Confessions

It’s Foodie Friday… I’m Robin and I’m a foodaholic and I’m in Foodie Time-Out”…

If you read last Friday’s post on my Mother-of- the-Bride dress that no longer fits, you’ll know what I’m talkin about.  I’ve been thinking long and hard this week about my situation. My situation can be sumed up like this: Holy crap, my clothes are tight.  Here’s the thing…

People ask me all the time “how do you stay so skinny while cooking all this fattening stuff?” I get comments and even emails asking me this, so here’s my confession.  First…define skinny. I don’t think of myself as  skinny. My Baby Sister is skinny.

Second…I don’t “stay” the same. I put on and take off the same 10 lbs constantly. I have to be honest because it drives me boo-bats to watch 90lb. people on the Food Network talk about yumalicious food . I’m sure that somewhere in the background there’s an adorable curvy little cook doing all the tasting for them. Show me the cute curvy girl cooking for the love of pete…

I heart  food.

I love cooking and baking. It’s therapeutic for me. Calms me. Gives me a rush. Anchors my fun times with family and friends. Anchors my quiet times at home. Food defines the seasons in my mind, cookouts in the Summer, big pots of chili in Autumn, Soups simmering all day in Winter, pasta dishes in Spring…and don’t get me started on the baking. Heaven help me. A few of you have threatened to do an intervention to curb my baking habits. ( Some of you emotionally savy Peeps are shaking your head thinking: ‘this woman has an unhealthy relationship with food.’ I have only one thing to say to you: I’d probably sell my birth right for a good burger and a big piece of cake.)

Confession is good for the soul, although chocolate cake gives a better sugar-high…I’m going to tell you about the cycles of my life with food…

This is the “Robin is Behaving” Cycle …

I cook and eat my favorite things on Friday, Saturday and Sunday.  I  eat healthy Monday-Thursday. The Husband and I eat only yogurt for dinner on healthy days and just a little for breakfast and lunch. My exercise routine  when I’m behaving is cardio…at least 180 minutes a week and weight lifting 3 times a week.  (I’ve been on exercise binges where I do a lot more.)  But that’s the “I’m being balanced” schedule of eating and exercise.

When I feel I’ve done great for awhile I quietly ease into : “Robin’s  Behaving not-so- well” Cycle...

the cooking and eating start on Thursday. (I love to start the weekend early by eating Moe’s take out on Thursday night!) Then I start to cook something yummy during the week. The exercise goes down… less cardio and I skip out on the weight lifting here and there.  This goes on for a few weeks (sometimes longer) then I do 1 of 2 things…I either get back to the “I’m behaving” Schedule …or (sigh) do what I did this last month…

This is the “Robin Behaving Badly Cycle”:

I  Pour over my cookbooks (I love cookbooks. LOVE THEM) and throw caution to the wind and bake my rear on. I lovingly add new recipes to my file. Have a cake wreck or two. Try a few new restaurants. Struggle with exercising. I still do some exercise but not as often and I’m not having so much fun….

Then my clothes get tight and I say “shoot!” (Or something quite like”shoot”), “I guess I have to come off the High Fructose Corn Syrup and get back in the gym.”At this point I either ease back into good behavior or I go stark raving mad and hit the gym twice a day and starve myself.  (I’m an all or nothing kind of gal. Can you tell?)

That Peeps, is where I am now. I used to freak out when I was here. Not anymore. The older I get the more times the pattern repeats itself and I take it in stride. (with the exception of the amazing shrinking MOB dress incident. I did have a bit of a freak out over that.)

The bad news overall is that the older I get the shorter the “Robin Behaving Badly” cycle becomes. My clothes start getting tight within a few weeks. The Husband says his start getting tight in a matter of days but he’s years older than me. Anyhoo, I’m about to climb bake, woops, I mean climb back on the wagon and work on behaving.  This doesn’t mean I won’t be cooking and it doesn’t mean I’ll be doing great by next week. My transitioning is slower these days. So there you have it the confession of this foodaholic. (I prefer the term Foodie don’t you?)  Happy Foodie Friday Peeps…from my corner in “time-out”.

PS…If you aren’t in Foodie-Time-Out, check out my recipes under “All Things Yumalicious” and “Cooking With The Husband” 🙂