Weight and Food

It's been 21 weeks. I waited until I had an empty stomach and then stepped on the scale. I had completely dried from my shower, so no excess water weight there. And yay! I'm at my pre-pregnancy weight! I'm not down to pre-pregnancy size, but who cares? That will come, I hope. I did not suffer from morning sickness (I was blessed! I am aware of that!), but I did suffer from mind-numbing, catatonic exhaustion. Therefore, the gym was out of the question during my first trimester. By the time the exhaustion was gone, I was into my track season at school and barely had enough time to do anything much less go to the gym.

And now...well, if you read yesterday's post, you'll know I'm struggling with balance. So, as it happens in life, my gym membership has simply been existing in my credit card with no other apparent presence in my life. I miss it, though. I miss going to the gym and simply following my own routine - not having to talk to anyone unless it is the polite "excuse me" or "thank you." Not having to follow any specific train of thought - merely threading my way from one idea to the next and floating along with every whim. There were times I would actually try to follow a train backwards to figure out how I ended up where I did. A reversed "telephone" game with myself. That can be rather entertaining at times, exasperating at others.

We have exercise equipment at home that Steve uses regularly. But I've tried that route, and unless I'm absent from the house, I will be a mother and wife first, a teacher second, and a human working on health and stress-release third. I cannot run on the treadmill while there is laundry to do, vacuuming, or, heaven forbid, papers to grade and lessons to plan. I can not look past what I "should" be doing to focus on myself. Ergo, the gym membership, which always worked in the past. I do get a workout of sorts, though. I carry Sydney around while I clean - front-loading baby carriers help a lot. And while the weather was nice and I was home on maternity leave, we took walks nearly every day. But not in 2 feet of snow.

The big problem is that I love food. My goodness, I love to eat. I enjoy cooking, as well. It relaxes me - even when I make mistakes. I am a natural foodie. My best friend, Jody, knows that whenever she travels out of town on business, she is not to tell me what she did, what she wore, etc., until after she tells me what and where she ate. I do the same.

My students always share food with me. When they take Intro. to Culinary Arts as a class, they bring me a sample of what they cooked. And I eat it. All. Once I became pregnant, it seemed the food came from all directions. What is it about a woman with a belly that makes everyone bring her food? I didn't complain, mind you! I ate it. All. And sometimes even asked for more! I'm saddened, now, though. Now that I've had my baby, the food isn't coming to me anymore.

I used the fact that I'm nursing as an excuse after Sydney came to continue to eat as much of and anything that I wanted. It's amazing to think that it takes more calories to feed a baby (between 500 and 1500, on average) than it does to develop a baby (only 300 more calories a day). Doctor's orders were to keep the calories up. So, I did. I will still eat whatever I want, but I no longer eat as much as I want. And believe it or not, something about this weather makes me crave the healthier stuff. I still go nuts over carbs, but I yearn for salads, stir-frys, veggies.

I bought Julie and Julia sight unseen. I truly never do this because it never fails, you'll end up with something you wasted $20 on that you don't really like. But I had to try the movie. I enjoyed it. The project interested me a great deal and I thought how novel an idea to cook your way through a cookbook rather than picking out specific recipes to try. After watching the movie, I started reading Julie Powell's blog. It's still up. But I could never go through Julia Child's cookbook. I enjoy French food. I just don't think I could eat a year's worth of it and not keel over. The recipes Julie describes are too decadent to eat on a regular basis. I prefer more the Mediterranean diet. If I were to do such a thing as this, it would have to be Mario Batali or Giada de Laurentiis. Besides, Steve is rather the picky eater. He claims he isn't "as long as you make something I'll eat." But I don't think that counts...

All that being said, I will strive to post my own food experiences on here. Til then.