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I don’t know why I’ve been thinking about kids and fitness so much lately. Maybe it’s because I spend the majority of my time either parenting, exercising, eating, or trying to find ways to get out of this darn writing funk that I’ve been in for so long.
Some may read this post and think that I blame my kids for making me fat. So I’ll start off by saying that my kids are perfect angels and that I never blame them for anything, not even when it really is their fault. Just kidding. What I meant to say was that I’ve been fat, to varying degrees, since the fourth grade–long before I had kids. But now that I do have them, let me just say that they make it really hard to be thin.
First off, we all know that I’m a stress eater. Sometimes, even MY kids, you know the perfect ones previously mentioned, totally stress me out. A messy house, never-ending loads of dishes and laundry, and the every day bumps, bruises, and whines of being a kid make me want to pull out my hair. Instead, I tend to eat boatloads of crappy food.
I know what you’re all saying. “GET THE CRAPPY FOOD OUT OF THE HOUSE!” It’s true, if the food wasn’t here, I wouldn’t eat it. But how many households REALLY only have healthy food in their pantries. I swear that I’m able to sniff out the least healthy food item in the kitchen and scarf it down before I’ve had a chance to talk myself out of it. I do have healthy food in my house, I promise–I just make my kids eat it.
So we’ve established that I have food in my house that shouldn’t be here. Snack foods like crackers, cereal bars, and pretzels–foods that kids love to eat and are easy to serve up at a meltdown’s notice–these are the biggest culprits. I tell myself when I buy them that they’re for the kids. But then they only eat half of it. And since I can’t let the other half go to waste, GULP, down the pie-hole it goes.
Now that I’m stressed out, eating crappy food, and totally consumed with my children and household duties, it’s time to exercise. Yeah right. I’m going to bed.
J.D.
18 responses so far ↓
1 Gooniette // Jun 19, 2008 at 6:16 am
Mac, you Can let the uneaten food go to waste, if it means you are healthier for it.
It’s a very difficult mindset to get into, but you don’t have to clean your plate, or anyone else’s at the table.
That’s what tupperware is for. Save it for when the kids are hungry again.
2 Desiree // Jun 19, 2008 at 7:03 am
I don’t keep unhealthy food in my house. I let my boyfriend buy snacks if he wants (he doesn’t care about weight issues) and give him 1 day to have to moved to work or I throw it out. I mean…wasting a cake, crackers, cookies…There’s no nutrition so I feel no guilt.
It’s not like you can feed a starving nation on junk food. You can’t!
You really should start phasing your kids off of cookies and candies. They can have something when you go out for a special occasion but having it at home ALL THE TIME is extremely unhealthy example.
3 Jen // Jun 19, 2008 at 7:10 am
Mac, I’m a stress eater too. And my kitchen really DOES NOT HAVE ANY JUNK FOOD in it! If I really, really need to stress-eat (which I’ve been trying to eliminate for 10 years) I have to go to the store and buy stress food (which I sometimes do, but at least it keeps my supply and portion control in check), or I end up stress-eating on healthy food (which isn’t nearly as gratifying, but at least it keeps me a little healthier).
I don’t know how old your kids are, and I know it’s easy for a non-parent to say this, but: start them on good habits now! Let them snack on fruit! Yogurt! Carrots! Don’t keep the junk around. They’ll thank you for it when they’re our age and they’ve grown up without being addicted to the crap.
And it’ll be better for you, too.
4 CannibalCrowley // Jun 19, 2008 at 7:19 am
I agree, that snack/treat cupboard is awfully tempting during a craving.
5 Rachel // Jun 19, 2008 at 7:28 am
I had to giggle a little reading your post becuase I find myself doing the same thing. You buy something “for the kids” but really it is not for them at all. Or you have a bad day and think I deserve to eat this cookie. Just know as a parent I think your stuggle is pretty universal. Just hang in there!
6 MizFit // Jun 19, 2008 at 8:12 am
I so appreciate your honesty in this post!!
for me (ducks and runs) it’s easier with my toddler.
IM NOT A SPRING CHICKEN MAMA and the more I watch her the more I watch what I cram in my piehole.
now.
Ive become a stress otherthing’er which isnt good (hello nike trail running shorts I REALLY didnt need) —- but in trying to keep myself healthy Im accidentlyonpurpose keeping my toddler healthy too.
7 macdaddy // Jun 19, 2008 at 8:18 am
8 Leslie // Jun 19, 2008 at 10:49 am
I do the same thing…stress eating that is. And, in all honesty, we really don’t have unhealthy foods in this house with the exception of ice cream on occasion. The reality is though, you can get fat on healthy foods too. Sure, you are unlikely to binge on them like you would on cookies and ice cream. However, you will gain weight if you eat too much food…even if it is healthy stuff. Maybe just a little more slowly.
9 Red // Jun 19, 2008 at 11:06 am
heh, when I was growing up my parents had almost zero unhealthy food in the house, thanks to the iron fist of my mom. The pretzels were saltless and the rare time we had ice cream it was low fat. To this day pretzels and wheat thins taste way too salty to me.
But it didn’t really help, I was still a very fat child, though it did make it easier as I lost a lot of weight in high school.
10 brad // Jun 19, 2008 at 11:17 am
I can’t get away with that in my house. My stepdaughter COUNTS everything that’s hers. She bought some Oreos once (one of my greatest weaknesses, I can easily eat an entire box in one afternoon), and I snitched two of them one day. She called me on it. She knows how many popsicle bars are in the freezer, and probably how many slices are left of her Pom bread (the Québec version of Wonder bread, and not something I’d ever eat no matter how hungry I was).
11 Nottheangel // Jun 19, 2008 at 11:26 am
I used to complain that it was impossible to eat healthily with my husband around because he loves chocolate, icecream, etc…
Then I took a good look at things. He’s never been overweight. He eats 1 cookie if he wants one, or one square of dark chocolate or one or two spoonfuls of icecream. It wasn’t my husband making me fat by having things in the house, it was me not controlling my eating of those things.
Is your wife overweight? From the sounds of it with her running, it doesn’t seem like she would be. Doesn’t she live with the same stresses (plus the stress/weight of having HAD the kids)? How does she cope?
I know you maybe didn’t mean it this way, but this post does sound a lot like you throwing your hands in the air and saying it can’t be done. You know better, you’re already doing it. Cheer up.
12 macdaddy // Jun 19, 2008 at 12:43 pm
13 Pam (the wife) // Jun 19, 2008 at 12:55 pm
Notttheangel: No, I am not overweight. I consider myself to be at my ideal weight (5′5″, 115lbs) and sometimes have to TRY to consume more to stay there when I am in full running mode (30+ miles per week). I do tend to stress a lot, but I would call myself an ‘anti-stress eater’ or maybe ’stress faster’ would be a better term - when I stress out I tend to think about everything I have to do and end up NOT eating.
Sometimes I wish we had more junk food in our house, because I can eat just one cookie, and then leave the package in the cupboard for a week without touching it again. But I know I don’t need this stuff and it is better for our family if we don’t have it in our house. I think our biggest pantry problem is pseudo-health food, things that don’t seem so bad but really aren’t good for you. We really don’t have cookies, candy, cake, ice cream, but we do have granola bars, trail mix (with M&M’s!), crackers, and pretzels. Even sports bars (like PowerBars and Clif bars) really aren’t very healthy snacks, but I think Mac and I delude ourselves into thinking these are OK snacks for our kids (and us) and so they find their way into our cupboards, especially because they are so easy to serve. As Mac said, our kids do eat a lot of fruits and dairy snacks, too, and even a veggie on occasion.
14 Janice // Jun 19, 2008 at 1:01 pm
Like Jen, I am a stress eater. And also like her, we simply don’t keep the bad foods in the house. I have a near-complete lack of self-control when it comes to chocolate, cookies, ice cream, chocolate, cake, chocolate… but cereal and chips are also problem foods for me. I lost 25-30 pounds a few years ago and have kept it off, which is very very difficult for me. As someone pointed out, keeping bad foods out of the house only removes the worst temptations. If I don’t watch my portions and I snack too much, I’ll get fat even if much of what I eat is good for me.
Of course, I am married to someone who almost never gains weight and has no problem “just eating less” if he does gain a few pounds. We don’t keep chocolate in the house at all, and he doesn’t mind that. Happily for me, even though he likes eating cereal and chips, when I buy them for him he agrees to stash them in an “undisclosed location”. When he has a bag of chips out, I’ll take some, but I won’t eat until the bag is gone.
Hiding the food and retrieving it is inconvenient for him, and I very much appreciate him humoring me and supporting me in this most unreasonable way. He knows I’m happier when I’m thin (he reaps the benefits, too) and so we both are happier. This may be a solution for macdaddy as well, if he thinks it might work.
15 brad // Jun 19, 2008 at 1:21 pm
I wonder how many couples fall into this profile of one person being chronically overweight and the other person being skinny or at least having no problem with weight control? I’ve observed it in many couples, and weirdly enough I’ve seen it a LOT with dogs: several of my friends have owned two dogs from the same litter (at the same time), and one of the dogs was invariably fat and low-key while the other was skinny and neurotic. I wonder if this is a widespread pattern, and if so why?
16 pbmax // Jun 19, 2008 at 1:23 pm
When our son was born, we couldn’t keep weight on him. Ever. To this day (almost 6 now) he’s smaller than the other boys.
His sister (almost 2) eats. She eats until she’s done, and is not nearly as picky.
I have no warning light in my head that I’m eating too much. I eat when I’m bored, and overeat when I’m hungry. And not until this last year or 2 have I been even concerned with my weight (I’m pushing 200 on a 6′2″ frame). I can’t control my eating, and hate exercise so I just try to stay active.
It’s all about the balance, I think. Healthy foods as much as possible, ice cream on occasion; gorge on leftover Chinese food, but then fast a day or two a month. Carrot juice, apple juice, beer coffee … as long there’s more water than the above I’m happy.
Or I could get an ounce of self-control…
17 Desiree // Jun 19, 2008 at 1:29 pm
I’m skinny…my bf’s big (320 lbs @ 6′4). He has no body issues and loves the size he is. I tried changing him but there is no point.
18 greenman2001 // Jun 19, 2008 at 2:43 pm
I’ve been reading this blog long enough to know that this is one of Mac’s “theoretical problem” posts: it’s theoretically a problem, but not an actual one. His children are healthy, and he’s been able to successfully lose weight — even with all sorts of “unhealthy” food in the house — by counting calories. He has his system, and it works well enough that there’s no reason to change. It might be easier to lose weight or “eat healthy” if there was no “unhealthy” food in the house, but as a practical matter Mac is happy enough with the pace of his weight loss and the composition of his diet. Because there’s only a “theoretical problem,” he has no motivation to change.
It seems likely to me that the opposite is the case: having junk food around is an important part of Mac’s system for coping with stress. If you take away his junk food, it’s that much harder for him to deal with stress. Now, that’s a real problem, not a theoretical one. His busy-ness and frugality just reinforce the system he’s chosen: keeping unhealthy food around solves more problems than removing it does.
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