After Dessert

"More Clair," my 2-year-old nephew kindly asked his Dada.

Chocolate Elcair is a secret family recipe. Like Bush's Baked Beans secret family recipe. Like Chick-Fil-A's lemonade secret family recipe.

So secret that you can hardly guess the three ingredients of graham crackers, vanilla pudding and chocolate icing.

Woops.

Actually, the real secret is fitting the graham crackers together like a jigsaw puzzle.

By now you know patience is not my virtue.

So cutting up these tiny little graham crackers caused a little piece of my soul to die.

But when it comes to secret family recipes and traditions, you put on your big girl panties. Err..apron.

Or if you're Peter, put on your big boy apron and chef hat.

Anyway. "More Clair," my nephew asked.

Then, he turned around and saw the Uncle Sam cupcakes for 4th of July.

"AFTER DESSERT!" He pointed.

His eyes are bigger than his stomach, I tell ya.

And my dessert planning is bigger than our sweet tooth, I tell ya.

"After dessert" was our Kaldahl theme for our 4th of July celebration and vacation.

• Chocolate Eclair
• cinnamon rolls (which count as breakfast for some wonderful reason)
• homemade vanilla ice cream
• muffins (which are somehow different than cupcakes for some wonderful reason)
• Uncle Sam cupcakes
• Avalanche Bars
• Strawberry Pretzel Salad (as long as you put the word salad behind it, it doesn't count as dessert. i.e. Snickers Salad)
• And then there's the Cheesecake and Chocolate Cake my sweet mother-in-law made
• And the 4th of July Blueberry and Strawberry Pie my sweet 6-month-pregnant sister-in-law made (Can we blame her for our dessert indulgences??)

So yes, we ate dessert after we ate dessert.

And as such, it's time to get back into the groove, so I bring you the

ERR Workout.

Technically, ERR stands for Exercises, Reps, and Rounds.

But for me it's more like "Did I eat dessert after dessert? Err..."

"Did I eat two desserts every day for two weeks straight? Err..."

"Have I been counting my 'nursing diet' as exercise for the last month? Err..."

Here's how it works:

For the 1st round, you have 7 Exercises to complete 7 Reps for 7 Rounds. ERR. Get it? So you will perform 7 Jumping Jacks, 7 Box Jumps, 7 Star Jacks, 7 Toe Taps, 7 Plank Jacks, 7 Quick Step-Ups, and 7 Crossover Jacks. 7 Times. So basically, 49 of each by the end.

Then for the 2nd round, move to 6. Then 5, 4, 3, 2, and 1. (Enjoy the 2 sips of water, my friends.)

For a frame of reference, I complete this in 31 minutes and burned 200 calories. My heart rate at its highest was 189, and average heart rate was 138.

You could certainly break it up and do the odd rounds today and even rounds tomorrow.




Or, just eat Chocolate Elcair instead. You know, after your dessert.