Summer's over...time to start watching things

Well, summer is over folks. That's it. That's all you get. It has been an AWESOME summer. My friend Estelle says I overuse that word, but I don't care. It was AWESOME. Of course, I'll be paying for the awesomeness for some time to come.

This summer I've been bundling up large amounts of cash, say $200 a week, and lighting it on fire. Yes, folks, I'm talking about my grocery bill. I don't know exactly why I can't seem to get the grocery bill under control this summer, but steak and fresh fruit with Cool-Whip dip apparently adds up.

Another thing that adds up, apparently, is my weight. Don't try to tell me that there is a connection between the grocery bill and the amount of weight I've gained. That's just silly. Those two are entirely unrelated.

Seriously...I've packed it on this summer. It has been 6 months since my last weight managment effort and I've put on 10 lbs since then. That isn't maintenance mode. That is....I don't know...that is just...BAD. Especially when you consider that my last weight managment effort, during January & February of 2010, resulted in about 5 lbs lost.

So now I want to take off 10 lbs in the next three months. September 1st through November 24th...that's 12 weeks...and I get to end my diet the day before Thanksgiving. I usually just do some calorie counting, but this time I gotta step it up a little. I think my exercise effort is going to have to extend beyong my Wii. Running? maybe.

I think the BodyBugg is going to be my new diet "thing". I already calorie count like a champ, so adding the tracking of energy expended seems like a natural extension. Of course, I'm far too cheap to actually buy a new BodyBugg. They are $300, including 6 months of the website subscription. I've seen them on ebay and Craigslist for $75, but that is with no website subscription. I don't need a 6 month subscription though, three months should be plenty.

So, how 'bout you? Anyone else going to join me for some September 1st diet modification?

P.S. My husband is crunching tortilla chips in my ear. Several warning glances have gone unheeded. Someone may want to check to see if he is still living in a few minutes.

Calorie Counting and My trip to Costco

At first glance, it seems like there ought to be a connection between the two items in my title "Calorie Counting" and "My trip to Costco"...but there isn't.

1) Hubby, a few friends, and me are starting a new calorie counting effort today on my-calorie-counter.com. Anyone else interested? Come join our group. My profile name is LisaSanford (tricky, I know). The site is free and we'll probably be dedicated to it for at least a couple of weeks. =)

2) Today I took my kids on a Costco run. Lucky for us, there were food samples spread throughout the store. Lucky for us, that is, until we ran into the Otis Spunkmeyer cookie sample lady. We stopped by to get our samples and gave her our best smiles (after all, she has the power to give us big or small cookies). She struck up a conversation with the kids, asking which child was the oldest. Suddenly she locks eyes with Spunky Girl, my middle child. The lady launches into a spiel about how being the middle child is the most special. She told Spunky Girl, in front of her younger brother and older sister, that the other kids get all the attention in life but the middle child is really the one that turns out a success. The middle child, in her long-winded opinion, learns so much about how to interact with people in her "special" role as middle child that she instantly becomes a successful and highly-loved person in life. She tells her that middle children turn out to be lawyers and other highly successful adults. (It was clear that cookie lady was also a middle child and I found it a tad ironic that she was describing the successful career jobs that magically exist for middle children while she was serving choco-chip cookie displays at Costco. I've got *no* issues with being a display person as a way to earn money, but it does kind of water down the "middle children end up highly successful" argument.)

I think at some point she realized that she was being really rude to my other children and tried to redirect some of her attention to them. Her attempt was something like "you kids know what I mean, right? You (pointing to my eldest) get all the attention for being the oldest and you (pointing to my young son) get all the attention for being the baby." And then she went right back to my Spunky Girl and told her the rest of her life would be her turn to shine.

The lady talked so long that I kept edging farther and farther away and had to turn around to keep her from talking to my back.

Really, I think Spunky Girl was the most confused of all. I don't think she ever gave her middle child status any thought. My eldest, in her sweet way, said as we finally broke free "Well, she was certainly bragging". I thought it was a funny way to end the moment.