Numbers Game

Our boys are obsessed with numbers. 

Digital clocks, digital thermostats and phones don't stand a chance against their number hungry brains. 

They've taken their ability to read numbers competition to nutrition labels, too. 

"How much is your cereal?" one child will shout. 
"150!" gloats another child. 
"Oh, man, that's a LOT....yesssssss!" brags another. 

They go from cereal box labels, to bread, to granola bars, to gold fish packets to salad dressing. Each boy boasting the caloric contents to their brother and, of course, the higher the number the better. 

"Mom, what is a calorie anyways?" asked one of the boys. 

"Well, it's a measure that tells you how much energy a particular serving of food will give you. If you eat something with not very many calories and you're really hungry, you're probably going to be hungry again pretty quickly" I explained. 

"Oh, that's weird" he proclaimed as he ran off to build another tower in the living room. 

The numbers game had lost its luster after a few days. And then out of the blue one of my son's shouts "Mom! DO NOT eat that!" as I sat down at the table to join in his afternoon snack. 

"Why, is it moldy?" I asked. 

"No, that's only going to give you TWENTY, so do NOT eat that. It's not enough". I couldn't help but laugh as I picked up the offender.....salsa. Got it, buddy. Note to self, salsa is NOT enough. 

This got me thinking about how often I used to try eating the things with the lowest numbers. I'd compare labels and always choose the lowest score and never the highest caloric items. Those were off limits. 

It's good to be in a place where I don't even think about numbers anymore. I never thought that would be possible. I didn't even flinch when my boy's starting spouting off numbers like an auctioneer. I wasn't even tempted to start monitoring my intake again.

This week I hope you can let go of any numbers you're still clinging to. It's a no-win game over time because the less you eat today, the more you'll eat later. Your body always wins. See if you can get obsessed about other numbers that really matter like hours of sleep, friends you can count on in an emergency and hugs you've given. If you need help not giving a bomb cyclone's (we survived!) worth of energy on calorie counting, I can help you.