Wednesday, January 06, 2010

Confession Number One: Let’s Start Out Small and Work Our Way Up


I told you it was a slippery slope. So slippery that I slid right from never, ever, ever to “I need to go out and buy at least 15 pairs of stretchy pants with elastic waistbands.” My comfy pants day experiment, needless to say, went swimmingly. Why wear starchy, hard, body contouring jeans when I can laze about in soft cotton that positively swims on me? I loved this new winter dressing paradigm so much that I even ventured outdoors (to Chipolte, to buy dinner. See a pattern here?) in these thermal pajama-like pants. These pants have officially been upgraded from “pajamas” to “casual day wear.” Next stop: High-waisted mom jeans. (never, ever, ever.)

So on to my confession: I let my children eat Wendy’s chicken nuggets and fries with abandon. These days, giving fast food to your kids is akin to child abuse. At least, that is how I feel sometimes when I tell other people. Like if I am not giving them a five food group four course gourmet meal, then I am an awful mother. The thing is, I dislike fast food (since I don’t eat beef or bacon cooked anywhere but home), and I know that it is not good for you, and I know how many toxic ingredients each menu item contains. Thanks to my limited palate, I can only eat a plain chicken sandwich from Wendy’s. So not eating fast food isn’t a huge sacrifice for me. (Note: Fast food French fries from any fast food restaurant are divine. I could eat any of those all day.) But how can I ignore the convenience of fast food? When the girls are in the car, I can just pull up to a window, yell my order into a little microphone and pull to another window and viola, bag of food. I then pass the food back to the girls and I can check lunch (or dinner) off of my to-do list. You can’t argue with the convenience. Or the price. And those leftover nuggets heat up nicely in the oven.

I made the girls pancakes this morning. Little golden silver dollar size pancakes. Did they eat them? Nope. Did they even touch them? Nope, again. Smell them? Nope. I even put blueberries in some for Maddie and chocolate chips in some for Avery. It is so frustrating. I hate wasting food and wasting time, and feeding toddlers frequently falls into both of those slots. I asked Avery what was in her tummy and she said “French fries and chicken.” She hadn’t actually had a Wendy’s power lunch in maybe a week but how scary is it that?

So maybe that isn’t a juicy confession. I have a few more up my sleeve. But right now I need to motivate (thermal pants off and jeans on) and dress the girls and put on their hats and gloves and coats and socks and shoes and blankets and take six elevators and two trains to get down to Union Square. Have I mentioned how over winter I am? (In NYC, that is. I don’t mind winter in the winter wonderland that is Northampton).

Pictured above: Sunday night dessert: A caramel apple spice donut and vanilla donut with sprinkles; and a cookie dough cupcake and red velvet cupcake. As you can see by the after picture, none were too pleasing to us. Also, pictured, brussell sprouts. Because after a few weeks of sugar loading, that is what is for dinner. Oh, and Nicole and I gave up on the brown rice cleanse diet on Day Two. So much for stamina! I am still doing a modified version, though.

5 comments:

Jeannine said...

I let my kids eat fast food too, about once a week, and I swore I would never do it. When they first were on non-pureed solids, I made baked chicken breasts, homemade meatballs with oatmeal and spinach and broiled fish. I served fresh fruit at every meal and green veggies at lunch and dinner. The only starches they got were brown rice and whole wheat pasta. And they ate it! Oh how far I've come from there :( But they are 2 1/2, we have a busy schedule, and they often don't eat a bite of anything "nutritious" I cook. So I keep a bag of chicken nuggets in the freezer (the 100% natural kind, whatever that means), a pack of Hebrew National hot dogs in the fridge (at least they are all real beef), and more goldfish crackers than you can imagine just to ensure my kiddos eat. I do still keep serving the good stuff, but I can't make them eat it. I feel like you do what you have to do, and besides, mama's not about to give up french fries either :)

Briar said...

My confession: Beckett eats almost all of his meals at home sitting at a small table in front of the television. The only meals we eat together are restaurant meals (rare) or if I bring my food over and sit on the floor to watch with him. Meh.

K J and the kids said...

OMG I could have written this post.
Except ours was the cabbage soup diet...which I love. (oh and we LOVE us some brussel sprouts..loaded in butter though)
If you ask Cam what he wants to eat he will usually respond with chicken and fries. Like you we limit our visits...but it drives me crazy that they even know about fast food.

I'm sure you will be right back on track in no time at all.

resolution #274- give yourself a break....you are doing a great job.

Molly said...

I keep saying there needs to be healthy takeout for kids...the other day it was 10:30 and we were doing errands and Luke was starving, so I got him a Happy Meal...not enough time to get him a huge meal before the bus comes, so we hit the drive thru. I guess it's better than starving, but not much!

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