The Baker

The biggest problem with not eating sugar is that most of the things we ate for breakfast had sugar in them.  We have been eating eggs, but you can only do that so many times.  My kids voted for pancakes this morning.  They only have 3 Tbsp of sugar in them.  B.D. and I considered our options for a few minutes.  B.D. decided he should make the pancake batter without sugar and make me 2 pancakes.  Then he would add the sugar for everyone else.  My pancakes tasted more like biscuits, but they were still good.  B.D. tried them and said he liked them.  He teased me that I just couldn't handle reporting on my blog that I ate a little bit of sugar.  BTW, kids ate them with no syrup, just plain or with butter.  And we ate one box of our precious strawberries.  Bumbles even tried one.

Super Jack, B.D., Sweets

I have to confess that I'm hoping that by not eating sugar I will get rid of my "cookie pouch" as we call it.  Yes that is that pouch of fat that I carry around in front of me that causes Super Jack to ask me if I'm having another baby.  I've also been reading "The Healthiest Kid in the Neighborhood" by William Sears (he is one of my favorite.  Dr. Sears says that in his pediatric practice they pay more attention to your waist measurement than the scale.  So this morning I measured my waist (my least favorite activity) and it was 36 6/8".  We will just see if it gets smaller.  I had Sweets take some before pictures of me.  She made many attempts, but for a almost 7-year-old photography can be tricky.

Waist 36 6/8" - Weight 159 lbs

You need to know that thrice I have used Weight Watchers after having a baby and I lost weight very quickly.  Of course, there is no Weight Watchers in Albania.  I have thought about doing it online, but I've decided to do this experiment and see what happens.  I am not just not eating sugar.  I'm trying to also eat my 5 fruits and veggies a day and drink lots of water.  My scale tells me if I'm dehydrated.  I'm always dehydrated even after drinking 2 liters of water.  In addition, when my husband gets back and I have a babysitter I will start exercising.  I guess the only thing different from Weight Watchers is that I won't be calculating what I eat.  We'll see what happens.  I'm excited.

Now that we don't have sugar to entertain ourselves we are always brainstorming about what we can do.  Sweets came up with the idea to go for a walk at the lake.  We decided that when Bumbles woke up we would walk down our hill, get some oranges and go for a walk.  We decided to get oranges because I could feel a headache coming on and my sister told me oranges might help. (they didn't help)

We got to the store and picked 4 very orange oranges.  We had to walk past lots of sugar to get to the counter to pay.  Super Jack asked me, "Mommy, is chocolate candy?"  He wasn't too disappointed when I confirmed that it was.  Then Sweets spied sunflower seeds.  They each got a bag.  I talked Super Jack into pumpkin seeds because he really can't shell the sunflower seeds.  With seeds and oranges in hand we headed for the lake.

Strangely the temperature at the bottom of the hill was much colder than the temperature at the top of the hill where we live.  B.D. didn't have a sweater or jacket (because they were all filthy and in the wash) to wear.  He decided he was too cold and we better head home.  I tempted Sweets and Super Jack with popcorn and a movie.  We headed back home.  We decided to grab a fresh loaf of bread before we ascended "The Hill".

Furre Buke means Bread Oven (The Bread Store)

The baker was happy to see us.  He said we were a real family.  I pointed out that we were a real family without a dad.  He asked where Andi was.  He was surprised to hear he was in America.  He asked me how Bumbles was doing.  Then I thought he asked me what I was growing Bumbles with.  I responded, "Mother's Milk".  There is something really strange about learning a foreign language.  If you wait about 35 seconds you understand better than if you respond right away.  You see, right after I answered "Mother's Milk" my brain told me he had asked me, "What are you warming with?"  I apologized, blushed and told him we have radiators.  I ordered my loaf of bread.  He could see that Super Jack was eyeing his donuts.  He asked if he could give my kids each a donut (for free).  I thanked him, but said no.  He proceeded to reach for the donuts.  I insisted that we did not want them.  He kept looking at Super Jack and telling me that Super Jack really wanted a donut. (they believe that if a kid wants it they should have it)  I agreed that that was true, but that it wasn't allowed.  He tried to hand the donut to Super Jack.  I stood between him and Super Jack and firmly said it wasn't allowed (see what I mean by forcing you to eat sugar). 

He asked me why.  I told him it isn't good for your health.  He listed the ingredients.  I explained that cooking them in oil was the problem (I wasn't ready to give him a lecture about white flour).  He looked confused and explained you had to fry them somehow.  I continued to insist that we wouldn't take them.  He finally just said, "Ok, you know!"  I was going to ask to take a picture of him in his shop, but after those two awkward moments I decided to take a picture of the outside.  I'm not worried though.  He is from the same village as my father-in-law, Kuci, which means we will be fast friends forever.

Then we headed up "The Hill".  Once you see it you'll know why we own SUVs.  This is the road to our house that we travel almost everyday.

Super Jack, Sweets, me and Bumbles (yes he is nursing while I'm hiking up this hill )

Once we got home my neighbor saw me and asked why we were on foot.  I explained we wanted a little exercise.  He said, "You're gonna get skinny." - EXACTLY