Wednesday, December 17, 2008

Some bloggie things

Well, first, I have some awardie things to post...

PTG put me up for the Your Blog is Fabulous award... cute!

And Seashore put me up for the Marie Antoinette Award: Real Blogs, Real People...


I'm supposed to nominate people for each of these awards, so I'll do so here, and you all can pick which (or both) of the awards you'd like to have:

1) Wanna Be Skinny at Slow, Deep Breaths who is having a bit of a frustrating spell at the moment and can use all your love and encouragement!

2) All Vegged Out, who always has the nicest pictures of food, and is a friendly sort! I adore her, and you should, too...

3) Thinking Thin, Too, who is a snarky, no-nonsense sort of blogger with more attitude than Carters has little pills.

4) DietBook, who is my evil twin. Or I'm her evil twin. No, I'm definitely her evil twin. I'm pretty sure.

5) Trapped, who is taking a hiatus, but I'd really like her to come back.

And, everyone else that I would put up for awards either has them already, or doesn't know I exist, so I'm not going to bother them by putting them up for awardie things.

Answering a question from the inestimable Carla from MizFit...

"Im so curious how you stuck to the fifteen minute wait before you even were allowed :) to consider a second serving." she says in a comment on my entry A Core By Any Other Name.

I have some strange advantages. I say strange because generally speaking, I don't consider them advantages. I don't have a dining room table. When Thomas and I moved here, we went from a 3-bedroom, 2 bath, 1,500 square foot, eat in kitchen apartment to a squishy little 2 bedroom, 1 bath, dining room/living room combo with a closet-sized galley kitchen. (It's not quite as small as the 2 roomer I had back in college, where you had to leave the kitchen to change your mind, but really, it's quite smidgy and I hate it.) Given that we're both serious geeks, we each have our own computers and wanted to set them up somewhere. So, we had a choice: Dining room or computers.

It's hardly surprising to anyone that we chose to set up the computers and give the dining room table and chairs to Goodwill.

This is a serious disadvantage, as I will never, ever be able to actually "entertain." I've had friends over who don't mind eating on the sofa, but I can't throw a fancy dinner party or anything... also, it means we don't "eat together as a family," which I'm told is crucial to a healthy family life. (I can sort of agree with this, as me and my parents never ate together as a family either; my mom was always on some starvation diet of some sort, my dad ate in front of the tv, and I ate alone in the kitchen, and my family's not quite as dysfunctional as they come, but it's close...) However, as the fam and I go for long walks 4 times a week, I think we're getting in our quality time. Does it matter if we're talking over dinner or talking while getting exercise? No, I don't think so.

It's also a disadvantage because I am the world's sloppiest eater. Which means my keyboard is in the sort of state that makes strong men a little green around the gills, and the less you think about it, the happier you'll be.

But it is decidedly an advantage when it comes to the 15 minute rule.

I'm not sitting awkwardly at the table, watching other people eat. I'm not looking at the leftovers; they're in the kitchen. And I have my lovely distraction right there in front of me in the form of Warcraft, or blogs, or chatting on Irc, or Twitter, or whatever it is that I'm doing...

Also, I have a clock right there on my computer for those times when I really am actually in dire need of having a second helping, I can keep an eye on the time.

I've found fifteen minutes is a pretty good amount of time; my brain recognizes whether or not I'm full/satisfied... which is to say, if I spend the last 5 minutes of my 15 watching the clock, yeah, I'm probably still hungry, and if I've moved on to concentrating fiercely on keeping Moriar up during the Patchwork fight, I'm really not. Some people may need more time for their brains to kick in... the brain being a bit slow that way, and not really getting the signals. I guess it's more important to prioritize things like cuts and scrapes, so it can be forgiven for being a bit slow about a full stomach, or the emotional trauma of being forced to listen to Steely Dan for the 8th time this week... I mean, when you catch yourself singing along to "Bad Sneakers" and thinking, maybe this song isn't that bad...

Anyway, thanks for asking. If there's anything YOU want to know about your benificent caterpillar (who is working on becoming a beautiful butterfly!) feel free to post a comment, and I'll be sure to answer you...

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

damn. I love it and am all kinds of honored you took the time.
Dont tell my husband but we're about to start implementing that up in herre too.
in 2009.

Marisa @Loser for Life said...

Awesome rule! I will have to try that when I want to have my second serving of tray of brownies ;)

Becky Fyfe said...

We had to make the same choice with our dining room too! We had my computer, my husband's computer and a computer that the kids share. We managed to keep a fold-away table for the kids to eat together at, but even that doesn't happen anymore as we have now added our elliptical trainer to the dining room and have absolutely no room for anything but the computers and the exercise machine now.

I miss being able to entertain though. *sigh*

Natalia said...

What a great idea! I find myself on the computer a lot too! :)

Anonymous said...

linked this.

didnt ask :)

hope that is ok? if not email me and let me know---ILL YANK!

Hanlie said...

We always start watching our movie of the evening after I've dished up, so we eat in front of the TV! And after the first serving, we normally wait a while before having more. Often we decide to have some fruit instead.

Anonymous said...

I'd rather eat on the couch any day of the week. But with kids, now I have to eat at the table for "family time," which I had and hated as a child.

I like that 15 minute rule. Excellent idea. I'll try it tonight...

Anonymous said...

I have to say I'm honored...can we take turns being the evil twin? :-) And can I give you a "Just Generally Amazingly Freakin' Awesome" award?

I have to agree that I think eating together as a family can be a very good thing, but definitely is not the ONLY way to get that family bonding time in. I can't think of a better, healthier way to do it than family walks or bike rides...and some day I swear we are going to live in a neighborhood with, you know, actual SIDEWALKS so we can do that.

I also love the 15-minute rule and it's one of the things I've been working on incorporating. This rule is the best way I've seen to combat the "eating because it tastes good, not because I'm hungry" problem - which definitely is one of my weakest points.

I hope you and the family have a marvelous New Year...I'll try to check in from Orlando but I'm not sure if the teenager will let me use her laptop or not. :-)

V.

Rebeca said...

Ok... it took me forever to comment on this (even though I read it probably 10 minutes after you posted it)... but THANK YOU!!! I really appreciate your sweet words.

I personally think you are very deserving of these awards because you are quite amazing... even if you don't always think so... I mean look at how far you've come and I imagine that you'll be lightyears ahead come this time next year and I'm excited to share that journey with you!

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