Lately, Moses and I have been watching Man v. Food on Netflix. For me, I indulge in it probably because I'm pregnant and just about every food they feature on the show looks absolutely delectable (like the bacon cheeseburger served on a Krispy Kreme donut). Moses gets really excited about the host's food challenge at the end of the show. I don't really like the premise of the show, especially the gargantuan food challenges, because I feel they promote gluttony, over-indulgence, and unhealthy binge eating.
When I was a teenager, I could totally pack in the food and my dad called me "the girl with the hollow leg." When I was pregnant with Akiko, I had four piled plates of Thanksgiving feast and one slice of each of the four pies, because they all looked so good. Akiko had the hiccups for three or four days straight afterwards. I totally could have done, and perhaps succeeded, some of the food challenges on the show five or more years ago.
These days, I'm a lot more conscious about my portions, or at least I'm trying to be. As I get older, I find myself not able to eat as much and I can tell my metabolism is slowing down. I'm not exercising as much as I did when I was a teenager, when I had several hours of dance class per week plus cheer, and in my early twenties, where I was taking at least one phys. ed. class per semester.
Nowadays, I'm too busy trying to manage a household and taking care of three kids, while I'm growing a fourth. I'm in the worst physical shape I've ever been in and it bugs me (I'd be considered "skinny-fat"), so I'm gradually making changes in my lifestyle, not only for myself, but for my family. Eating better with appropriate portions is one of them.
That's why Man v. Food is my guilty pleasure viewing. The food often looks so good, but at the same time, I'm disgusted by it.
Like I said before, Moses is really into the food challenges at the end. I'm not sure how or if the portion sizes are affecting how he views food, but I'm fairly certain that he's mostly into the game aspect of it, like he is with almost anything else.
Yesterday, I heated up some leftovers for lunch, a pork chop that I split between us, and some rice. Moses felt the need to turn lunch into a race between us. I won by finishing my plate of food first, but he won when he finished his water before I did. It was a tie. Anyway, the really cute part of this story is when Moses, who was done eating, but still had food on his plate, declared, "Mom, in this challenge, food won." (If you've never seen the show, at the end, the host always says, "In the epic battle of Man v. Food, man/food won.")
I laughed. At the same time though, I was so happy and proud that he knew when it was time to stop eating because he was full and didn't feel obligated to finish the food on his plate. Every time we go for a check up at our pediatrician and the subject of the dietary needs of my kids comes up, she says to me, "You decide what and when. They decide how much." I agree.
Anyway, I've decided to stop watching Man v. Food, at least while Moses is around. I don't want him to think that he has to eat everything in sight. He'll take care of that in about ten years anyway, when the diaper budget stops and starts going toward an inflated grocery budget. And, no, I'm not planning on changing diapers for the next ten years, but I do know there are at least four more years of it to look forward to for now.
In other news: I officially start the third trimester today. 26 weeks down, 14 weeks to go. I hope they go by quickly, but that I can get everything done that I need to in the next three short months.
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