Thursday, January 3, 2013

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!)

4 comments:

  1. Yay for more adventuresome eating!

    I wonder if you tried an easier workout during the week after bedtime and then did more intense workout during naptime on the weekend? Not ideal, but it would be better than nothing! I have to do work at night, so no time at night for me to workout. Wish it were easier to fit it in.

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  2. Good job on eating, Calliope!
    Yeah, I can't bring myself to work out in the evening either. I'm just exhausted, and totally unmotivated. Good try!

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  3. I'm a very picky eater and there are very few foods that I eat. I'm trying to be more adventurous with my own diet so that I can also give Annelise more options as we start eating the same meal. Fortunately Annelise will eat anything I put in front of her.

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  4. Oh how I miss the days when W was an adventurous eater! LOVE the photo.

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