Oh how I am grateful that I have survived this weekend.
As a quick recap, it all began with a minute, yet completely inconvenient boo boo: we left the diaper bag somewhere between Bob Evans and Wendy's. Not sure which state we were in, but we stopped, for the fiftieth time, for Hannah to go potty, at a McDonald's. Now normally, Herrick would gladly get a sweet tea, but, alas, he decided to go against the norm. We moved Hannah's seat to right behind Herrick so she could watch her movie in comfort (as opposed to leaning over Maddie's seat), and viola! The orphaned diaper bag was left sitting in the same spot it was placed - right by the tire. And we didn't even have a receipt for a sweet tea that could lead us back to the same place on the way back to pick it up.
Hello, $130 replenishment fund.
We got to see lots of family the next day, and that was so great! We haven't seen his side of the family in about 4 years, and it was about time we made it up there. I've never seen Cincinnati! And that is still true...
...Because it ends up that I stayed back on Sunday after discovering that Madelyn had a fever that wouldn't break with Tylenol OR Motrin. By the time Herrick returned with Hannah, went out and got dinner, and came back to the room, it was 8:30PM, and Madelyn was a hot 105 degrees. (We think a little cooler than that, but after that reading, we weren't playing!) Off to the nearest urgent care facility we go!
Now, what could be more perfect than a UC visit, than one with some interesting folk? Enter the "Dualy Couple". A special blonde and her maybe boyfriend enter the room, he's got a cut-off shirt with a mega tear in the back and an ace bandage around his wrist and hand. He starts to complain about the pain (now, who saw that coming?), and about how he went to the ER a week and a half ago, got x-rayed, and sent home with meds, but he hasn't slept in 4 days, because of the pain. Apparently, he ran out of meds. Wait, scratch that, he decided to change his story - they ran over it. Complete with the description of the "dualy truck" that ran it over. Refusal of service in 5, 4, 3...you get the picture.
Then there's the 16 year old sitting next to me complaining that she can't even sit it hurts so bad.
Hmm. I'm dying to find out if what I'm thinking is correct.
Luckily, while waiting in an actual room, I got to hear it through the wall: honey, we're pregnant. You got it.
Man oh man. It turns out Madelyn broke her fever at the office, but she's got a nasty little ear infection. Thanks "Jack that LOVES pickles" (Hannah's description of her friend)!!! We really appreciate that snot you sneezed on Hannah last week!
$145 goes to Dr. Johnston and his clan...
Oh wait, I almost forgot! While paying for that ordeal, I get a phone call from Herrick. He's out in the car with Hannah and he yells into the phone, "We've got to get out of here! I just pulled a tack out of the side wall of my tire! If we don't leave now, we'll be stranded here!"
After a morning (saved by his sister) of searching for an open tire place that actually carries Herrick's of course rare tire, we found one and got out of the hotel 15 minutes before the late checkout time of 1PM.
$165 for a replacement tire.
After nearly $500 in emergency costs, I'm home and ready to forget the weekend's stress.
There's one thing I did learn this weekend, and that was a great moment of clarity for me. I chowed this weekend. A ton. On lots of good food. It was after a Montgomery Inn entree of two pork chops, onion straws (OMG), a sweet potato, and some Saratoga Chips, I mentally looked back on my intake. I didn't feel guilty. I was stuffed to the max, though.
And it hit me.
I mentally mushed all of that chewed up food into a ball. I pictured it sitting in my stomach, making me bulge outward, and realized something:
Even though I can fully, without guilt, enjoy a enormous plate of amazing food, I know the reason I gain weight. I know it's obvious, but I actually pictured it.
The human stomach, on a normal basis, is about 10 inches long and holds about 50mL of food. That's about 1.65 ozs. of food when it's empty. The normal expansion (to the "full" feeling) is to 1L, which is about 33 ozs. of food. Now, imagine how much food it takes to fill a normally expanded stomach! The average serving size of lean mean is between 4-5 ozs. I was full when I left the restaurant, which means I probably ate a good 33 oz. of food. That is not normal. That is why I'm overweight.
I just pictured what that amount of food looked like in my stomach, and thought, "No wonder."
Having this hallelujah moment helped me in so many ways. I've always known that being "full" wasn't good. That eating that much food, even if it's healthy food, isn't good. It's calorie intake that determines weight gain and loss, of course along with activity levels, but thinking about how many times I've been full in my life really opened my eyes. I was eating well over 33 ozs. of food at each meal, and that was the reason why I'm where I'm at right now.
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