Domestic Geek

As Colleen reminded me, one of the biggest problems we Americans have with our food is portion control. Eating good, healthy, fresh foods is a step in the right direction, but not if you eat three times more than your body needs.

It didn't help that I grew up in a household where we would have competitions to see who could keep up with eating with dad. We also medicated hurt feelings with ice cream..big four scoop with chocolate syrup on top bowls of ice cream.

I remember watching The Biggest Loser during the first season it was on when they were talking about portion sizes to the contestants. I was thinking then that my perception of how much to eat at any one time was really out of whack, yet I couldn't be bothered to research how big portions should be.

I have been better about not gorging myself and Marcus and I don't make a habit of going to all-you-can-eat buffet restaurants like we did when we were poor. I can tell my stomach has shrunk as I can't eat as much in one sitting as I used to. It's definitely something I need to educate myself about.

This is a hard thing for people, especially women, to do. I wish I could remember who says it, (Dr. Laura, Dr. Phil maybe?) You can't properly care for anybody else if you don't take care of yourself first.

My mother was like that. I swore I would never be like that, yet I find myself doing exactly the same thing. She would spend so much time doing things for other people that she put her physical needs last (I believe her martyr attitude fulfilled some kind of emotional need). As a result, my mother got sick a lot, ate poorly, didn't have nice clothes to wear.

You need to equate this to an automobile. If you don't take care of it — gas, oil changes, tires, wax, it will expire before it's time. It will fail you when you need it most.

How can you be there for your friends, you family or your workplace if you're a run-down, stress-ed out, sick mess?

I'm brainstorming on something I can do on another blog I'm starting to encourage women to take care of themselves first. I'll let you all know what I come up with and suggestions are greatly appreciated.

So, I'm taking a little break from researching health-related issues. I had some lunch and just finally got my morning coffee. I just realized we've over a third of the way done. Very cool. Although I set a goal of $500, I was going to be grateful for any sponsors I got. Well, lookie over in the sidebar ----->

We're up to $300 people! Yay!!! Thanks to all my sponsors who so graciously pledged their support.

I'm so going to get myself on the ball next year. So many bloggers are giving away stuff they made. I could so do that if I got my act together. Hmmm, that gives me a topic for a post.

I saw a post over at my friend Deb's site, Body, Mind & Solar, with the following video describing the differences of Type I & II diabetes. I didn't really know the differences and the video is well done and explains it quite well.

Heh, I wondered while in the shower how many people in the Blogathon post about taking a refreshing mid-thon shower? I know I'm not the only one!