So THAT'S Why Levi and Kelly Ripa Have the Same Body

A somewhat stream-of-consciousness post of musings on diet with regard to preschoolers and celebrities and, oddly, the similarities therein...

It begins with our Saturday morning yummy-breakfast ritual:  I put a little milk and a couple drops of almond extract into the raw eggs before I whisked them up and started dunking in bread for our French toast.  We had been talking about it all week:  French toast on Saturday while Jed takes our drummer out for breakfast.

I only had enough eggs to make three pieces, but I've been trying to cut back on lesser healthy foods, and Adelaide would only eat a little, leaving almost two pieces for Levi, who assured me he was very hungry.

"Very hungry" is quite relative, as Levi finished just ONE piece before announcing he was now "very full" and wanted a Fruit by the Foot.  Not gonna happen.  And how could he be full?  One piece does not satiate "very hungry," people!  (My cavernous appetite gets confused easily by those with a nonexistent one.)  When offered more French toast, though, he declined and decided on a piece of gum and play time.  So the French toast tally was

Mom: 1 piece, rather than the usual 15
Levi: 1 piece, however bizarre it might seem to me, albeit totally in keeping with his normal appetite
Adelaide:  just over 1/4 of a piece, atta girl!  She loved it.

So here's the point.  Levi eats like a bird!  He also loves healthy stuff.  One time, he asked for gummy bears, and it was just before lunch, so I said "no." 
"OK, then can I have some lettuce?"  he followed. 
"Um, yeah.  You can have some lettuce."  I blinked my eyes blankly before prepareing him a salad, which he devoured.

But that's when he does eat, which is actually very little.  Eating is somewhat of a distraction in his very busy schedule, and while he likes it just fine, he takes a few bites, then is ready to get back to more important matters.  This is why we can only buy pants with the inner elastic belt that we immediately cinch up several notches on both sides before even attempting to put them on him.  Like his dad, that one.

From http://www.usmagazine.com/
healthylifestyle/photos/bony-bikini-bodies-
2010211/6476

The thing is, he eats mints and mint gum like crazy.  We sort of put a cap on it, but he eats a lot.  It triggered something in my memory.  I read a few years ago in a magazine about a photo shoot with Kelly Ripa.  It stated that the shoot lasted about 8 hours, and while they had catering, she only had Altoids and water the whole day.  That's the Levi Diet!  No wonder she and he have the same wiry, lean body!  She has joked before that she has the body of a little boy, so I don't feel badly writing this.  I also am not actually saying that such a diet is a healthy, viable option, in case you're getting worried.  Just connecting the dots.  Celebrities must eat like small children to look the way they do.

An online Kids' Health site states that boys between 4 and 8 need between 1400 and 2000 calories a day, depending on activity level.  I'd wager that Levi is on the high end of activity and the low end of calories.  I saw this calorie recommendation and realized it's about the same for me.  And all this while, I'd been eating like a WWF wrestler.  Darn.  So maybe I should follow the Levi diet...eating exactly what he does.  (That's if I want to end up looking like a little boy... hmmm...) 

Of course, mints, juice, and running the equivalent of 5,000 miles a day, with the occasional lettuce and a Fruit by the Foot might work for Levi and Kelly Ripa, but I'm not quite sure it's for me.  Back to being reasonable...