Monday's child is fair of face,
Tuesday's child is full of grace,
Wednesday's child is full of woe
Thursday's child has far to go,
Friday's child is loving and giving,
Saturday's child works hard for its living,
And a child that's born on the Sabbath day
Is blithe and bonny and good and gay.
Feeling a bit sentimental this morning... but I love Friday's, being a Friday's child myself and plan to enjoy a day at Fireman's Park playing a few rounds of tennis with my son (Tuesday's Child)... Funny how as children, we are presented with these rhymes and sayings and internalize them... Lucky for me, I wasn't a Wednesday. Saturday doesn't seem to be too well off either...
Anyway, one of the things that I miss the most about motherhood is reading, singing and dancing with my children. In fact, something that is burnt into my memory is the night Bryan sang "Don't worry, be happy" to me. He wasn't even two years old yet! ~ I was crying, sobbing really, feeling sorry for myself and not realizing that my son was old enough to understand... over my Audi breaking down (It needed an alternator) and Bryan burst into song and gave me the biggest, most beautiful "baby buddha smile" I ever did see... I learned, very quickly, I might add, to be more cognizant of my moods and my emotions around my children and the wonderful thing is that both of my sons are grown men now and each of them only have fond memories of their childhoods. They have no memory of the struggle. I am most happy about that.
Kevin, the "baby" in the family will be 21 on August 26th and is about to buy his second house. He is doing very well in Minnesota and is always very calm, level headed, and well mannered. He has such a beautiful disposition. It was wonderful chatting with him yesterday and he asked me to send him some pictures of me, so, I did.... I wish I could fly to Minnesota and spend a few days visiting with him but (A) I am a bit weary about flying right now and (B) I think I would rather go in the Spring or maybe a few days in the winter, while it's snowing. It's been so long since i've seen snow. So long since I have even seen a mountain peak or a humming bird... Florida is very hot, humid, and flat. After a while, it all looks the same to me...
So, today is my day. My day to spend time with my son and to pamper myself. To enjoy life and to treat myself with the love and the respect that I deserve and that I have earned...
It took me a long time not to judge myself through someone else's eyes... and as David Brinkley once said~ "A successful person is one who can lay a firm foundation with the bricks that others throw at him or her." In other words, It's not who you are that holds you back. it's who you think you are. I am competent and can cope with the basic challenges of life and worthy of happiness. I have experienced many successes in my life, most of which have gone unrecognized and unrewarded but I have proven to myself, time and time again, that I am able to achieve any goal that I set my sights on and that if all I have is the grace of God to help me to reach my goal, then God is my witness, and that is good enough for me.
This is only day 11 on my journey and as I am not easily defeated by setbacks and obstacles, I am not overly worried about failing or even contemplating failure. There are MANY things that I do successfully in my life and success to me right now means that I determine what success means to me. Today is MY day to treat myself special because I AM.
6:30PM @ 26 degrees, 16 minutes, 14 seconds North and 80 degrees, 16 minutes, 14 seconds West
Just calculated the sunrise and sun sets for this weekend so I can begin and end my fast on time (for a change)...
I'm preparing meal #5 right now on my Cuisinart Griddler (Which only takes about 4 mins.) and it smells wonderful! I really love the Talapia prepared with Foccaccia.
I had cut down the portion sizes suggested on a couple of the other meals today as I simply could NOT eat that much food! Doing so also made a huge difference in the amount of calories consumed. Here are Today's totals (Based on the Making the Cut Meal Plan/Jillian Michaels):
Doing so, I reduced my caloric intake by 321 calories. My next step is to adjust my daily total of fat. The fat content in this diet is too high, according to my calculations. I have already reduced the amount of almond butter to a 1/2 portion, saving myself a total of 27 fat grams (9x3 1 TBLS) and I think I can cut the EVOO down to 1/2 by using 1 tsp vs 1 TBS. by brushing it on. Either that or cut the amount of Almond butter down to 1 tsp. each. My main concern is that this might cause me to feel hungry and thusfar, I have been doing fine.
7:50 Research on Red Grapes and Bananas
I REALLY wanted some grapes tonight as a snack but opted out of it as it would have added 100 calories to my daily total (per cup) and the sugars in it may have caused me to have issues with controlling cravings... Thus far, I have had no cravings, per say, just thoughts here and there of accepting offers by family members when I spend time with them to join them for a Diet Coke or have "some of this". Good thing is, I am not a soda drinker and I don't crave sweets. I do like fruit, however and would knock out a gorilla for a banana right now but calculating the calories in a banana is a headache and a half. ( a very small banana, less than 6 inches is 75 calories, a small one about 6 to 7 inches is 93, a medium about 7 to 8 inches is 109, large one 8 to 9 inches is 125, and an extra large banana 9 inches or longer is 140 calories per serving)... It is primarily a carbohydrate (92%) and gets its other calories from protein and fats @ 4% each. Not good if you are on a low carb diet, that's for sure. (build-muscle-burn-fat.com)
Basically, grapes are a good source of Vitamins C and K, very low in fat, cholesterol and sodium but a large portion of its calories come from sugars.
With respect to the nutrient table, red grapes scored a 37 on a scale of 0 to 100. It also scored a 56 in protein quality. "Adding other foods w/ complimentary amino acids profiles to grapes may yield a more complete protein source..."(Nutrition Data.com)
