Day Five. I Hear the Carbs a Callin...

There is a school of thought that suggests that a protein heavy diet leaves you more sated and less likely to overeat.

I must have failed this school.

Today was my last protein only day I have this week, and as of next week I'll be doing protein only days only once a week.  For some reason I'm starving.  My stomach is grumbling and I'm seriously ravenous.  It's not mental - I'm having a physical reaction.  I'm sucking down water like there's no tomorrow, but nothing is helping.  I almost talked myself into having my cereal early but I thought better of it and finished off my proteins for the day. 

If this is the feeling of my body consuming itself, I guess that's a good thing.  We'll know as of tomorrow morning.  This morning my home scale showed another 2lb loss, registering my weight at 281.5 - which is the lowest my home scale has ever gone.  I'm really excited to see what the scale says tomorrow.

My waking temps again were high, 97.2 today.  I guess there's something to this eating pattern after all.  I even cleaned off my desk today.  I was looking for my voter registration card and I checked my portfolio where I keep all my important records only to discover it wasn't there.  This prompted my cleaning fit.  I cleaned high.  I cleaned low.  But I did not find my voter registration card.  Desperate, I checked the portfolio again and there it was, tucked behind some other papers.  Who says God doesn't have a sense of humor?

Nothing more on the writing front.  And with no vice to calm my nerves.  Color me fun to live with.

I finally reached a consensus with my fourteen year old.  A breakthrough, or a tenuous truce?  You be the judge.

Actually I make it sound much worse than it is.  On the whole he's a good kid.  He doesn't drink, smoke or do drugs.  He's not involved with teen sex or the gang scene.  I'm still one of his major influences.  Our problem areas are his grades, his attitude and his lackidaisical attitude toward household chores.  One of the things we had been working on was his quick temper and his readiness to solve disagreements with other kids with the use of violence.  Here where we live he's been punished for that by being sent to a Reassignment Center - or RAC -rather than the school campus. 

Turns out last week he got intoa squabble with another kid.  The kid supposedly spit on him while he was under the bleachers goosing his friends during gym class.  Apparently words were exchanged, which lead to a pushing match.  Eventually this kid took a swing on my son, hitting him square in the face.  My son lifted his hands to fight back, but says he thought better of it because he knows if he gets assigned to RAC this year he goes straight to "jail" here.  (Everything stripped in his room except for his bed - no toys, no entertainment, no family interaction and chores without pay).  It's our last ditch disciplinary action that we only give if they don't turn in their work and subsequently fail their classes or physical violence. 

So anyway he decided not to swing back and he went to get the coach to fix the problem.  The coach, who didn't see what went on, sent both kids to the principal because he was getting conflicting stories, and both kids got reassigned to RAC.

Problem is, this time it's not just RAC.  My son's middle school just merged this year with another middle school that closed its campus.  It came with the policy that any kids participating in a fight would be cited, have to go before a city court judge and end up either paying a fine or doing community service.

Anyway my kid feels unfairly punished considering he was the one who got hit.  We agreed, took it to the principal and found out that my son has had several problems with other kids lately, and had raised his fists to another boy he had threatened.  The principal gave him a warning the first time, so he came down with RAC this time.

So this lead to a night long fight back and forth - his thinking the world is an incredibly unfair place where he has to <gasp> do his chores and do it without attitude while he's on seriously thin ice for what happened at school. 

I don't know why I fight with him, if I just step back and give him time alone he generally always gets his act together.  It's just the defiance on top of everything else just put me over the edge. 

Anyway he's on garage duty tomorrow to get out of "jail" - it's his "community service" here at the house.  The only break he got tonight was getting to watch the presidential debate, since it was more educational than entertaining.  He was on his best behavior the entire time, and actually listened to what was said.  He even made up his mind whom he would vote for if he could.  And he will be able to vote in the next presidential election.  I can barely say that without hyperventilating.  It's only one year and three months away from his being behind the wheel of a car.  Someone pass me the paper bag, quick.

Oct. 7

Calories:  1404
Carbs: 96 grams
Water: 72oz
Exercise: None

DAILY AFFIRMATION:  Each struggle defines me and who I was, who I am and who I will ultimately become.