THANK GOODNESS!  She's finally asleep.  My inner 5-year old has been running amuck,  throwing temper tantrums and making my choices lately.  But finally, I think, she's sleeping.  I know that sounds like I'm making excuses for not making better decisions with my food, but when a voice inside yells -- "I don't want to stop", "5 cookies are NOT enough" or "don't tell me what I should or shouldn't eat" -- all I can say is it sounds like an emotional child to me; a tired, cranky 5-year old.  This is also the inner child in me that loves getting stickers for good choices and is fasincated by using colored markers when I'm goal setting.  So she isn't always such a handful. 

 

I knew she had finally worn herself out when I was given a small candy bar and instead of gobbling it down right then and there I made the choice to have it as my treat after lunch.  Sighhhh.  It feels good to be in charge again :)

 

What have I learned?  What would I do differently?

 

I wish I could say that I would have paid attention earlier and maybe made more time for creative projects or some other fun things, but in reality, I'm not sure there was anything to do differently.   Life happened (it does that), I did the best I could in the moments (that's all I can ask for) and I kept trying (that is the true success).  And looking back, I realize we've both grown up and didn't do nearly the damage we would have 6 years ago.  So, it's all good.