I love granolas!

I wanted to post on here my thoughts about my not being a "granola", but I decided I better first look up what the official definition of a "granola" is. My search led me to a site www.urbandictionary.com, and it cracked me up. Definitely I will have to check out this site more so I can add some hip new words to my vocabulary. Unfortunately a granola only kind of means what I thought. My definition: Someone who eats really healthy and bears children without medication. Most of my friends are granolas, so I hope I am not offending them as I write this post, but they must obviously know that I am not a granola (nor am I anti-granola in any way!). I wish I had a little more granola in me.

One of the major ways I know that I am not a granola is that we eat sugar cereal for breakfast, every morning, no exceptions. Blaine's mom has often mentioned that her biggest regret was not feeding her family hot cereals every morning. How would that be to be your biggest regret? Even though he may not have had hot cereal every morning, he most certainly did not have a lot of sugar cereal. When we were first married and took a trip to the grocery store he shyly asked me if we could buy some Cookie Crisp. "Uh yeah!" was my response. He then told me that growing up his mom would say, "we don't eat cookies for breakfast!". I held back telling him that sometimes at our house we would actually eat real, home-made, chocolate chip cookies for breakfast! Then later in life we did weight watchers and found that most of the sugar cereals were fewer points than the granola cereals (calling them "sugar cereals" is even funny to me because that distinction didn't enter my mind until after I married Blaine either). So bring on the Smore's, Fruity Pebbles, Captain Crunch and Cookie Crisp!

The other way I know I am not a granola is that I want an epidural the instant I am able to get one at the hospital. I would take one now if possible. I totally respect anyone who gives childbirth without medication, that is totally awesome and I am proud of them. I just don't even want to try, you know? Zero desire to go down that path. My biggest fear is that my labor will come on too fast for me to get an epidural and I will be forced to go the old fashioned route-- ouch! I guess it couldn't hurt to at leat prepare for that type of situation.

So obviously, I am not a granola. I don't buy organic food (though I did try organic cheetos the other day and they were quite tasty). So, I am confused why I am having these weird granola-like feelings about Splenda. When on weight watchers splenda was my best friend, it made everything diet-friendly (ice cream, soda, everything!). As I was consuming a lot of Splenda I looked it up one day on the internet. I got onto some Splenda conspiracy websites and totally got sucked in. Now I have the perdicament that I think Splenda is going to be the demise of all society, or at the very least it is going to give us all cancer. The thing is is that Splenda is in everything. Seriously, everything. And if not Splenda then Aspartame or some other sugar substitute.

So I find myself in the granola isles at the store looking for stuff with no artificial sweeteners, which is WAY more expensive (both in money and calories). But wouldn't you rather die old and fat, than young and skinny? Me too. I think the granolas have a good thing going. I think they are on the right track as far as food goes (I am sticking with epidurals though), I just wish I could be more dedicated to that type of lifestyle. One battle at a time, right? I am taking baby steps, for now it is Splenda-free products and the occasional consumption of hummus, but who knows, maybe in a couple of years I will make the dream of only eating hot cereal a reality in our family. The possibilities are endless.