The Distraction Diet

Over the last three to four years - basically, since I started working at home and stopped moving - I have put on a lot more weight than I am comfortable with. Who knew one could burn so many calories just walking to meetings? But clearly, it's made a difference. My scale says so, as does the fact that I've had to replace most of my wardrobe.

But in the last week or so I've discovered an amazing new diet. The distraction diet. Get too lost in your own head, and you will totally forget to eat. It works! I've dropped 7 pounds so far. Don't think it'll stay off - at some point my love of all things food will kick back in and I'll remember to cook again. But for the time being, I'm enjoying watching the numbers on the scale go down and the fact that my big pants are a little bigger, and my smaller pants almost fit.

Small victories.

On my plate: actual food. We had a celebration breakfast for our au pair - it's her 20th birthday, which in her country is a big huge deal and the entry into adulthood. So, chocolate chip pancakes, berries and thick-cut bacon. Which I haven't had time to eat because I've been busy in meetings. It's all sitting cold on a plate on the floor next to my desk.

When McDonald's Really Is The Answer

You know it's going to be a rough week when on Tuesday your 10-year-old runs away from school, then tells you he doesn't want to live anymore because life is just too hard.

When that happens, for a mom, there is part of you that just wants to crawl under the covers and sleep for days on end. You want to shut down and shut it all out. But you can't. There's a little person you brought into the world who needs you to be whole so that you can keep him in it. You find a way to find the joy and bring it back to him.

We got him help, and are continuing to get him help. It's had an effect on the whole family, though. The other kids are antsy, whiny, angry and clingy by turns, and he is still a yo-yoing bundle of challenging emotions. I've been working very hard to focus on family - more time spent together at dinner, more time for playing, more time for talking. Curling up in a top bunk having a good heart-to-heart and a hug. You find the joy and focus on it, make everyone else see it too. He's okay, for now. But the scary thought is back there, for both of us I think, and the next time he cycles down - because he will - that thought will jump out like the smog creature in Lost and start wreaking a little havoc.

Friday is our movie night, something I instituted since my husband and I separated as a way to make the kids feel special and give me a break at the end of the week. We spread a blanket on the living room floor, enjoy an indoor picnic, and watch one of the 137 kids movies we have in our collection. Tonight, my oldest was with his dad, meeting a few professional athletes, having KFC (his favorite fast food), and spending the night enjoying some one-on-one male bonding. But the little ones needed a treat, too. So tonight it was Aladdin and McDonald's. Because sometimes a Happy Meal with a cheap plastic toy and a mountain of french fries really is the right answer. Or, in mom's case, a Big Mac and a strawberry shake. Same thing. I'd planned a lovely shrimp dinner with green rice and fresh steamed artichokes. But I gotta say, those two all-beef patties really hit the spot.

I did get to indulge my own passions earlier in the day. On the way home from a meeting, I stopped on impulse at the brand new Safeway the next town over. I'd enjoyed watching them build it - they razed the old building and started from scratch. It opened several months ago, but I've never gone in. I visit two stores in my own town and remain fairly loyal to them. And I do visit both, regularly, because neither has everything I need. I can get cinnamon coffee creamer only at the one; blueberry applesauce only at the other. And a Sara Lee Butter Streusel Coffee Cake only once a year when some distributor accidentally drops it on the shelves.

But this new store - it's stunning! Clean and bright, with a layout that's fun and leads you deeper and deeper in. It's designed for those who browse! And it's a mecca for a wannabe chef. Every variety of everything I could possible want. My area doesn't have a Wegman's or Whole Foods - we are light on gourmet or organic grocery stores. But this one, it's definitely got its own charm. Shelves full of every ingredient I've ever searched for in vain. Fire-roasted everything. Basmati rice and flax meal and three different kinds of barley. Every flavor of applesauce imaginable. And the produce! Jerusalem artichokes, tamarindo, long skinny Asian green beans. And one or two things I didn't recognize. You're inspired to try new things, to get creative and play with your food.

No Sara Lee coffee cake, though. I'm starting to think that it's a regional thing. Maybe Marylanders just don't eat it? Another good reason to move.

The week is over. I know my boy is safe with his dad, but I wish he were here 'cause I miss him.

Breakfast for Dinner

Yesterday was the seventh anniversary of one of the three most amazing days of my life: the day my daughter was born.

My diva is a beautiful, bossy little thing ... admittedly, she is a lot like her mommy. At least in the bossy part. She is creative and clever, stubborn to a fault, and determined in all things to get her own way. She's pretty good at it, too.

We celebrate birthdays in our house with a meal planned, start-to-finish, by the birthdayee, and executed with much love by mom. I think I actually started this tradition in an effort to get my kids to like what I cook. It is painful to a woman like me, for whom food is both comfort and inspiration, that my children do not enjoy the real thing. They prefer nuggets out of a box, macaroni and cheese out of a box, waffles out of a box ... if it comes out of a box, it must be good.

Sometimes this serves me well - it's certainly a lot faster. But when I do go to the trouble to cook real food, it is just a little heartbreaking to be met with screaming tantrums from my lovable Aspie, a "this is disGUSting" all dripping with pre-teen attitude from my 7-year-old, or a determined "I don't wike this!" from my little guy.

So three times a year, I cook - real food no less - and it's something I'm absolutely certain at least one of them will like.

My diva's palette has expanded a lot this year. She's added several meats, a few more sides, and several vegetables - including broccoli! - to her repertoire. But she's had the same meal for her birthday dinner for three straight years now. You see, my diva's favorite dinner isn't dinner at all - it is breakfast.

So we had a dinner last night full of morning comfort and chocolatey goodness. Pancakes chock full of pink & white Valentine's M&Ms, bacon, scrambled eggs, and a lovely salad of blueberries and strawberries - really good when drizzled with a little bit of maple syrup - with bananas on the side for those who cared to have one. Heaven on a plate! My girl ate five - yes, you read that right - five pancakes, and a little bit of everything else. We stuck a candle in the first one and sang "Happy Birthday," thanks to my oldest, who realized that M&M pancakes are not only dinner but dessert as well. Even my little guy ate, though he did take a header into the syrup when he tried to dive across the table for more pancakes. My oldest, who doesn't like pancakes, eggs or strawberries, satisfied himself with a half-pound of bacon and a banana. So, something for everyone!

I love birthdays :-)

What's on my plate: Today, I must be feeling pretty red. Salad made with a pretty red baby romaine, roasted red peppers, flavorful Santa Sweets grape tomatoes, beets, tuna (which counts - it's pinkish) ... and some pepitas, green and full of iron, with a balsamic vinaigrette sprinkled over the top. Basically, everything I had in the house that seemed salad appropriate.