Santa Baby

Elizabeth just got a new veggie tales movie for her birthday which was last week. The kids have watched it a couple of time. It is pretty cute and tells the real story veggie tales style of Saint Nicholas. It got me thinking a lot about Christmas and Santa Clause and I decided to share some thoughts.

Todd and I decided early on in our marriage that if and when we had kids we would not do the Santa thing. As in our kids do not recieve presents from Santa Clause at Christmas time. They get some gifts from family and a few things from mom and dad, but nothing from Saint Nick. Here are our reasons for deciding this:

1. We want Christmas in our home to be a time to celebrate the birth of Jesus. We want to focus on his birth and what his birth meant for all man kind. I understand December 25th is not his real birth date necessarily, but it is a good reminder for us to focus on him and to tell our children about what Jesus did for all mankind. We try to focus on Jesus throughout the year and teach our children in our daily lives about Christ, but Christmas just gives us a little push. We do not want to distract from the message of Christ with a message of Santa, so we choose not too.

2. I reasoned at an early age in my head that if, I tell my children these elaborate stories about God raising people from the dead, parting the red sea, healing the sick and the blind and tell them these stories are true and then tell them elaborate stories about reighndeer flying and a man traveling the world in 24 hours in a sleigh and tell them this is true, what will they think when they find out Santa is not true? Will they question every thing else I tell them? My children may still question God and his existance, but I do not want it to be because they think I am a liar.

I understand that many Christian families still play Santa Clause and I learned a long time ago that I cannot judge another persons heart. I cannot say that my convictions have to be followed by everyone else. I do not look down on other families that celebrate with Santa, but I do want to know if anyone else has thought about the questions I posted and come up with a different answer. I would be curious to know what anyone else thinks about such things.

A typical day of food

I have had a couple people ask me for meal ideas or what I eat in a normal day. Here is my meal plan from yesterday.

24 weight watcher points

Low fat Whole Grain Toast 1 pt.
1 tablespoon reduced fat peanut butter 2 pt.
Water

Whole grain flat bread 1 pt.
2 oz. turkey breast 1 pt.
Low fat cheese 1 pt.
Mustard 0 pt.
1 cup cooked veggies with cheese 1 pt.
19 pretzels 3 pt.

two homemade cruncy tacos with cheese and reduced fat sour cream 6 pt.
1 cup black beans 1 pt.
1 cup green beans 0 pt.

1 apple with 3 tablespoons caramel yogurt 2 pt.

6 ritz crackers 2 pt.
reduced fat cheese 1 pt.

1 weight watcher ice cream 2 pt.

Fail to plan and plan to fail

Over my weight loss journey I have learned that if I do not make plans I will fail. Let me explain. At the last minute I had to work late. Now because of this we ordered pizza, so I could keep working and not have to prepare something. Not a huge deal, if I would have planned a little better. I could have made the decision to eat two pieces and have salad. That is a reasonable meal. Not too many calories. And enough to fill me. But I did not plan. Food came and I was starving. I gobbled up two pieces and went back for more. By the end I was stuffed and realized I had eaten way more than I needed too.


I recognize that for me, when I am in a stressful situation I cannot make reasonable decisions. I cannot decide how much I should eat while famished and stressed about work. That decision will more often than not be the wrong one. I have to make that decision ahead of time. And most of my meals are carefully thought out and planned before I eat them. I usually find out that when I make a decision to eat a certain amount that amount is satisfying to me. If I eat my portion slowly and give my body time to digest I recognize I am content with much less than I would be if I just ate until I felt full. When I make plans I succeed. I am pretty good about carrying out the plans I have put in place. I get into trouble when I try and wing it.

55lbs Part Two (Just Keep Swimming)

My daughters watch the movie, "Finding Nemo." And in the movie there is a fish that sings, "Just keep swimming, just keep swimming." I have taken that line and used it to motivate me. I have bad days. I have days where I eat too much. I have days where I go overboard and feel like quitting. I remember that line and it helps me. I just pick up from that point and keep going. I have been overweight my entire life and have been on countless diets. They all failed. I eventually got to a point where I messed up so much that I gave up. But now I don't give up. One bad meal does not have to ruin my whole day. one bad day does not have to ruin a week and even going overboard for a week does not mean I should quit. I just pick up and keep going. I keep swimming and it has done me a world of good.

55 lbs

I have been putting off posting this. Not sure why, but I think it is time. I have lost 55 lbs since October of 2008. I have been doing weight watchers sicne that time. I have learned so many things as a result of attending my meetings weekly and I thought I would share some of those things. But first some before and after pics.



Before





















After