whole, but allow myself X amount of easy things each week. To me, a box of Super Pretzels is less harmful than taquitos. Or something like that. I PLAN to have days where eating healthy is not going to happen. We have small kids and busy lives and I am just NOT a strict, structured, scheduled sort of person. I'm gonna get to lunch and have nothing ready. Or dinner. I find I do better to allow myself a little ease, then to set myself up for failure by not allowing any. Have you read any of Michael Pollan's books? He has some good advice on how to make your way in this world trying to eat healthy. Also, my brother Aaron has a little 80/20 rule he tries to follow. Eat healthy 80% of the time and do the best you can the other 20%.
On that note, I'm going to eat my second meal of the day, for the first time in 3 days. All the other days, I've eaten one ;)
Haha, Holly, I know the feeling! And yes, I'm definitely not the 24/7 kind of healthy living and eating. We just do the best we can.
ReplyDeleteAnd you've made me feel a lot better about spending so much on food. I guess we have to eat to live! :)
Thanks for sharing!