My Fitness Pal = Flatter Stomach + Cleaner House

So I’ve been slightly less than obsessed with My Fitness Pal lately. It’s a website/app that allows you to log in foods you eat and exercise you perform each day.  You basically enter a goal weight, how much you intend to exercise each week, and it gives you a calorie goal for each day (which also averages out for the week). There are pros and cons to it, but mostly pros, so I’ll just start off by stating the one negative, in my opinion.

Entering everything you eat.

This gets to be a pretty tedious undertaking, and takes up a lot of time.  They recently upgraded the app to allow you to scan bar codes, however, which saves a ton of time.  The biggest thing that sucks for me about entering in all the food I eat is that I feel like I’m always picking up my iPhone, and I feel guilty when Lily sees me on it all the time.  I try to limit my time with the phone in front of Lily, but when I’m eating, I need to enter my food or I’ll forget.

Now for the positives. 

One of the biggest positives for me as far as being a role model for Lily is that Heather and I have been much more conscious of what we’re eating and we are talking about it more.  Lily sees us eating out a little less, and eating a LOT more fruits and veggies.  Luckily, Lily’s always liked veggies, and isn’t averse to trying new things.  She loves French fries, but she also loves baked sweet potato fries (orange French fries to her), which are much healthier.   

Another positive to using My Fitness Pal is that you pretty much have to be more active/workout every day to reach your calorie goal.  When I first started using the app, I had just started running a lot.  I would run for thirty to forty minutes three times a week, and that was pretty much all I was logging in for my exercise.  This was great for my calorie goal on the days I ran, but not so much on the days when I didn’t.  So I started to think about some of the other things I do (or COULD be doing) around the house to just be more active and helpful, like doing the dishes, gardening, walking the dogs, cleaning up around the house/yard, etc.  Turns out, a lot of these activities show up in My Fitness Pal as cardio activities, and if they don’t, they might show up on the Health Status calorie calculator, where you can enter your weight and the amount of time doing an activity.  You can then add the activity and calories burned doing that activity on the My Fitness Pal website or app.

At first I felt like I was cheating when I entered calories for doing the dishes or walking around at the grocery store or cleaning the house, because I felt like these were things I should be doing anyway.  Then I started thinking about the difference between a “sedentary” and an “active” lifestyle, and the guilt went away instantly.  I’m basically increasing the activity in my life so I can be healthier, and, most importantly, Lily is seeing this and is a part of it.  She sees Mommy and Daddy riding their bikes to the store that is one mile away instead of getting in the car to drive.  She sees Mommy and Daddy preparing (and growing) veggies and fruits at home more.  She even likes to hang from the portable pull-up bar in the kitchen doorway and do assisted pull-ups because she sees Mommy and Daddy doing them. 

Lily probably hasn’t noticed that Daddy has lost over ten pounds in the last two months since I started using My Fitness Pal, but she has probably noticed an increase in the level of activity in our family.  I know from experience that these kinds of things stick.  I was raised in a pretty healthy home.  Good nutrition was encouraged by my mom, and I remember my dad going jogging all the time and letting me join him when I wanted to, even though I probably slowed him down a bit.  These practices are now getting passed on to my little girl, so I guess this blog is becoming a thank you to my parents, as well. 

Thanks Mom and Papa for letting me see you make healthy choices. 

Also, just as a side-note:  I know it’s easy to get into a mode of obsession with skinniness and beauty and all of that.  This is not something we are promoting in our household by starting to exercise more and eat healthier/less food.  The point of this whole thing is promoting good health, and that’s what we emphasize in our conversations with each other and with Lily.  We never talk about whether it’s better to be skinny or pretty or cute or ugly or anything like that.  In addition to making healthy choices, Lily’s also being encouraged to value being a kind friend, a smart reader, a creative chef, an imaginative painter, an environmentally-conscious citizen, a curious scientist, and a good decision-maker.  No empty-headed pretty faces in this house… just full-headed ones. :) 

Thanks for being a good role model, Mommy. 

To keep the body in good health is a duty... otherwise we shall not be able to keep our mind strong and clear. 
Buddha     

 
Albert Einstein 

Scared of the Dark

I just experienced my favorite part of the day – putting Lily to bed.  I love reading to her and talking to her about the books and listening to her ask smart questions and make funny comments about the day.  I love having her close to me sitting in my lap.  I love singing songs to her to help her relax.  I just make up words about Lily to songs I like.  Her favorite is when I sing “Lily you’re my special girl, and I will always love you” to the tune of Built to Spill’s “The Weather”.  Beautiful song, and I highly recommend personalizing a love song to your child to it.   

Lately, Lily has told me a few times that she is scared of the dark, or as she says it “I’m scared b’of the dark.”  I think she’s combining “about” and “of”, but it’s cute, so I don’t care to correct her, I just repeat what she says, but correctly.  What’s important to me is that my little girl is afraid of the dark.  She's at an age where her imagination is in overdrive, and it's hard to separate perceptions from reality, and that can get pretty darn scary.  This is where Mr. Bear comes in handy.  Having a teddy bear has been invaluable.  He becomes whatever we need him to be.  Sometimes he is a playmate.  Sometimes he helps mommy and daddy convince Lily that she needs a bath.  And sometimes, he is her nighttime protector. 

I’ve told Lily recently that Mr. Bear keeps her safe at night, and that he has a lot of help from his army of bears, which includes a pristine twin brother (who isn’t exactly a twin anymore because he still possesses a nose, and all of his stuffing is still firm).  There have been a few times lately, however, when Mr. Bear just hasn’t been enough, and tonight was one of those nights. 

So what did I do? 

I tapped into the imaginative spirit that Lily has right now.  Into her ability to suspend reality.  Into her (temporary) belief that I am all-powerful and all-knowing.  I sprayed “Safe Juice” around the room.  Sounds messy, I know.  Sounds like a hassle to have to make “Safe Juice” and keep it handy, but it’s fast, easy to use, and (so far) 100% effective.  When Lily told me she was “scared b’of the dark”, I asked her if she wanted me to make her room safe with "Safe Juice".  After getting her permission to use this amazing product, I followed the “Safe Juice (Basic Style)” instructions precisely, and I’m writing today to let you know how you too can get your terrified toddler to drift off to a safe and serene sleepytime. 

Safe Juice Instructions (Basic)

1.        Pretend you are holding a spray bottle, with your index finger bent to simulate “trigger squirting action”©

2.       Go to all the dark corners of your child’s room, utilizing the patented “trigger squirting action”© as often as necessary. 

3.       Spray a little extra over your child’s bed.

4.       Ask your child if there are any areas that you missed, then be sure to protect those areas with extra  “Safe Juice”

5.       Repeat if necessary. 

Safe Juice Instructions (Deluxe)

1.        Use an actual empty spray bottle. 

2.       Repeat Steps 2-5 of the Basic Instructions.

Safe Juice Instructions (Premium)

1.        Use a spray bottle that has water in it. Feeling an actual mist might help to convince your incredulous kid that some kind of change is really happening to their room. 

2.       Repeat Steps 2-5 of the Basic Instructions.

Safe Juice Instructions (Extreme)

 If your kid is super skeptical, you may have to pull out the big guns.  In this rare case, I recommend the following steps. 

1.        Spray some kind of mild air freshener, preferably lavender scented, in the air so your child can smell the safety breezing its way through the bedroom.  Lavender has been said to have a soothing effect, hence the scent recommendation.  I’ve recently been boiling lavender flowers in water because for some reason, smells from the kitchen get kinda trapped in Lily’s room, so I use that to my advantage.  Having a soothing smell actually enter the room as a result of the protective action you're taking may transform the room from scary to safe for even the most skeptical.    

2.       Repeat steps 2-5 of the Basic Instructions. 

Don’t be surprised if you get subsequent requests from your child to “make my room safe”.  This technique is effective, and, along with some good night kisses and hugs, will help your child sleep a little more soundly, even if they’re just a little bit “scared b’of the dark.”