I have a confession to make.
We’ve been in the hotel for almost a month now. It is Residence Inn, and they include breakfast and weekday dinners in your stay. The breakfast buffet is a hug spread, with eggs, bacon, sausage, donuts, Belgian waffles, and other assorted excuses for eating cake first thing in the morning. The dinner is like camp food – made for cheap mass consumption and seemingly without a concern in regards to health or “balanced meals”. It’s usually things like Sloppy Joe’s or hot dogs. One night dinner was a plate of nachos with greasy cheese. Monday was a baked potato bar with potato chips on the side. Not a vegetable to be found at any of these meals.
Despite realizing how unhealthy all of this is, we’ve been eating here for every meal. The kitchen in our tiny suite is so small, and it is covered in random belongings that we lugged over before they pulled out the walls. Plus, it’s just so tempting to just walk over to the lobby instead of trying to cook in this little room with kids at my feet. At lunch, we usually get fast food and take it to a park, because I’m desperate to get out of our room and don’t have the required groceries and food storage accoutrements at my disposal to pack a picnic.
I think you may see where this is heading . . . a few weeks ago I noticed Jafta’s boardshorts no longer fit – the ones I bought right before we came here. Then he started complaining that he couldn’t get his jeans up. I noticed as I was applying his lotion that his legs felt different – more stocky. And somehow all of this wasn’t connecting for me, until we met up with friend we haven’t seen for a while who said it outright “Wow, Jafta has really gained weight!”
HELLO. He really has. It’s crazy. I don’t know why I didn’t think it would happen. I mean, I feed my kids healthy food for a reason, but I guess I didn’t think a month of throwing caution to the wind would have so great an effect. But he has gotten quite chubby, his face looks different, and none of his clothes fit him right now. I’m sure this is also maximized by the fact that he’s had to sit quietly in the hotel room while Karis naps instead of partaking in his usual active outdoor activities. (It’s also maximized by the fact that this kid has no portion control and is extremely enthusiastic about food. He’s been piling it on, taking seconds and thirds, and I’ve been too distracted to notice, apparently).
Anyways, we are hoping our homecoming will be soon, and I am even more motivated to get us back on track with healthy eating. Not because I care that Jafta is a bit chunky, but because I want him to be a healthy kid. He has always been a solid kid, and he has always been tall for his age. But this is not good. I think he is going to be sorely disappointed when his breakfast buffet is replaced with steel cut oats once we get home, but hopefully reuniting with his trampoline will ease the pain of parting with the danishes.
