Wifezilla chronicles: The Mad Gardener What Gardens at Midnight!
I started garden work about a week ago. Finished one of two herb plots behind the kitchen, with nice little wooden borders. Sunday and Monday, I put in many many hours of gardening each day, starting at 5 or 6 PM to avoid the grilling sizzling heat and working into the wee hours. Hubby rigged a light and made me lemonade, and I have cultivated more than half of the rosebed, added mulch, and planted ground cover and foxglove and nemesia with pretty purple flowers.
I am the Mad Gardener What Gardens at Midnight. Well past midnight, actually.
I've been so sore I can barely move, but I can't wait to do it again.
Emotional eating. Chocolate. Probably triggered by extraordinary frustration and anger. The in-laws.
I'm currently doing Optifast. For those not in the know, this is a liquid, MD-monitored weight loss program that involves having NO FOOD. Now, it's hard, but I don't find it all that hard if I can just cut food and food-centered socializing out of my life.
So, Saturday, hubby and I went to his brother's house, there to meet with his mom and Nanny, his grandmother-by-marriage. I adore Nanny and I was so glad she was visiting. Plans, however, were to walk from Roger's house to Menlo Park, and there go to a Japanese restaurant. So, forkmonkey and I drove two cars; I opted for the walk, and then turned around and walked back to Roger's and drove home. But when I told my mother-in-law of this plan, and AGAIN at the door of the restaurant, she tried to talk me into coming in and having food.
Today, we met with the in-laws, Nanny, and aunt and uncle also visiting from England and saw Monterrey. Which, of course, included lunch and dinner at touristy places. Now, I've been advised to do lean protein, if I'm in a situation where I have to eat food. So, plans were for a bit of lunch at a cafe, and early-ish dinner. At the cafe at the aquarium where we went for lunch, forkmonkey got pasta and seafood, and he asked me to split with him--I said I'd try a bite. I asked what sort of soup they had, but it was potato cheddar; definitely not diet fare. I picked up an Odwalla protein shake, but then the chicken tacos walked by on someone's plate, and, well. I succumbed. Stewed chicken and corn tortillas. When mom-in-law saw forkmonkey's linch, she exclaimed at length over how much food was there. "Oh, you're not going to eat all THAT!" etc etc etc ad inf., expressed with the utmost dismay and moral outrage. We got to the table and sat down with everyone and were met by more of the same--everyone was having either a cup or a big bowl of potato cheddar soup, the stuff that I had written off as too rich for me.
We walked from the aquarium to the old wharf, and had dinner down there, at a sucky touristy restaurant. I considered not eating anything, then I ate, but I was right--it wasn't worth eating. Then forkmonkey and his parents and I did a typical Hine speedwalk back to get the car, so hubby and his dad and I could go to the airport. This wouldn't have bothered me if I weren't in full-body agony from two straight days of eight-hour shifts of garden work. I don't think I would have minded if I weren't sore in every bone of my body; as it was, I could only grit my teeth, and try to keep up.
In retrospect, I would have been happier if I just picked up two or three of those little Odwalla shakes and not had a bite.
Now, the thing is, these same in-laws, forkmonkey's parents, have been pressuring me since the day I moved out here about my weight and state of non-athletic-ness, and they've been pressuring Graham as well. I know that this is out of a genuine concern for our health. I tell myself it really is because they're concerned; so am I.
It bugs the hell out of me that when I try to do exactly what they have been jabbing at me to do for more than ten years, when I am trying to break a very bad habit of eating out at restaurants all the time, all my in-laws can do is drag me to places where I have to eat out or eat nothing, and then criticize the food choices of both my husband and myself.
No, actually, it infuriates and frustrates me. When my mother-in-law tries to persuade me to walk into a restaurant and "just have something nice and light," I feel like I'm being both condescended to and sabotaged. What /is/ it? Do they want us to fail, so that they can continue to criticize how we live and dictate how we ought to live?
And I wondered why I was depressed on the way home. Depressed enough to cry, and feeling self-hatred I haven't felt in years. It took me a while to figure it out, but apparently it was anger.
I'm glad I wrote the rant first and then wrote about my gardening achievements--brought back all the good feelings of achievement. I still have lots to do--another herb bed, the rest of the roses, a couple of new things to plant out front. Oh, and of course when I was talking about my huge gardening fu to my mother-in-law, she just HAD to mention that "of course, it's the worst possible time to plant anything in this heat..."
But still, my gardening fu is mighty, and I will make things grow, and we are replacing irrigation that sorely needed it, and I am full of cool stuff to do!
I am Wifezilla!
I am the Mad Gardener What Gardens at Midnight. Well past midnight, actually.
I've been so sore I can barely move, but I can't wait to do it again.
Emotional eating. Chocolate. Probably triggered by extraordinary frustration and anger. The in-laws.
I'm currently doing Optifast. For those not in the know, this is a liquid, MD-monitored weight loss program that involves having NO FOOD. Now, it's hard, but I don't find it all that hard if I can just cut food and food-centered socializing out of my life.
So, Saturday, hubby and I went to his brother's house, there to meet with his mom and Nanny, his grandmother-by-marriage. I adore Nanny and I was so glad she was visiting. Plans, however, were to walk from Roger's house to Menlo Park, and there go to a Japanese restaurant. So, forkmonkey and I drove two cars; I opted for the walk, and then turned around and walked back to Roger's and drove home. But when I told my mother-in-law of this plan, and AGAIN at the door of the restaurant, she tried to talk me into coming in and having food.
Today, we met with the in-laws, Nanny, and aunt and uncle also visiting from England and saw Monterrey. Which, of course, included lunch and dinner at touristy places. Now, I've been advised to do lean protein, if I'm in a situation where I have to eat food. So, plans were for a bit of lunch at a cafe, and early-ish dinner. At the cafe at the aquarium where we went for lunch, forkmonkey got pasta and seafood, and he asked me to split with him--I said I'd try a bite. I asked what sort of soup they had, but it was potato cheddar; definitely not diet fare. I picked up an Odwalla protein shake, but then the chicken tacos walked by on someone's plate, and, well. I succumbed. Stewed chicken and corn tortillas. When mom-in-law saw forkmonkey's linch, she exclaimed at length over how much food was there. "Oh, you're not going to eat all THAT!" etc etc etc ad inf., expressed with the utmost dismay and moral outrage. We got to the table and sat down with everyone and were met by more of the same--everyone was having either a cup or a big bowl of potato cheddar soup, the stuff that I had written off as too rich for me.
We walked from the aquarium to the old wharf, and had dinner down there, at a sucky touristy restaurant. I considered not eating anything, then I ate, but I was right--it wasn't worth eating. Then forkmonkey and his parents and I did a typical Hine speedwalk back to get the car, so hubby and his dad and I could go to the airport. This wouldn't have bothered me if I weren't in full-body agony from two straight days of eight-hour shifts of garden work. I don't think I would have minded if I weren't sore in every bone of my body; as it was, I could only grit my teeth, and try to keep up.
In retrospect, I would have been happier if I just picked up two or three of those little Odwalla shakes and not had a bite.
Now, the thing is, these same in-laws, forkmonkey's parents, have been pressuring me since the day I moved out here about my weight and state of non-athletic-ness, and they've been pressuring Graham as well. I know that this is out of a genuine concern for our health. I tell myself it really is because they're concerned; so am I.
It bugs the hell out of me that when I try to do exactly what they have been jabbing at me to do for more than ten years, when I am trying to break a very bad habit of eating out at restaurants all the time, all my in-laws can do is drag me to places where I have to eat out or eat nothing, and then criticize the food choices of both my husband and myself.
No, actually, it infuriates and frustrates me. When my mother-in-law tries to persuade me to walk into a restaurant and "just have something nice and light," I feel like I'm being both condescended to and sabotaged. What /is/ it? Do they want us to fail, so that they can continue to criticize how we live and dictate how we ought to live?
And I wondered why I was depressed on the way home. Depressed enough to cry, and feeling self-hatred I haven't felt in years. It took me a while to figure it out, but apparently it was anger.
I'm glad I wrote the rant first and then wrote about my gardening achievements--brought back all the good feelings of achievement. I still have lots to do--another herb bed, the rest of the roses, a couple of new things to plant out front. Oh, and of course when I was talking about my huge gardening fu to my mother-in-law, she just HAD to mention that "of course, it's the worst possible time to plant anything in this heat..."
But still, my gardening fu is mighty, and I will make things grow, and we are replacing irrigation that sorely needed it, and I am full of cool stuff to do!
I am Wifezilla!