Day 80: Get off my lawn!

I feel like I'm becoming a grumpy old man when it comes to food.

Let me explain. I don't watch much TV but when I do, the commercials for food and/or restaurants totally gross me out. I can't stand to see ads for big juicy burgers, or those "bottomless" pasta bowls at Olive Garden. (Doesn't "bottomless" sound dirty?) The food just looks repulsive, too shiny, and just too much.

The ad that really got to me today is for Carnation Instant Breakfast, a "nutritional shake" that you're supposed to consume for breakfast. The premise of the ad was that your kid won't do well in school without breakfast. A boy slogs down the hallway of his school, his feet encased in heavy weights. Because he didn't have breakfast, he doesn't have the energy to do anything at school. Cut to a shot of kid at home in the kitchen, Mom looking on with a beatific smile, as he chugs this chocolate shake thing. The kitchen counters are completely empty, totally clean and gleaming. There is not one shred of evidence that there has ever been any FOOD in that kitchen.

And then here's me, yelling at the TV: "What about giving your kid some eggs and toast? Is that too much trouble??"

Oy, I'm becoming a grumpy old man.

But seriously, is this what we've come to? I understand being busy in the morning, and I guess something is better than nothing, but is the best you can do giving your kid a Slim-fast? I wouldn't have dreamed of giving my daughter something like that for breakfast even well before starting this program, but I can tell that I've become even more disconnected from the typical modern American way of eating. (And that's a good thing.)

On another note: no coughing child last night, so I got a full night of sleep! And she's spending the afternoon with her grandmother, so I'm enjoying a day to myself. I organized my office, I'm going to get my eyes checked (yeah, I know how to kick back) and then it'll be workout time.

A word of advice to people who are talking about having to get up all night to pee: if you make sure not to turn on any lights, you can get back to sleep much faster. I can vouch for this as someone who used to get up all the time at night with a little baby -- if you turn on a light, even for a couple of minutes, your body will start to get the signal that you're supposed to be waking up now. If you need a nightlight to find your way or whatever, that'll be okay as long as the light is fairly dim. But don't go into the loo and flip on the light or you'll have a harder time getting back to sleep.

Day 80! Wow, hard to believe!