Counting

Don't forget to count as you eat those goldfish crackers.

There were 20 pretzel sticks in there.  How many are left?

If you eat more than 12 cherries, come back.

People on diets count their calories and track how much of everything they consume.

Children, generally, do not.

It must stink to be sitting at the pool with friends, chatting about important things (or about nothing at all) while simultaneously having to keep a running tally of one's wheat thin consumption.

Where we lunched on Wednesday has the best thin, crispy french fries anywhere, and a generous portion came with my daughter's grilled cheese.  I have no idea how many I picked off of her plate.  I do know she ate 26 of them.

It takes a bit of the joy out of eating, this counting does.  Especially in the summer when there's nothing nicer than sitting in the shade eating cold grapes or berries.  Or sitting on the beach grabbing handfuls of goldfish crackers between hermit crab races.  Or sitting on a pier with a fresh-from-the-water basket of clam strips and fries.

It's part and parcel of this whole diabetes thing though.  And the glass-half-full part of me says 'well at least she can eat what she wants as long as she keeps track of it...it wasn't long ago when there were tons of restrictions on what people with diabetes were allowed to eat to begin with.'

And that's true.

But wouldn't it be fun to dive into that tray of chips and salsa at the next cookout without enumerating each one?