eating

I’m Forty and This is What I Eat

clothedwithjoy 10 Comments

I’m forty years old and this is what I eat.

If you have been following along (or are new – hello) you may recall that I have taken a mini-vacation from childrearing, work, home duties, basically all that everyday life stuff, to get away alone for two and a half days. No people. No TV. No Wifi. No shopping. No touring. No eating out. Just me, the Lord, a couple good books and a lot of walking. And a lot of quiet. Have I mentioned the quiet?

It has been scrumptious. But I digress…

I didn’t want to worry about cooking, obviously, so I packed a bag of essentials and have been living off them since Sunday afternoon – i.e. 48 hours. Not pictured, but also present (always) – Diet Snapple – naturally. Some pita chips and BLT fixin’s would have been nice but I didn’t have time.

I’m forty and this is what I eat.

What are your go-to food items?

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Butter Violation

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butter wrong 2

This is not an unusual occurrence in my home.

Once a week or so I open the fridge, glance over at the dairy section and discover that someone has taken a bite out of the butter.

I know it wasn’t me. I don’t even like butter, and the thought of a mouthful of cold, hard butter, well, honestly, it makes me gag.

I know who the culprit is. I’ve caught her in the act a few times. She smiles that impish smile, flashes those big brown eyes and then prances away.

I remain, stunned and shocked.

butter violation 2

Diffusing the Battle

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I decided not to eat sugar for the month of January. And you know what, it really wasn’t a big deal.

By some time in December I started to feel like I could easily go through the day eating nothing but sugar. Sugar sugar sugar. It didn’t feel good. It felt like an addiction. So I thought to myself, why don’t I just choose not to eat any sugar for a month and see what happens.

I didn’t die.

I’m gonna be honest, the experiment was a whole lot easier than I expected. By deciding Not to eat sugar I had diffused The Battle. You know, the battle that happens when you look at that cookie and think, should I or shouldn’t I…. I had begun to lose that battle. Consistently. Or, in other words, like Every. Single. Time. With my sugar “resolution” the decision was made, the battle was neither won nor lost, it was never even fought. It was refreshing and pretty darn easy.

Sure, when the man walking down the aisle of Restaurant Depot eating an enormous chocolate chip cookie passed me by I wanted one too. Bad. But even then, only for a second. The truth is, of all the sugary goodies in the world, the only one that brought me to my knees was breakfast cereal. Even so, I kind of wonder if I wasn’t just craving milk.

I thought that by not eating sugar I would become more thoughtful about what I was eating – in actuality – it got to be a pain. When all I really wanted was a bowl of cereal or a Fiber 1 bar I had to settle for something else. The truth is, I like the convenience of cereal or a bar or a yogurt. Shoot me.

Did I lose weight? Well, I definitely did not gain any, but I didn’t really lose either. However, I did hope to break a couple bad habits. 1. I hoped to stop being a loser and realize that saying no to that cookie is most definitely not gonna kill me. 2. I needed to realize that I didn’t have to be my children’s garbage can. I could just say, (and this is a big deal,) throw it away, when they come to me with a half eaten cupcake or a licked cookie or a dripping ice cream. Throw it away. Anywhere other than my stomach is fine.