I’m bored with food. Bored with shopping for it, cooking it, and worrying about it. Of course you’ll notice that I didn’t include “eating it” on the list! Obviously I’m still somewhat enthusiastic about that aspect of it, or I’d be announcing how many pounds I’ve lost this week….NOT.
I mentioned earlier this week on FB that I had to drag myself to the store to do my grocery shopping. Boring. I have become such a creature of habit that I can and do usually shop without a list. I only have to remind myself of non-food items such as vitamins or cleaning supplies. When you get to be our age there is a whole list of foods you can’t, won’t, or shouldn’t eat. What is left is merely rotated a bit from one week to the next.
You may recall that in the spring I adopted my own version of Alton Brown’s food list diet. Since our return from vacation I have changed that up a bit, but still adhere to a list of foods that I try to incorporate into my diet on a daily basis- dark leafy greens, fruits, nuts, whole grains. Alton includes carrots on his daily list, but despite their nutritional value, I’m not a big fan. He also lists green tea, but I seldom drink it except in the winter. Weekly I eat fish, broccoli, yogurt, sweet potatoes, and avocadoes-also from his list. Not as likely to include his other two items- cauliflower and tofu. I like both, but cauliflower doesn’t like me, and tofu comes in such a big package that I always waste some and feel guilty about it. Of course it is the things not on his list- cheese, eggs, ice cream, and pasta- that that are a constant source of struggle for me.
Alton lost fifty pounds on his list diet. I have lost five. Portion control is still one of my issues. I read and hear constantly that it is a national problem. We’ve all gotten used to eating far too much. Product packaging, servings at restaurants, and advertising all promote bigger portions than in previous decades. We encountered an amusing example of this last week. Gary wanted a watermelon, so rather than trek through the crowds at Walmart for it, we stopped by a local grocery store on our way home from the library. They had lots and lots of watermelons- the only problem was that they were HUGE. There wasn’t one that I could have cut in half and actually fit into my refrigerator without taking up two shelves. I told Gary, “These are the kind you take to the lake to feed a bunch of kids!” Later in the week I bought a much smaller one at Walmart, and it is still large enough for Gary to enjoy for several snacks.
I remain a pescetarian because the diet seems to agree with me. I ate a slice of ham at my aunt’s home recently and found that it didn’t trigger any latent desire to return to meat. Eating it seemed like the polite thing to do at the time and since I don’t have any political, emotional, or religious motivation for my diet I didn’t even feel guilty about it. My primary focus has always been about improving my health. Thanks to genetics, lowering my cholesterol has to be a top priority!
Salt is still the bane of my life. I don’t use it, don’t even buy it. But it is impossible to avoid it if I eat anything “manufactured, packaged, or processed” in any way. I am an obsessive label reader, especially if I am considering a new product. I recently checked one and the sodium level was 1,010mg per serving! How is that even possible????
I suppose I wouldn’t be so bored with food if I actually cooked. I often have to remind my children, and occasionally my husband, that I know how. I cooked when they were growing up and didn’t hear any complaints about home baked cinnamon rolls or lasagna or apple pie. These days I just assemble a meal by frying some meat for Gary, steaming a couple of vegetables, making a salad, and adding some pasta or rice. Cooking something more elaborate creates two problems- it takes time and it produces leftovers. I hate to spend hours in the kitchen. I’m not one of those people who wants to cook for fun, entertainment, or stress relief. I have other things to do and cooking is at the bottom of my priority list. With the exception of eggs, I could probably survive on a diet of cold, uncooked foods. And I don’t like leftovers! I have safety issues and won’t keep them or use them for very long. I don’t like to eat the same thing two or three times in a row.
Someone suggested recently that a pre-packaged diet plan might be good for me. There are several out there. One of my relatives has been on Jenny Craig for years and seems quite happy with it. But I have a few concerns with that concept. The first one is “Could I eat like this for the next twenty years?”- because my goal is to change my bad habits into good ones and eat a healthy diet for the rest of my life. Eating a prepared and delivered diet seems akin to walking with crutches- fine until you have to lay them aside and walk on your own. Another concern is sodium. Some of the meals are low in sodium, but many are “borderline”, so the problem would be staying within my daily total. And of course the main reason for me to discount this idea is that most of the meals are meat based. Seems silly to pay someone to prepare vegetables for me when I prefer to eat them steamed or raw!
So…I’m off to eat breakfast. I think I’ll have Cheerios and blueberries this morning. Yes, I still use non-fat dry milk. No I don’t add sugar to my cereal, or anything else. Don’t buy or use sugar for anything except the hummingbirds. Why am I still fat? Because I don’t get enough exercise! We’ll talk about that later.