Thought for Food

Saturday, March 27, 1999

"You are what you eat," or so the saying goes. I suppose that makes me a Campbell's Soup kid, with a quesadilla on the side. Or maybe a Chihuaua from a certain fast food joint. One thing is for certain: I've eaten a lot of junk in the past five years.

Mom grew tired of cooking homemade meals long before we moved to Missouri. I can't really blame her, as she's been chief cook and bottle washer for over forty years. I can cook -- at least Jev seems to think so -- but it's just not much fun when you're cooking for one; most of the time, Mom won't touch what I make, for whatever reason. If she does break down and try something, she usually tells me how I should have done X differently. Oh, and if that sounds familiar to you... check out this page on not-so-constructive criticism some time.

Anyway, what I'm trying to get to is that I've developed a pretty unhealthful relationship with food in this rut I'm trying to cllimb out of. I've never been much of a breakfast eater, so by noon I've already had lunch -- usually a can of condensed soup (maybe that's why I'm so short?), or a sandwich if I feel like making the effort -- and I start munching anything salty and crisp that I can get my hands on, all the way up until dinner time. That's when I throw the frozen meal in the microwave and nuke it. Those frozen dinners aren't usually very filling, so I almost always wind up munching again by about 8 or 9, and sometimes I just keep eating until I'm stuffed.

Once I get started -- usually when I curl up in bed to read -- it's nearly impossible to stop. That's how I've managed to put on about twenty pounds in five years. May not sound like a whole lot to you, but I'm under five feet tall to begin with, and I started off at 105 pounds. Eeek!

So it's definitely time to start putting some thought into what I eat. I've been trying to do better, since Jev was here, but I still find myself going on munchie-binges now and then, and I can't resist the siren song of Chocolate. But meals, at least, are improving.

I really enjoyed cooking when Jev was here. He did his fair share and then some, so I put a little extra effort into the salads and such, making them look nice. I've carried that over into my cooking for one, and that seems to help me eat more thing like salads, fresh veggies, and so on.

I'm also finding that the actual making of the meals can be an enjoyable experience; I guess I'm learning to be grateful that I can have things like fresh mushrooms, salad shrimp, sweet red grapes, and all the other wonderful things I can pick up at the store.

Hopefully this new attitude toward eating will stick around, and I can shed a bit of this excess baggage I'm carrying. We'll see....