The Stress Diet: Not Recommended

Picture this:  a beautiful, sunny and warm Saturday afternoon, and your only child’s first birthday.  You have 70 people coming to your subdivision’s clubhouse for his birthday party.  Both sides of the family, friends you haven’t seen in ages, and even a few co-workers.  And everything that could go wrong, does go wrong:   you don’t set up as soon as you should have and the pop and juice are warm, you run out of meatballs and forks, the balloons are forgotten, the piñata is overfilled with candy and refuses to break open, you lose the key to the clubhouse and a co-worker gets locked in the bathroom.  You lost the key, so the only way for her to get out is by a family member’s crafty credit card skills.  You neglected to label the coolers, so guests must dig for ice cold bottles of water that are few and far between under all the cans of beer.  On the hottest day of the year, the extra cases of water are hidden under the bar and warm.  Very warm.  You are in a scattered state of mind trying to find lost key, talk to 70 people, take care of the birthday boy and you forget to film the special occasion.  You also forget to eat…that day and the following week.  True story.

I have a confession to make:  I had not been taking care of myself.  I have yet to forgive myself for this party disaster and have had that horrible, sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach.  Most moms that I talk to say that they eat more when they are stressed out or upset.  Not me, I was too consumed by my mistakes.  It’s been a struggle to force myself to eat to avoid feeling dizzy and faint.  Sure, I want to lose more weight.  But this is not the way to do it.  This was not part of any diet plan of mine, I can assure you.  The problem was my own state-of-mind.  Did I have perfectmomitis?  Please take care of yourselves and eat a healthy diet.  We can’t let our own thoughts in our minds stress us out and make us sick.    

After digging through garbage bags full of dirty diapers, chicken bones, and half eaten pieces of cake, I found the clubhouse key.   Things are starting to look up, and so is my health. 

Michelle Kane, author of CONFESSIONS OF A CATHOLIC SCHOOLGIRL

www.myspace.com/readmichellekane