Monday Musings...

Is it possible to know if a rice cake has grown stale? I'm serious! I was pondering that this morning as I opened a new package and was trying to decide how best to store the remaining rice cakes. Do I even need to store them? My family thinks they taste like styrofoam already (I disagree!), but I stood in our pantry for a few moments as I tried to imagine what a stale rice cake would taste like. I'm not really sure. But now I'm kind of curious to leave one sitting on the counter for a few days and see.....:-)

Anyway, happy Monday, everyone! I hope you had a fabulous weekend. I am SO glad that I've begun recording my calories again. Like I've mentioned, weekends are tough for me. I just feel like I deserve to have whatever I want to eat and however much of it I want, because I've worked so hard throughout the week, ya know. But acting on that kind of thinking has been getting me in trouble these past few months, and I'm out to break that cycle. So this weekend, even though I went a little over my normal calorie limit, I kept track and didn't do near the amount of damage! Instead of eating a whole bowl of tortilla chips and salsa while watching the Super Bowl, (which is what I wanted) I counted out 2 servings of mini rice cakes instead. And I realized while eating them, that I wasn't really hungry. I just wanted to eat because everyone else in my family was. Can anyone relate to that? :-)

Oh, the peer pressure of eating is strong! And it works both ways. When we girls go out to lunch or have a snack with our girlfriends, we all eat like birds because we don't want anyone to think that we're (dare I even say it?) PIGS!!!!! We all sit there, thinking the same thing, "Boy, I really want to eat more.", but rarely anyone dares to go for a 2nd helping. However, once one brave soul does, we are all too eager to jump in and follow suit! What was once considered being a pig is now an act of kindness, because we wouldn't want that brave soul to feel uncomfortable by eating alone while everyone else watches and drools. (My apologies is that is too descriptive! I just find the whole situation rather commical. And if you ever have the chance to eat with me, you can rest assured that by God's grace - He's turning me into a brave soul! LOL

It boils down to this - we need to focus our eyes on Jesus and walk in the Spirit and stop caring so much about what other people think. Sometimes, it's okay to eat a second helping. But sometimes, we need to just stop eating because we're already satisfied. This is something that can't be determined by social manners. I can't tell you how many times I've needed to graciously refuse food that has been offered to me, whether it's a cookie from Grandma or a piece of cake at a party. I'm used to it now! But it takes courage to do that. It takes practice. And it takes dying to your reputation and seeking to glorify the Lord through your motives and actions.

Well, how was that for a set of completely unrelated topics? I hope you're Monday musings are a little more organized than mine!