About Rebecca Eckler
Since becoming pregnant with her daughter Rowan, Canadian journalist and author Rebecca Eckler has penned three hilarious books, including the best-selling Knocked Up. Catch Rebecca’s weekly unique perspective on motherhood and single parenthood.
Just Say No
eckler plus one canada
(Nov.19.09)
I don’t know about the rest of you women out there, but I seem to start gaining weight right when summer ends. As soon as the weather turns, I get sad and lazy and I order a lot more take out. I start wearing baggy, warm clothes. No one can see my shape underneath anyway, and quite frankly (because of elastic waistbands) I don’t notice that I’ve gained weight until I actually have to wear something nice.
Now, I know it is probably wrong to blame innocent children for the fact I’ve gained almost ten pounds since September, but the fact is, I do blame innocent children. Let me explain: It’s just my bad luck that most of the children in my daughter’s class, including my own daughter, seem to have been born in September to December.
(Not that I like to think about it, but that does mean a lot of people are having unprotected sex January through April. I get it. What else is there to do at home when there are snowstorms?)
In any case, I just can’t say “NO!”
To cake, that is. I can’t say no to anyone at any birthday party who offers me a slice of cake.
Last weekend, I kid you not, we had three birthday parties to attend. Since I liked all the parents hosting these parties for their children, I stayed to mingle. Which means I stayed to watch the singing of “Happy Birthday.”
Which means, last weekend, I had three pieces of birthday cake.The weekend prior, I had two pieces of birthday cake. In fact, since mid-September, I’ve had at least two pieces of cake each weekend. (There are 17 children in my daughter’s class, along with my other friends who have children.)
Where’s your will power, you may ask. Well, it turns out, I can quit smoking, I can make deadlines, I can leave a party early, but, for the life of me, I don’t have will power to say no to birthday cake.
Even the overly-sugar cheap cakes I’ve grown to like. Yes, I always feel like throwing up after I eat a slice, but does that stop me from accepting a piece the following weekend?
Just ask my butt, which, if it could speak, will tell you, “Uh, obviously not!”
I can’t wait for the New Year. Not because I’ll be making a resolution to work out and eat healthier (as I have every year for the past decade), but because there will be no more birthday parties! Which means no more cake! I just don’t have the will power. Do you?
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