a peek inside the fishbowl

In my head I’m actually calling this series of posts Operation Jiggle Reduction but I think the word jiggle conjures up some unwelcome imagery so I’m officially calling this series Nine Things for Operation Trim.

I blame the apartment.

In the month leading up to the move I overdosed on junky foods. I ate because I was stressed – with the reno, the move, and work. I ate because my energy sagged. When I was tired (and I was often tired) I ate carbs and sugar, and when I ate carbs and sugar it just made me more tired, and so I ate more carbs and sugar. It’s a death spiral, and it’s one that’s very hard to get out of. The more junk I ate the more I craved. It’s no wonder I’ve become so soft around the middle… it all settled here!

Sidebar: Before we moved I joked about putting the bathroom scale into storage. I hadn’t stepped on the scale in months and I thought it’d be nice just to get rid of it for awhile. Well, it was moved here anyway and since I was writing this post I decided to weigh myself. I knew that my pants weren’t fitting well, but I didn’t know to what extent. So now I know that we’re talking about nearly 10lbs of new jiggly bits gained in the past month or so. This is why this series will contain nine posts, one for each pound. :(

I’m taking baby steps to get things under control again. And I’m starting slow, with water. I am pretty sure that some of my cravings are related to the fact that I’m under-hydrated.

Step one to better water intake: obtain container. CHECK. If I have a container of water next to me while I am working, I will drink it. Otherwise I will not remember to get up and get a drink.

This is a glass water bottle I received at a meeting with some bloggers and CBC-TV people during my trip to Blissdom last year. I love it. This is what I’ll be drinking out of for the next while.

Step two: make water!

Er, that didn’t come out quite right. ;)

I am perfectly happy with ordinary water, but I am more likely to drink it if the flavour quotient has been kicked up a notch. I thought I’d experiment with some sugar-free flavoured water recipes.

Here’s a little something I whipped up yesterday with a recipe from Chatelaine magazine and a few things I had lying around:

Doesn’t it look pretty?

This batch is made out of:

• 2L water
• 1/2 cucumber, peeled down to racing stripes and sliced thin
• 1 lemon, sliced thin
• bit of fresh mint and basil, chopped (the recipe calls for a 1/4 cup of each but my windowsill herb garden doesn’t have a prodigious output as of yet).

Mix ingredients and let everything sit in the fridge overnight. That’s it!

I am drinking the end result right now and it’s really really refreshing. I am inspired, so much so that I’ve been thinking of some other flavoured water recipes that I might try. How about:

• orange (quarter an orange, squeeze each piece into a jug, toss in the rinds and pour water over top)
• mixed berry (using a bit of the mix we have in the freezer)
• strawberry/mint
• lemon/lime (no scurvy for me, no sir!)
• @Laura_Benn suggested that frozen grapes make good ice cubes. (Thanks Laura!)

As an added bonus, all of these are flavoured water recipes are practically calorie free.

Another idea for you (if you are similarly underhydrated) is to make lemon ice cubes ahead of time and add them to plain water. It’s a great way of using the lemons at the back of the fruit drawer and dressing up your H2O a little bit.

Anyway, yes. There it is. I have decided I’m taking control! FEEL THE POWER. Stay tuned for post #2.

ETA: I made a jug of water with an entire cut up lime in it yesterday. It tasted good at first but over the course of the day it got really bitter. Do not use lime! Or just use the juice and not the whole fruit. Also, check out this great link for more flavoured water recipes.

When the girls were infants we washed them in a special baby bathtub. It was basically a giant moulded plastic baby-sized bowl with a non-slip reclining slope on one side. I’m sure my grandmother would have found the need for this thing absolutely hilarious. Her kids were scrubbed in the horse trough! With cold water! In the winter!

I am kidding. Sort of.

The baby bath came with a small plastic container and snap-on lid; a tool to rinse soapy babies. The lid had small holes in the top, so the water would come out as a gentle watering-can like trickle in order to prevent a surge of baby shampoo that cascaded into tender eyeballs.

I am reminded of this pint-sized watering can every time I take a shower in the new apartment because it feels exactly the same. In fact, that unpleasant little dribble means I am showering less than before.

Other than that, I really like where we are living.

Other things I’ve learned this past week:

• Space is a premium…
• … this means that buying supersizes of anything (laundry detergent, toilet paper, bags of flour etc.) is a big mistake. Not that I’d do this, but we are currently the process of using up some large containers of things and it’s amazing how much precious space they take up.
• I packed too many kitchen things. I have been sheepishly re-packing extra things (purses, colanders, pie plates) to store my in-law’s basement. Gah.
• I don’t have enough space to store all of my clothing. I need a plan, or less clothing.
• I FINALLY found my belts. They were in the LAST box of clothing that I unpacked. (Of COURSE they were.) I can once again wear pants without exposing my family to repeated plumber butt.
• There’s no green bin here. I kind of knew this already but we’ve been using one for so long I forgot how much food waste goes into the garbage. And holy mackerel, it’s a lot.
• I need to hem our curtains. That should be quite amusing. Stay tuned for Andrea’s Hemming Show!

Otherwise we are slowly, gradually, eventually, going to be unpacked. And when that happens, I’m having a stiff drink.

But you want to know something? I am happy.

This week’s activity over at Canadian Family Magazine is probably the only way little kids can prepare a full dinner on their own: whether they’re making steak and potatoes and a chopped salad for dad, raw fish and berries for a friendly grizzly, or a serving of green slime alphabet soup for a visiting alien. Go see for yourself. It’s a great rainy day activity, perfect for a soggy weekend!

Happy Friday everyone!