What Does A Real Housewife Do All Day? ( Million Dollar Listing? )

I wanted to blog this to remind myself of this stage in my life. I have been Googling to find out what affluent housewives do all day and is there no one out there like me? 

Our youngest is now in Kindergarten and I have 4 hours to myself a day. I have been filling it with business on the computer, organizing things in the house (because really who thinks straight when the kids are home and potentially needy at any moment) and entertaining the idea of working out more than I do and getting that perfect bod.

Our weekends are extravagant, indulgent, exhausting, social, engaging, fulfilling and fun but here is what I do all day from Mon-Fri:
Wake up at 5:30-ish am. Sip my coffee and watch "The New Adventures of Old Christine" on DVR or "Will and Grace" if it's on or the news. Husband is getting ready for his day or at the computer so we chat and hug (no that's not code for anything else... and if it was I wouldn't tell you... because a lady doesn't tell... and I can pretend to be a lady with the best of 'em) and talk about our day plans and then I shower and get ready for my day. I wake the kids at 6:50. Then it's a whirlwind of showers, breakfast, making lunch and out the door by 7:30 to drop them off.
8:30 I get home if I haven't popped over to Target or a health food store for groceries. Computer, Facebook (ugh - it's a love-hate thing), Googling things that need answers, the housekeeper does most of the housework and especially that involving chemicals, maybe have Kathy and Hoda on doing a job I would rock, food journal and try to stay under 1600 calories, etc etc and bored by 11am and still don't have to leave the house until 12something.

Then when I pick up the kids it's all about coaching the kids through life, teaching, mommying, helping, dinner making with kids, homework, lessons, activities, hubby gets home, and get the kids to bed. Now I have 1.5 hrs until I pass out at 11pm to fill.

I am soooooo bored. The monotony of it all is devastating. It's all so Stepford perfect. Perfect hubby, perfect straight A, generous, kind, sporty kids, perfect life and I AM so grateful but I need a sense of accomplishment in something I do alone and I need to socialize. I need a job I think... especially next year when the baby is in school all day. I need to get out there and meet other people and socialize but don't know where to start. I need to contribute in way that feels meaningful and bold to me and in something that I get to put a suit or structured sheath dress on and feel pretty doing every day. I can't wait until I figure this puzzle out. The isolation is killing me and Facebook is not reality. My family and extended family apparently need to see me to feel close to me and they're 2500 miles away. I need to get a public hobby. I guess I could start where I always go - the gym.

http://pinkaliciousintentions.blogspot.com - out (drops microphone loudly on the floor, smiles seductively, and exits stage left) #TurnDownForWhat

Food Journal : Dieting : Day 7

Oscar nominations are out. Tiger Mom is all over TV. I am in bed with a cold.

The first week went well. I lost 2 lbs by counting calories and staying vegan-ish, mostly. 1100 was my daily goal but I ended up between 1100-1800 daily. Not bad. 

Then I got a cold AND had a weekend trip so I digressed. It's Tuesday today, day 2 of my restart or day 7 (since I took the weekend off). I stilll have a cold but the good news is I am still excited to do the food journal and count calories while trying to make sure it's nutrient dense. What gets me through is unlimited spearmint gum and Periier. :-)

I have no energy to get done what I need to get done but I guess that's dieting mode. I am isolating myself from being too social while dieting because that just messes up my focus (I tend to insert foot in mouth and that can be emotionally taxing too - lol). Am just focusing on the family and home tasks at hand (like nesting that a pregnant woman does - another time when on just has to focus on themselves).

141lbs = now. 125=goal I think. It depends on how the clothes fit. My goal is a size 4 and a ton of face filler in the naso-labial lines that are sure to make themselves seen when there is less fat on my face... and chemical peels... constant, consistent peels until that hot summer sun hits. Ugh.

I think I need to just take 1 meal off a week and not the entire weekend. One meal where I focus on extra protein or fruits or whatever I slacked on during the week and try hard not to do the chocolate I always want. Saturday nights.  

As soon as my cold feels better I plan on working out more. I did a few 20 lb dumbbell chest presses and push-ups and crunches and dancing/stretching with the lights off. All my favorite ways to work out and if I can't be drunk while dancing then in the dark is good enough. Motivated to do more when the cold is beaten and my perpetual headache is gone and the white cells have done their freaking job. OK - so off we go! Up, up and away! (Insert eye roll here.) :-)

What I eat changes every day and some days I am more vegan than others. I just try to keep it healthy, mostly veggies, and write down my calories... here is what I ate yesterday:

5am : black coffee with stevia : 0 calories

9am : whole wheat crackers with honey (ooops) : 200 calories

12pm: Salad with lettuce base and egg crumbles on top : 400 calories

3pm : Almond butter, coconut milk yogurt, organic chicken nuggets (oops) : 700 calories

7pm : Veggies, soup, and a tangerine : 250 calories

TOTAL: 1550 calories

The Official Start Week (take II) M-F

Monday: Inspired by an interview by Danielle Stein of Gary Taubes in the February edition of Town & Country magazine I have decided to throw all caution, anti-oxidants and intuition to the wind and do it Atkins style! Decided to start this 20lb loss with lo-carb Atkins the first week. Stocked up on eggs, spinach, almonds, a chocolate Atkins bar pack for the weak moment that is sure to happen, teas, and gum and we are a go! Will update Friday. The goal after that is to add back in other veggies, fruit, whole grain, lentil and count 1100-1600 daily. Am starting lo-carb to better deal with hunger and to get rid of extra salt/sugar/water weight and for water loss and added motivation. Adieu. :-) XO

Tuesday: You know what's really good when you're freezing in induction phase I in the winter on Atkins? A 12 oz mug with water, a bouillon cube, and an egg stirred in... egg drop soup (1-2 carbs and 100 calories). Yum! :-)

Fri : Stomach flu
Sat: Off Atkins and on the BRAT diet for sicky tummies (bananas, rice, applesauce, toast) - lost 3 lbs. Down 6 from last week total.
We will see what happens when I feel beter.

Atkins is effective at hunger control and a great thing to do to kick start a diet. I am a vegan at heart so it's mentally taxing and gross for me. So I am glad to have lasted a week and looked amazing today - the key to feeling better is to just straighten my hair, watch a Joan Rivers documentary and lose a few lbs apparently. We shall see what Tuesday brings. :-)

Misery... does not love company.

It's Sunday. I am very excited to start fresh tomorrow and put a plan into place and execute it. This plan includes laundry because I'm already freezing and eating less is going to throw me into hypothermia.
Miserable... miserable... out of control miserable. Too many external eating cues, too much nonsense. I don't even think I made horrible choices.... but there were just too many social opportunities and although I chose well and tried my best not to pig out... all those opportunities add up. Anyway, feeling huge and gross and there is still cupcake mix in the house before the home is purged of all temptation. That excites me.... after the sugar is once again gone it's so much easier (No worries, there is still kid food in the house for the wee ones - organic sweet potato fries, organic no hormone chicken nuggets, health food store kid cereal, etc.... and gawd bless them they actually love my lentil soup with sweet potato, brown rice and Chinese 5-spice, and Pumpkin Spice on top of all the Indian spice, steamed broccoli with soy sauce, and onions with peas and mushrooms etc.).

SO yes I feel awful and am tempted to write about it to remind myself how awful it is to feel awful when out of control and plan-less but it's almost too awful to confess. To let food and addiction to food control how I feel about myself seems stupid, not what a smarty like me should get wound up about. It's painful feeling like a loser. So I am focusing on the plan and tomorrow and the positive. (Insert smile here.) Like Scarlett in "Gone With the Wind" I say tomorrow is another day. Adieu. XO

UPDATE: 1pm that same day: "I'm drunk, and right now I'm so in love with you..." (NIN). I had 2 glasses of Italian Pinot Grigio after doing Jamie King's "Rock Your Body" DVD in which I truly did rock. Honestly, I don't really drink and 2 is plenty, thank you. So am doing bread and time until I can feel presentable. The kids are playing Wii, Xbox and are on their bikes... and their mother is drunk and typing in the pantry. I confess and cop to this and tell you this because I think "pathetic" in an otherwise perfect life is so much more interesting than "perfect" all the time. That must be why the Desperate Housewives of Bravo are so popular. (Did I mention I was offered the Real Housewives of New York thing but honestly don't know what that would do to my stress level or my kids?) I think that must be why the infamous Snooky is so popular. I caught the show for 5 minutes and was more disgusted with myself because I couldn't see anything outlandish - I mean, I would do that if I just let all my respect for my parent's values go - which frankly is too easy... especially when anonymous. Everyone has sex, why not on TV? Oh gawd.... have grossed myself out. Note to self: do not update the blog when tipsy. Adieu. XO

Day 1: 1/7/2011 the anti-inflammation begins...

Am determined to chronicle this online. It gets to feel LIVE for me and no one's watching anyway, right? :-)
I grew up a non-drinking, vegetarian (that's hard as a carb-addict who can't stop eating after she has 7 bites of something). I married an omnivore so I tried some chicken and a few other things when I had some wine and felt daring. I have dabbled in Vegan for two years (supplemented by B12 and Calcium and some other things I can't remember).
Now I consider myself "Mostly Vegan". A clean eater with a smidge of dairy about once a week (mostly to remind myself what it tastes like and to come home and make an identical tasting thing vegan), and a smattering of egg or chicken about 2-3 times a week.





10am: the housekeeper is here today so along with my 5am black, Mount Hagen organic coffee with Stevia I have had a decaf green tea by Celestial Seasonings, an Aveda The Tea, and a black Nutcracker Ballet tea. I try my best to stay out of her way because frankly the more laundry she does, the less chemicals I have to come in contacts with and apparently I am high risk for everything so it would affect me more than her anyway (wait until I mention the full body hives I have been having four times a day that should be enough to send me back on my anti-inflammation diet... oy vey).



I am trying to make this a "down" day on the Alternative Day diet where I eat 500 calories one day and a healthy albeit unrestricted one on the next day.The eating will happen no doubt when the kiddies get home from school and homework becomes an issue - I swear I am a better and more patient and perfect mom every single day. It's so nice when they're not 5 anymore and you can talk to them like people. I am not good with secrets within my immediate family and having to hide most of the world from young minds because they're not ready to receive the information was annoying and difficult when they were younger. To be untruthful to the people I love the most felt uncouth, gauche, unreal... there should be no secrets within immediate family. Everything can be dealt with, we are all human. I want to keep that going so the teen years a-coming are not horrible (fingers crossed). But I digress again...

Stats: am battling my last 20 to take off. Am a whopping 143 (which at 5'4" isn't even clinically obese I think but I am determined not to be a size 10 anymore and not have to wear painful spanx or torturous girdles or three pair of control tummy Beyonce nylons (How perfect and numb to the pain of her heels does she look in her performances?) just so my hips don't stick out and I get a nice silhouette). I am determined to feel GORGEOUS and sexy again before I hit mid-life. I am determined to be able to throw on an outfit and and have it just look good. I am determined to  take all that energy and confidence and happiness that I am sure to feel and spread it around. I am determined to stay or get back to being an intellectual girl. I am determined to have an amazing, sexy photoshoot this year.

I am determined.

I am sure to have some steamed veggies and protein today and something sinister at lunch when the kids are around. What lurks around the corner for my tummy I will tell you the next time I log in.
Happy noshing! All my love and strength my loves. XOXX

UPDATE: 2 hrs later. The little one is home. Have had a salad sans dressing (ok a little Lemon Poppy dressing) and organic crackers with blue frosting. Yes there is still junk from the holidays kicking around the house and yes it will be destroyed, eaten, gotten rid of when my husband comes home and I beg him to throw out perfectly good, unopened cans of sweet gingerbread house decoration and other junk because I just can't and he, being the most perfect person in the world (yes I do blush when I talk about him and we've been married 15 yrs... eww too sickeningly sweet I know) who wants to help me, will. So there's that. Dinner will be better... veggies and protein.

Hmmmm, maybe this should just be a Twitter food journal so I don't have to log in every 3 hrs and cry into my food from a lack of followers a la Liz Lemon... hmmmm...

http://pinkaliciousintentions.blogspot.com - out (drops microphone loudly on the floor, smiles seductively, and exits stage left) #TurnDownForWhat

CR Diet: my new "thang"...

Taken by Lola of VeganYumYum

I have a confession to make, yet again, I am a foodie. I am an emotional eater. The only time I feel good is when I get a grip on my diet. The only time I feel good is when I have had around 1100 calories a day.
I have struggled with the same 10-20 lbs my ENTIRE life. I am that yo-yo dieter that one should never be. I obsess about eating or not eating or food or not food until it becomes too much. If food were a pill I could take my life would be sooo much easier.

There! I said it. I confess!

We all know that food can't be as simple as a pill, I know that food is a drug. I know that all the external and emotional cues are my downfall when I am uncentered. I know I need to manage my stress but still stay based in reality. I know that life is not Disneyland... and I know that I actually love a challenge and don't really like Disneyland that much anyway... on a  clear day. :-)

IT IS 2011!
I am reading Madame Bovary for the first time (and I am not usually a fiction reader except for the classics but a recent article in Elle magazine peaked my interest for this book) and it turns out it's a free Kindle download. Fun! :-)

I am reading "The Alternative Day Diet" which kind of makes me feel fun, funky, alternative... a little bit of flaky/svelte Just Jack combined with Ellen (when I dress like her I feel most ME anyway - it's Donna Karan circa 1995)... and it's a version of Caloric Restriction.

That's my current back story.

NOW: What is CRON?
To me it is a way of eating that frees me from all the rules I grew up with. I do not have to finish my daal (lentils), I do not have to eat at a prescribed time, I do not have to follow external cues of commercials or react to the mention of food. I may not have the prettiest face when I am done dieting but I am FREE to do what I want.... to dangle on the edge of anorexia without a clinical diagnosis.
Food is a drug and I love the idea of taking a drug (am a bit stuck in the idea of being a cool hippy-chick despite being a smart health freak who would never smoke or do anything resembling inappropriate... on purpose... despite my thrill seeking, firey personality... if I just redefine my idea of THRILL then anything can be a thrill! How Stepford! I know... trust me... I know what you are thinking. I know how critical the reader is. I don't care. You can't care if you are going to attempt to put your truth out there.)
It's like all the dieting books say: If you take out all the sugar and minimize salt then you can taste real food, taste what life and a carrot is supposed to taste like! The problem is I am afraid of success sometimes (no matter how well I try to set myself up to succeed) and truly have come to enjoy the feeling of being uncomfortably numb and desensitized.

But I digress... refocus... reboot... Calorie Restriction.... the bubble of Calorie Restriction.
It means you eat all the freaking veggies you want within a certain time period and some protein and wee bit of whole grain to get your cells to throw out all the inflammation, all the extra lymph you don't need, all the extra BS that is slowly poisoning your mind/body. SLEEK UP!
Difficult? Yes. Impossible? Maybe.