Liz Atwood discusses the difficulty of maintaining a healthy diet in this week's Tween Tuesday:

Five weeks until Memorial Day. That means five weeks until it’s swimsuit season. Once again, I’ve started to diet, trying to lose those stubborn 10 pounds that I’ve been fighting for the past couple years. It’s easy to lose two or three pounds. I can even lose five with some concerted effort, but 10—that’s a challenge.

I recently read about other moms bloggers having the same struggle. Katherine Stone writes about how difficult it has been to control her weight since she turned 40. Let me tell you, sister, it is even harder when you turn 50.

Of course as we age, our metabolism slows down. But another reason, we moms know, it that our kids tempt us with all sorts of fattening foods. Recently, my boys asked me to take them for ice cream. I drove them to the local Baskin-Robbins and decided I would be good and refrain from ordering anything for myself. My 9-year-old said he was starving and ordered an Oreo sundae. He took three bites and decided he was full and wanted to take it home. I sat looking at the melting treat and asked him if I could have a spoonful. Yes, he said. But when I took a bite, he said he didn’t want to eat it anymore because he didn’t want my germs! I ended up eating the entire sundae rather than throw it out.

Last week, I took the boys for pizza. The same thing happened. The younger one said he didn’t like the pizza he ordered. I ended up eating two personal pizzas!

I try to resist eating my kids leftovers, but when the food has hardly been touched, I have a hard time throwing it out. But if I’m ever going to lose those 10 pounds, I know I must get used to the idea of passing on the food the kids have left.