Eating Like A College Student

The letter we received home from school on the first day should have read:

Welcome back to school, Lauck family!  In less than a week, all three kids will be sick, and you'll be cleaning up vomit and living on cup-o-noodles and saltines and flat ginger ale.  And bananas. 

You will be mean, but that isn't because your kids have a bunch of homework every night, already.  No, it is because you're a bad mother.  Don't even think about passing that off on us.

Love,

The school.

Ah yes, the chaos continues here at Casa Lauck.  I've got nothing worth eating, I've been sporadic on the working out, and my kids and I have a tenuous relationship that includes a lot of snarling.  Back to school is awesome, yeah?

I can't believe we've already had vomit.  That has to be some kind of record, does it not?

I'm off to the grocery store this evening, so it is menu time once again.  I honestly don't know why I bother sometimes, because it feels like it is courting disaster to be prepared.  This is some sort of warped lifelong resident of earthquake country logic.  If we don't prepare for a disaster, one won't happen.  But the second we put aside a new medical kit and enough food and water for the family, we'll get the big one.

In your face, bad logic!  I'm making a menu, and it ain't pretty, but whomp.  In the extended entry.

Who has time for thinking about food?

It seems to be a rather cruel joke - I post my best intentions here, and this is where they stay...in digital form.  I've recently gone back to work almost full time, and juggling the responsibilities of my family, my new job, all my writing gigs and more has left me rather at a loss when it comes to meal time.  I haven't been able to slow down long enough to grocery shop, let alone lovingly prepare a meal.

It is getting dire around here. 

I've needed to do big grocery shopping for a week, and instead we keep slapping a bandage on the situation with a gallon of milk here, a loaf of bread there.  I figure I'll adjust to this pace (not that I was exactly adept at the previous pace, hah!) but for the meantime, I'm going to be having to force hours out of my day in order to get some order in my pantry and fridge.

RIght about now, I really need to re-read The Fat Fallacy.  That idea that I can enjoy a leisurely family meal with my husband and children seems like a far-fetched fantasy... only because I'm allowing myself to not be strict with my work schedule.  Is is possible to have your cheesecake and eat it too?

I'm determined to find out. 

So!  First things first - a menu.  Then shopping.  Then some prepare ahead tactics. 

The menu for the next week in in the extended entry.  I can do this. 

Back To School

Despite advance planning, and a whole lineup of things ready to go this morning, I woke up late (thanks to the husband) and found myself rushing out the door, not for a pleasant walk, but for the three minute drive to school.

I can't tell you how ridiculous it feels to drive a mile to the school, when the walk from home takes almost the same amount of time, once you factor in parking, unloading and all that jazz.  It is so silly.

But rather than risk it this morning, we drove, and made it to the new classrooms just as the bell rang.

The lunches I packed went over well, finger sandwiches and a few cookies, apples and cheese and crackers.  Not the most nutritious of lunches, but I figure we'll work up to salads and other veggie intensive fare.

I'm really, really struggling right now to get back into my exercise groove.  I need to challenge myself again, I think.  I should really pick a daily hour and stick with it.  Unfortunately, I haven't found that magic hour - and that kind of thinking keeps me from just fitting it in as best as I can during the day. 

Tonight, I'm shot.  Absolutely spent, both mentally and physically.  Probably from all the Riverdancing I was doing to celebrate the start of school.  But I'm going to set my alarm for 5:15 am tomorrow, so I can squeeze in my DVD workout before the kids wake up.  That will start my day off right. 

But you know what?  Even if I don't, I'm not going to bed tomorrow until I've managed to work up a sweat.  I need it, for the endorphins, for the routine, for the positive impact on my day. 

You probably need it to.  What are you doing for exercise these days?

T Minus One Day

With the kids starting school on Wednesday, I've entered the final countdown.  Backpacks?  Check.  Lunch boxes?  Check.  New shoes?  Check.  New outfit for the first day?  Check. 

All the rest of it?  Laller laller laller laller laller laller laller laller laller laller.  Commence running and circles and flapping because the school year is upon us.

There are so many things I have planned for the hours while the two big kids are in school, and most of them are likely to be thwarted, but I've got the buzz of anticipation and it feels good. 

Because I'm working nearly full-time right now, I'm not very organized when it comes to eating.  But with the kids in school, that isn't going to be an option.  I can't very well send them to school with four green olives and a frozen chicken breast, so I'm going to have to menu up for the weeks ahead.  I'm pretty excited about that, too, actually. 

Tonight after the kids go to bed, I'm going to be drawing up my official menu for the month, and then I'll tackle shopping for all the goodies tomorrow.  My big plan is to pack not only the school-kids' lunches, but to go ahead and pack mine and my youngest's too, and maybe even the hubs, so that we all have healthy, nutritious food to get us through the day.  Or, you know, some olives and frozen chicken.

Also on the agenda for this evening is re-upping on my daily exercise commitment.   I've been flailing around, squeezing in a workout here and there, but as my working hours increase, I'm spending more time on my hiney than ever before, and it is making me more tired, more grumpy and I actually have been having trouble sleeping - all problems that disappeared with a daily hour of sweaty exercise.

I'm giving you all a pass tomorrow to get yourselves organized.  But starting August 15th, I'm on the ball and going at it full speed.  I'd love to have some company to keep me accountable and motivated. 

At this point, I'm not concerned with counting calories or losing pounds.  I just want to see myself back on a healthy routine with daily exercise and regular meals.  (How low I'm aiming, huh?)

Menus and exercise schedule coming tomorrow. 

Packed Lunches Are Back On The Horizon

Meal planning has been the bane of my existence for the last month, and so I haven't been doing it.  As a result, we've been eating unbalanced, strange meals.  Mostly things that I don't have to cook.

I figure a few strange weeks of eating aren't the worst thing I've subjected my family to.  But with school starting in one week, I've got a good dose of panic going, and I'm not ready to deal.

I'm not ready!  Whose idea was this whole back to school in the middle of August?  WHO?

I came up with some great suggestions for packables last year... but recently, I've been really inspired by a few fellow bloggers:

Lunch in a Box - this is right up my alley - I love the presentation and the smaller portions.

Pack My Lunch - she's been on a slower posting schedule this summer, but she's got some fantastic ideas for even the picky kids.

The title of this blog just cracks me up, and she's got some fantastic stuff here, too.

 

I'm determined to pack lunches for the kids this year - last year, I made it through two discouraging weeks of nearly-full lunch boxes being brought home (and the news that my kids were mooching off of their friends who had pringles and "fruit" snacks) before I decided to purchase hot lunches for my kids - I figured it would be better to have the school food get rejected, so I could still pretend that I'm a good cook.

This year, I'm not going to be defeated!  (Or okay, not that easily!)  My kids aren't sandwich eaters... so I'm thinking leftovers are going to be the way to go.

How about at your house?  Are you ready for school lunches?

The Sin of Omission

I've been working on a mega-post in my head, all about BlogHer and the lessons I learned listening to the panelists and awesome audience members during the Our Bodies, Our Blogs panel, when I realized that maybe a week of wondering where to start is enough, and I can just leap back in over here with the first thing that comes to mind.

Only the best for my BigSlicers, yeah?

It came up during our discussion that some of us tend to be honest and open about our successes, but we gloss over those times when we aren't succeeding.  After my great run of daily exercise, I've fallen out of the groove, and am fighting to regain my daily "walk-break."  I've managed most of the days, but I've been angry at myself for not finding the time on the days where I've been so busy with other things that I never managed to get dressed all the way, or eat a hot meal, let alone read to my children or be present with them in the way that they need.

I've been reluctant to write these things.  I want to tell you all that I'll find a way to get my workout in, no matter how busy I become, and I want to say that I'm eating well, sleeping enough, drinking my water and above all, losing weight -

And none of these things are true.  Not this week.

I look at all the photos that have appeared online from BlogHer, and I see myself smiling and laughing, and it heals that little disappointment in my heart that I didn't manage to lose the weight this last year.  I heard my story from the lips of so many other women at BlogHer.  We all want to look our best - and what I'm really starting to understand is that maybe my best can't be measured in pounds or inches.  Maybe my best is something that comes from a place inside me, something that lights up my face when I'm talking to a friend.  Maybe I'm at my best when I'm surrounded by laughter and friends and women who unapologetically eat an extra helping of bacon, and throw caution and calorie counting to the wind when there's a dessert buffet.

It isn't that I'm advocating over-indulgence, or saying that bacon equals happiness, but sometimes, it just feels good to inhabit your own body, to look through your own eyes at others without turning your focus inward.  And yeah, my body still could shed some pounds, both for my health and physical comfort, as well as for my vanity.  Lord knows, if I could have talked these pounds off, they would be long gone. 

For now, I'm going to reclaim that hour of exercise that has become so restful and good for my mental health.  Onward.