Food sins

Well the birthday is over..yeah!!! Matthew had a lot of fun. He got phone calls from the grandparents, e-mail from his former therapists, and a special birthday crown to wear in school. Sadly, my lifelong dream of baking cupcakes to send to school will always be unfulfilled. A few years ago the school district banned homade food items and the next year banned outside food from being distributed in the classrooms. The reasoning was that there were students with food allergies or on special diets and the food would cause a problem. The Early Childhood program can get away with some things so I was able to send oranges with Matthew last year but this year was a whole different story. Needless to say Matthew passed out pencils to all his classmates and ate the special cupcake I sent with him. I did make cupcakes later that day and he passed them out to the staff at the Wellness Center and to the students in our adult Tae Kwan Do Class. Of course all the birthday food created new challenges for me. I can resist the store bought baked goods but when I'm the one doing the baking it's just too hard not to lick the spatula or the beaters and when it's time to frost the cupcakes, how in the world does Martha Stewart do it without getting her fingers covered in the stuff??? Matthew loves Hy-Vee cakes (really just the frosting) so we went and bought a small one. He inherited my love of chocolate so of course his cake was chocolate. Poor Carolyn is not a chocophile and I had to laugh at her comment yesterday as she was eating a chocolate cupcake "It's too chocolatey" That's OK, she goes for the frosting anyway. Matthew also got to choose what he wanted for supper and first he said "something healthy" Just as I was giving myself a mental hi-five for teaching him good food choices and trying to figure out what I was going to make Matthew changed his mind and said he wanted pizza. So much for that pat on the back. We were already going to Hy-Vee for the cake so I figured I'd pick up a pizza from the deli. Papa Murphy's is across the street and they are also really good but for price you can't beat Hy-Vee. Well pizza and birthday cake aren't exactly point friendly but I knew about my evening plans well enough in advance that I was able to eat lighter for breakfast and lunch so I enjoyed an ooey gooey cheesy slice of pizza and had a small piece of cake. I found out much to my dismay on Saturday evening that when one eats a burrito at Qdoba (Mexican food) one should order it naked (without tortilla). Hubby and I had a date planned so I made sure to be good for breakfast and lunch. It was between Quiznos and Qdoba and my craving won out. I had plenty of points so as long as I ordered sensibly then no problemo. They have a killer vegetarian burrito and I actually like black beans so I was doing great. Some things are just worth the points so I skipped the guacamole but kept the light sour cream and cheese. I also had to have my Coke. Hubby and I were joking about ordering the burrito sans tortilla saying that it just wasn't right. Later that night as I "confessed" my food sins on my point tracker I learned the ugly truth about that oh so innocent looking tortilla. 20 oz of coke..5 points, beans and veggies...0 points cilantro rice....5 points (oops shoulda went light on that one), cheese and sour cream..3 points, tortilla...6 points. Yep, that's right 6 points for a seemingly small item. If I had gone naked I would have used 13 points and stayed in my goal range but one can not use 19 points on a 22 point limit and expect to stay in bounds. Good thing I did my cardio class earlier in the day. I did lose another pound last week so I finally got my 5 pound sticker. I have lost total of 6 pounds so far and it has not been easy. I really hate having to keep track of what I eat and write it all down. There are times when I really want to say "screw it" and pork out on the junk food. Sunday nights are perhaps the cruelest of them all. We usually grill that night and steak is almost always on the menu. Try only eating three ounces of fresh off the grill still steaming hot juicy steak. I have tried to not eat it and just use leftovers and make steak tacos or put it in stir fry but this upsets the husband greatly since he views my non-eating as a sin against the steak (he's right). I know all my hard work will pay off so I keep at it. A few weeks ago I put on a pair of jeans I hadn't worn in several months and they actually fit without me having to lay down to zip them up. In six months when I test for my black belt I hope to have lost my 20 extra pounds. I have 14 left to go. Now, where is that leftover birthday cake......