Picky Eater and New Workout Time

Munching on seaweed

This picture shows Calliope at the end of her dinner. Dinner included: penne with melted cheese (a first for her), a hot dog (organic beef and chicken blend) in a whole wheat bun (apart from sharing one at a street fair in October, she just tried this for the first time a couple of days ago), and Bosc pear (new to her yesterday).

Way to go, my newly adventurous eater! She looks significantly bigger and more solid, and even has a little belly. I'm very pleased.

Now that she's feeling more adventurous, I will try to gradually steer her towards foods that are slightly more like "real food" and less like "kid food" so that, ideally, we can eat the same foods. I read a suggestion to give two "safe" foods per meal, things you know your child likes, plus one unfamiliar one. That sounds like a good game plan. I may try adding a little ground beef or Bolognese sauce to the penne with melted cheese. That plus some peas would be a pretty balanced meal. The nanny gave her three different vegetables at lunch -- she's usually pretty good at eating them, even at her pickiest -- so I didn't give any for dinner. I will ask the nanny to just give one at lunch so we can keep rotating them to avoid boredom.

In other news, tonight was my first post-work (and post Calliope's bedtime) workout. It seemed like it was going pretty well... until I suddenly hit the wall, forty-five minutes in (I had about twenty minutes left). I didn't feel hungry, exactly, though the idea of those gummy "fruit snacks" sounded incredibly enticing (not something I typically eat), as did anything with melted cheese. I compromised and made wassa-type turkey/apple/melted cheddar open face sandwiches in the toaster. A new recipe -- I'd be craving something that involved melted cheese.

Anyway, I like how I feel now, except that I am still craving carbs (and I had a Cliff bar, which I never eat, either), plus I'm really tired. So I'm not sure the evening workout thing is a win. It's a lot to add to the end of the day. Even with slugging down some decaf chai tea with heavy cream while Calliope ate dinner. I sure wish there was some way to maintain the mid-day workout. But with only a one hour break (and working in a public school), I don't see any way that it can be done.

Well, bravo to me for trying, anyway. I was very focused all day on psyching myself up for this, and I did it. Well, I did 45 minutes of it.  Now if only I had some candy in the house... (If this is what evening workouts do to me, no thanks!)