Pedaling My Way To Recovery
Hello, BSers and welcome to Friday! Is everybody ready for a fantastic weekend? I have no idea WHAT I am going to do this weekend… it’s looking to be an “easy weekend” for me. I’m hoping to either watch my son a lot so my wife can enjoy some time to herself OR get somebody else to watch him so that we can have a date or something.
Her sister has been here all week long so while I sleep (or rather, attempt to sleep) during the day they have been hanging out, sometimes with their Mom who also lives here in town, and sometimes even with The Boy. He normally attends DayCare but sometimes if they want to do something fun they will leave him out of “school” for the day and he goes with them.
For instance, Thursday they went to the local aquarium where they have fish and animals and dolphin shows and he liked all that.
But he is nearing the “Terrible Two”s now and sometimes he whines and cries and pitches a fit a lot and I just won’t have it. I don’t believe in giving in to him when he whines or cries. I believe in putting him in “time out” — his crib and then he can cry and whine all he wants to. It usually calms him down immedietly because he cannot stand to be by himself and have no one to play with.
My wife gives in more than I do and I keep telling her she is just encouraging his behaviour. Like last night she had a milkshake and he wanted to hold the straw and when she would not let him he pitches a hissy fit and she actually made him his own sippy sup of her milkshake. I wanted him to be sent to time out ASAP.
Another thing is I don’t really spank him but sometimes if he does something like hit me in the face or reach and grab something I told him not to, I will give him a “pop” high on his leg near his diaper or on his hand, but I feel REALLY DUMB saying ” We don’t hit!” and then popping his hand. Any other parents with thoughts on this? Time out DOES work so should I just stick to that and not the idiotic “popping” on his hand?
In weight-loss and diet news: I bought a little “mini-exercise bike”… you know, like a pedal thing? From Amazon.com for about 35 bucks and I really like it so far. It makes just a slight little noise not even really noticeable. I love that I have a form of activity that I can do mindlessly while watching TV and it doesn’t hurt my back at all. I just sit there and pedal away on the couch. We do have carpet so I had to push it against the coffee table to prevent it from sliding away. It has an adjustable resistance so I set it to about the same level as the recumbent bikes at the gym.
I am glad I own it, I probably burn about 300 calories per hour just watching TV and pedaling. It could also be used with your arms on a counter-top if your legs were out-of-commision. It is super light even though it is very strudy stainless steel. The only real downside is the sides get super-duper hot from the friction so if the Boy is around I have to watch him like a hawk because if he reached out and grabbed it — it might burn his little hand.
The scale keeps hovering around 143 pounds. I have not had a binge in over a week, Sunday morning will make two weeks officially I am so proud of myself. I wake up and think a little about all the stuff I could have, but then I usually just realize I’m not hungry I just want a nibble, so if I really want to munch, I get down on some celery and salsa or perhaps a gelatin dessert.
Somebody said a while back to concentrate on all the good things I CAN have , and they are right. We are so lucky in America to have such good foods… sugar free this and low carb that. Not to mention just regular stuff like fish and eggs and whole grains and everything. plus access to all this nutritional info and ways to stay active and yet here we are sitting around doing next to nothing and stuffing our gob holes with the worst foods imaginable.
Oh well.
Tonight I think I will have some tilapia and broccoli with ranch-flavored salsa ( I take a little fat free ranch powder from the packet and sprinkle it into salsa) and then for dessert some sugar free strawberry Jell-O with sugar free choc pudding and some FF reddi whip. That’s only about 300 calories for everything.
Maybe before bed some sugar free cocoa.
And some snuggle time with the family. Sound like a nice Friday night. Hope all yours are just as great.
—Matt
I never believed in hitting my 2 sons when they were little either. There are other ways of discipline. Glad to hear you got a bike for exercise. Yes we are lucky to have so many nutritional foods. I eat alot of sf apricots.
Have a great weekend.
When my 16 year old was little I would spank a little but noticed it wasn’t really working so the time out worked better back then and I saved a little spanking for really dangereous things like running in the street or whatever. With my little one now who just turned 2, I use the naughty chair like Super Nanny does. And she says on the stool for 2 minutes since she is 2 years old. This works for me and I used it quite often in the beginning and now it’s rarely used until she gets really whiney. She knows what the stool is for and doesn’t want to be on it. Just a thought here, maybe you should try and use a naughty chair and not the crib so that the crib doesn’t symbolize punishment and means only naps and bedtime. It’s hard to be a parent. Sometimes I think you have to change things up now and then as they get older.