I was talking with someone the other day about her desire to lose weight.
She and her friend were working on their weight and following a diet. “Which one?” I asked her. “The 6 W’s diet,” she replied. “What’s that?” I asked. Since I work in the healthcare field, I thought I’d heard of them all, but this one was new to me. “We invented it,” she said. Okay, well, that explained why I was unfamiliar with it, at least.
She said it was the culmination of years of ‘trying everything’ that led to her decision to make up a diet for herself. “It can’t be any worse than any of the ones I tried already,” she reasoned. Also, her spouse had gastric bypass surgery, lost a lot of weight, but had already gained back 25 lbs. “See? Even getting the operation doesn’t work!”
The 6 W’s diet:
Watch the fat
Write down everything you eat
Walk more
Water: drink more
Win!!!!
“That sounds great,” I said, “but that’s only 5. What’s the 6th W?” “Oh,” she said, ” I added ‘wine’ to the list,” she said. “‘Wine’ … or ‘Whine’?!” I asked. “Both!” she replied, laughing, “depending on what kind of day I’m having!”
Spring has sprung me–and as they say, better late than never. My cocoon of too much food and too little exercise has cracked open. What I’ve learned this winter is this: the more I eat, the more I want to eat, and the less I exercise, the less I want to exercise.
My wake up call? Well, that’s just it; it hasn’t been just one thing. I had 4 this week:
My husband said that the way I can always be go-go-going and doing so much and having so much energy have so many projects going was something he loved about me when he first met me. Now? Not so much.
My yoga teacher said: “Are your pants on backwards? That little white triangle thing is usually in the front, isn’t it? Well, it’s on your butt right now!”
Those shorts that were loose last spring have not one iota of extra room in them now. Not. One. Iota.
When I unexpectedly had some unstructured time, there were so many things I wanted to do that I wasted some of the time because I couldn’t decide what to do!
I decided first to pause and reflect…this lasted about 30 seconds. Through my indecision I was conscious enough to note that it was 61 degrees out and sunny, and the huge snow banks had (finally! finally!) melted so that it was safe to walk my neighborhood streets again (read: drivers could see me). Before I did what I do best–that is, talk myself out of exercising, I grabbed my jacket, shoes and keys and headed out.
When I got back, I realized that it was time to eat something…not because it was suppertime (although it was: 5:10PM), but because I was really hungry. Usually I have others to cook for and feed, but tonight it was all up to me; I had only myself to please~”Party for one!” as my friend Denise would say. I had a greek yogurt doctored up with frozen blueberries, flax meal, and cinnamon and a big cup of ice water. After I finished, I checked in: yep, still hungry. I slathered a slice of my homemade bread with almond butter and honey. Yum!
Then I wrote this blog post. I wrote a book review. I made and froze some lentil soup for work lunches this week. I edited several pages of my book.
Sometimes by pausing, you get more done than if you just pushed full steam ahead.
I always wonder how best to celebrate my kids’ birthdays. Every year there is some sort of friends’ party and then a family celebration to cap things off on the actual day of birth.
This year, my daughter turned twelve: the last bastion of childhood, the threshold of teenhood.
The friends’ party was at Get Fired Up in Sanford with cupcakes from the Cupcake Fetish Bakery, also in Sanford. Both were big hits with the kids.
The family celebration was trickier this year. My son was working on her actual birthday, but for once my husband and I were both not working. Even though it was a school night, we decided to take her out for supper and let her choose the restaurant. Last year she enjoyed celebrating my birthday at Famous Dave’s in Scarborough that she said, “I want to come here for my birthday too!” and eleven months later, we did.
We had a coupon from the restaurant (Join the Pig Club and you can get one for your birthday too!) for a free appetizer; we tried the new Loaded BBQ Chips. For dinner we chose the Tuesday night special: $6 off the massive Feast for Two… which fed 3 of us with three boxes of leftovers that fed 3 of us the next night too.
I mentioned to the server Seth that it was my daughter’s birthday and at the end of the meal, a chorus of “Happy Birthday!”‘s from the out-of-sight kitchen preceded him carrying over to us a heated brownie with fudge sauce and whipped cream sporting an impressive flaming candle and 3 spoons. (NOTE: she was warned not to try to blow it out, but to let it fizz out on its own if she wanted to keep her eyebrows, which she did; a decision we fully endorsed).
Only two notes: they were out of corn on the cob (for which we could substitute another side order from the menu), which was a total bummer, and the brownie sundae would have been vastly improved by the addition of some vanilla ice cream. I’m just sayin’. The service was great. The food was great. The atmosphere was great. We were so full we could barely move to get to the car and we’d eaten less than half of the food presented to us…and we had an ice cream birthday cake waiting for us at home in the freezer.
Oy!
I may want to return here for my birthday again this year too (you know, if I’m not still full!).
We recently returned to the Hayloft Restaurant in Moody, Maine after a 10 year (give or take) break. We used to frequent this restaurant with the kids but after getting a bad salad (not to be confused with the “big salad” of Seinfeld’s world), we stopped going.
Every summer when my son was small he would participate in their coloring contest and every summer he won. They would mail out a coupon for a free appetizer that we would look forward to using on our next visit.
Until we got the bad salad.
I recently saw a coupon on Groupon.com for the Hayloft, so after consulting my husband (and after learning that they were under new management), I bought it. We arrived, coupon in hand, expectations set reasonably at moderate level, on a Friday night. There were not many cars in the parking lot, but in fairness, we had received almost a foot of snow earlier in the day so people may have just been staying put.
We ordered the special: Fisherman’s Platter for two, which was plenty for the two of us and our daughter to split when combined with appetizers. Speaking of appetizers, we ordered the Buffalo Tenders and the Potato Skins with cheese and bacon.
Rolls were brought out for us after our order was taken. They were hot and crusty with soft interiors, and the three of us agreed that they were excellent.
The tenders did not come with celery, which would have been welcome (as well as a little less breading), but did come with blue cheese dressing. They were good and spicy. The potato skins were cut smaller than I usually see, but I liked them much better this way (they weren’t so overwhelming) and were delicious. The main course consisted of fried whole clams, large scallops, shrimp, and a good-sized piece of haddock, French fries, and about four onion rings. This was great; usually onion ring orders are much too excessive for anyone to actually appreciate them. Four large hand cut onion rings were perfect.
Verdict: the Fisherman’s Platter wasn’t quite as hot as it should have been, but was still good. Both appetizers were served piping hot, which made me wonder if the former was ready first and waiting for the latter. The real surprise was the cole slaw, which our waitress told us was made fresh daily. It was excellent.
Just a note on the soda: it had a nice, clean taste. You know how sometimes you order a Diet Coke and it has a metallic taste? You will not find that here.
For dessert we were persuaded to try the homemade (from a family recipe) hot apple crisp a la mode, which was also very good. We took home a chocolate whoopie pie, made by Laura’s Pastry, for the road. We’ve had these before and know how good they are!
Our waitress, Rose, delivered the best service that we’ve had in any restaurant in some time. She is the reason that (although the food was good) that we will be returning to the Hayloft again soon.
Have you noticed that there has been a span of several weeks with no G-rated (or PG, for that matter) choices for movies? After a long hiatus, enter (finally!) something that my daughter and I both wanted to see: the Wimpy Kid sequel, based on the book by Jeff Kinney, which I thought I’d bought Izzy for Christmas and I also thought she’d read.
Wrong. And wrong.
I took her anyway to see Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Rodrick Rules this past Sunday at Wells Five Star Cinema. This is the movie where Greg (the aforementioned Wimpy Kid) and his older brother Rodrick (read: torturer) work on their relationship to try to make it civil. This is also the movie where Rodrick (much to my surprise) becomes a human. Briefly.
The potty humor for the kids (and–dare I say it?– the men) abounds, but, thankfully, it had more than that to offer. Rachel Harris plays Mom, and many of us (moms) will relate to her asking her kids the quintessential Mom question: “Can’t we all just get along?” The answer is: well, yes…eventually. Probably. Not!
This story is about the brothers’ struggle to coexist, but is also about the Mom’s efforts to guide and support them. With Dad in the background making faces.
For food: we had nachos, popcorn, and M+M’s (her) and Peanut M+M’s (mom) from the gumball-type vending machines they have at that theater. If you’re short the approximately $15 needed to purchase a snack or two at the concessions counter, these coin-op machines can be really a good bet. Of course, you only get about 8 Peanut M+M’s for your quarter, but that’s about all a serving size amounts to anyway (about 1/4 cup), so it’s good for your wallet and for your efforts to keep your current size pants fitting you this week!
Repeat after me…change is good. Change is also hard. For every good reason you can think of to make a change, you will probably think of almost as many reasons not to.
Here’s where a pros and cons list can come to the rescue. You can certainly do it the good old-fashioned way: take a piece of paper and pen to make your list: draw a line down the center, write “pros” on the left and “cons” on the right and have at it.
If you want to kick things up a notch, however, you can use this pros and cons list tool online. Enter your data on each side of your argument, then assign a numerical value to it using the tool as your guide. What’s great about this calculator is that you may think that think you are leaning in one direction, but after you complete the exercise with the calculator, you discover that you actually are leaning in the other direction! Hey, it could help!
Another cool thing about this is that you can print out your results when you’ve finished. I actually used this to make a decision that I though I had already made, but after I completed the pros and cons list tool I was surprised by the outcome. It compelled me to revisit (and ultimately, change) my decision.
See? It’s just like they always say: “You never know”; also, “It ain’t over till it’s over”.
I took my daughter to see Rango. Johnny Depp or no Johnny Depp, I couldn’t have cared less about seeing this movie.
I took her because we had nothing better to do. I took her because it was the only kids movie playing. I took her because I couldn’t concentrate on writing anymore and needed a change of scenery.
Imagine my surprise when I discovered that I liked this movie! It was great! It was funny! My daughter thought that it was too long, but she liked it anyway. Some of the characters were supremely unattractive (a fact with which Izzy agrees), so much so that they were…um, difficult to look at.
That’s really the only fault I can find with the movie.
Maybe we were predisposed to like the movie since we went to the Cupcake Fetish Bakery and loaded up on goodies prior to getting to theater.
My mother’s birthday is was March 13; she would have been 71 this year. I wasn’t going to write a post about her because I just published one a couple of weeks ago, but here we are. The day started off as many do, with a quick look at Facebook to see if anything was going on.
So, the first thing I saw was something posted by Jeannine entitled: A letter from Mom and Dad (dad died years ago on 3/15). I mean, are you kidding me? So I watched it, and cried. Off to a good start.
Next, another FB post, this time by my sister-in-law, where she describes the boiled dinner she is making today…Andrea mentions that she makes it the way her mother-in-law, my mother, did. Sniffle.
Then we went to my friend Susan’s house. She had recently been to Ireland and brought my daughter and me back some presents. Mine included a “family” of heart-shaped rocks. More tears.
After a bit, I pulled myself together and we chatted for a while, then we gathered around the laptop so that Susan could show us pictures of Ireland that she took during her trip. I reminded my daughter that we were half Irish, so she should be especially interested in viewing these pictures of the country. “I didn’t know you were Irish!” my friend said. Well, it’s no wonder, since I’m usually going on about my Italian heritage. My mother, however, was Irish. I told Susan, “As a matter of fact, it’s her birthday today.” As we sat and watched Susan’s wonderful pictures of and stories about the places she had been (I nearly started crying again), I suddenly thought, “Okay, Ma, so you’re showing me that you’re here today, making sure that we remember you on your birthday! We do!”
And we did. Surrounded by love. Solid as a (heart-shaped) rock. 🙂
(Gee, maybe turning those clocks ahead really wreaked some havoc with my equilibrium!)
Amy Wood spoke at Kennebooks on Saturday, February 19. Her talk was part discussion and part reading (from her new book Life Your Way), followed by a question and answer period and then book signing.
Despite it being the beginning of a school vacation week, the little upstairs room filled with people eager to hear Amy tell us how to live “life your way”.
She tells us right off the bat that “I do everything according to my intuition, ” which generated many questions from the audience about the definition of “intuition” and how it shows up in one’s every day life. Amy considered each question thoughtfully and answered thoroughly.
Amy generously mentions books by other authors related to intuition and recommends them for further reading on the topic. Here are a few:
How Not to Marry the Wrong Guy by Anne Milford (coauthored with Jennifer Gauvain)
As Amy began reading aloud the chapter on “Optimism” from her book, my tween daughter grabbed my copy, found the right chapter, and began reading along, suggesting that this book can appeal to any age group. She focused on optimism because it can become a tool in your life, an “enviable skill” that can make your life easier, just as listening to your intuition, which (unlike Mapquest directions or ads from the high fructose corn syrup mongers) will never steer you wrong.
There is so much more information to sift through at any given time now that it can be helpful to just know when to stop. Joan Rivers? She is an excellent example of a person who does not know when (or how?) to stop. Seinfeld? He did.
The book is formatted so that it’s easy to read, a boon for busy, overscheduled people. Each chapter includes an “Apply the Wisdom” section at the end with a few bulleted strategies for using the points made in your everyday life right now (very user-friendly). You can start at the beginning, or let your intuition guide you to the best chapter(s) for you. 🙂 Read more about Amy’s book on my raisingmaine.com bookblog here.
Kennebooks offered the audience the option of purchasing a bag lunch from Cheri’s in Kennebunk. For $10 you got a sandwich (choose one of three), chips, a cookie, and a bottled water. My daughter and I took advantage of this offer and split the meal. It was plenty for the two of us (we had some left over!) and it was excellent. We (my daughter and I) highly recommend that you take advantage of this offer if you ever get the chance.
Amy gives talks at different sites in Kennebunk and Portland. She will be at the Kennebunk Free Library for her workshop (which she gives quarterly) next on Tuesday, April 12 from 12:00P-1:00Pm. The presentation is enticingly titled: “Your Way and How to Find it”. No commitment of time or money is involved. Just show up!
She will also be at the Portland Public Library on Wednesday, February 23 from 12:00PM to 1:00PM. Consider going to this (also free) event. You’ll be so glad that you did!
When it’s winter and the “Can we go out and do something today?” questions are about to put you over the top, give in. I did; we headed out to the 2:45pm showing of Gnomeo and Juliet at the Wells Five Star Cinema.
There has been a dearth of (good) movies for kids lately, have you noticed? I wasn’t that excited to see this one (I don’t even like gnomes), but it was the only game in town. This movie was actually very good, adorable and funny (and~did I mention?~ I don’t even like gnomes…or pink flamingos!). All of the kids in the audience seemed to really enjoy the movie (one little girl was talking to the screen at one point, but in a cute, non-annoying way). I even laughed out loud more than once. In case you’re a fan, Elton John sings the songs in the show.
Gnomeo and Juliet are just so so darn appealing you can’t help but love them and root for them. Don’t worry that it’s just all about the kids though; this movie has plenty of adult humor. My daughter even got one of the subtle play-on-words jokes that went over my head (hel-lo; how embarrassing!). One of the funniest parts was the scary lawnmower from h-e-double hockey sticks sequence (“Your grass will be afraid to grow!” Heh heh heh…).
This movie was a very manageable hour and 24 minutes long, so the whole afternoon will not be wasted even if you don’t agree that it was worth your time, but I’m pretty sure that you will.
P.S. Stick around for the “Crocodile Rock” full cast dance at the end of the movie. 🙂
Karen Creamer Author, Coach, Speaker 
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