How Times Have Changed...

I set out today for my daily dose of "exercise," which lately has become no more than a brisk walk carefully planned around potty stops at least every 10 minutes. I am proud to say that I did keep jogging or doing the elliptical machine at the gym until I was 33 weeks pregnant, but this past week it has become time to cut it down to a walk. A combination of discomfort, mild contractions, and the stares of onlookers prompted the change. Anyway, today's walk was a little different. For one, I was with my friend Hyrum, the cute four-month-old baby for whom I sometimes care during the day. (He tried out our new stroller and loved it!) The other difference was that I had been walking for about half an hour when I felt my blood sugar suddenly plummet; it was past noon and I had forgotten to eat anything since my bowl of cereal this morning. Having experienced the less-than-pleasant effects of intense hunger many times before, and desiring that my unborn child NOT experience the same, I decided that something had to be done. I thought about purchasing a package of crackers or something from the nearby gas station, when I spotted a familiar red shack up ahead. J-Dawgs! Now, I am not a typical hot dog eater. Nor am I a typical spender of over 99 cents on fast food. However, a J-Dawg is NOT a typical hot dog, and today I felt like I deserved something special. (For those of you unfamiliar with Provo, J-Dawgs is a hot dog stand at the southeast corner of campus that opened up a couple of years ago and serves the most amazing Polish dogs with a special sauce that can impress even a hot dog hater like myself.) So, Hyrum and I got in line and got our J-Dawg. He watched while I consumed, and we were on our way. 20 minutes later, I rushed into the Creamery on 9th for yet another emergency potty break, and the smell of waffle cones wouldn't let me leave without purchasing a small peanut butter trails ice cream cone. After resolving to work an extra hour this week to make up for my careless spending spree, I began pondering my calorie (im)balance during today's hour of "exercise." Normally, the purpose of exercise is to burn calories, which I did during my walk, probably about 300 of them. Now, J-Dawgs doesn't advertise the nutritional information of its products, but I would venture to guess that my Polish dog plus bun and sauce weighed in at about 600 calories. And I wouldn't be surprised if my ice cream added another 400 on top of that. Welp, simple math shows that my outing today earned me a grand total of 700 calories!!
8 months ago, I would have been horrified at my behavior, resolving to eat only fruit and cereal for the next 24 hours. But today, I felt proud. My, how times have changed...

Watch out... this could me be on my next walk!!