Top of the Muffin, to ya! Week 7

With Harper, I used pregnancy as an excuse to go buck wild and eat anything I wanted - especially after losing a significant amount of weight in the first trimester due to blindingly severe morning all-the-time sickness.

Immediately after Harper, all of our nurses complimented me on my flat stomach - umm.. really? Best you've ever seen, huh? Why yes, I believe I will have that fried chicken from the cafeteria. and that dinner roll. and that carton of chocolate milk.

A couple days later, I sashayed stumbled, wobbled, and weakly limped my way out of the hospital, clutching tightly to Brandon and trying not to faint from prolonged uprightness. All I could think about was getting to the car, but paused briefly to notice that the pants I wore in (that they told me would still fit when I left) were but a millimeter from pants-on-the-ground inspiration.

In the weeks that followed, I'd occasionally stumble out into the light, glance at a mirror and see a puffy, mascara-less, tired face and hair with barf in it. I'd shudder if I had the energy, then hear the echo of sweet people saying, "It took 9 months to grow her.  It'll take 9 months for you to get back to where you were."

I'd wrap those words around me like a warm, soft, barf-less blanket and go change another explosive diaper.

Obviously, I took that blanket to a whole nother level and I'm still sleeping under it every night.

..Because here I am, 20 months later, and I'm doing things I would absolutely never, ever do before I was pregnant.  I think all you need to do is look into our fridge.  College Courtney would slap me in the face if she saw it.  Take a peep at this den of iniquity:

On a positive note, I have two product raves this week:

1. Veggie Max patty from Subway. I ain't skurd of the meat substitutes, so I have no idea why I haven't tried it before. Tons of flavor, almost tastes a little like chicken, but mostly veggies so that it's not completely creepy. 70 calories. Love it.

2. Brandon & I have a love for Japanese hibachi food and two nights this week, I sauteed zucchini, yellow squash and onions and cooked whole grain brown rice.  No egg in the rice, no butter..period, just sprayed a little olive oil in the veggie pan so they wouldn't stick.

Then, and this is the most critical part, I drove to Benihana and bought a pint of the brown ginger sauce and a pint of the mustard sauce (only $4.50 each).

Amazing, amazing dinner.  No shrimp tails in the hair, which I'd be lying if I said I didn't miss.

This week, I reset and find an old normal.

Down 1/2 lb. Darn you, salt bombs!