Food for Thought or Thoughts on Food

Yesterday I started my day with honey nut cheerios. For lunch I had half of a roast beef sandwich on a nice thick sub roll, tortilla chips and a freshly baked oatmeal chocolate-chip cookie. At some point yesterday afternoon I enjoyed a brownie. Dinner was a grilled chicken salad, big chunk of French bread and for dessert, yes I still had dessert, a vanilla cupcake slathered with chocolate frosting from one of our favorite spots-Hello Cupcake in Tacoma. While it is a stretch to say this is the norm for me, it certainly isn’t a rare indulgence. I love my sugary high carb. treats. I like healthy food, too, of course-note the grilled chicken salad. But let’s put it this way salad is like Drew Barrymore’s boyfriend, what’s his name? Oh yeah, Justin Long--nice, dependable, cute in his own right. However, home-baked chocolate chip oatmeal cookies are like Brad Pitt or Jude Law--irresistable, beautiful with a slight touch of danger. (For those followers who prefer drooling over females go ahead and replace Justin Long with Lisa Kudrow and Brad Pitt/Jude Law with Scarlet Johansen and Salma Hayak.) Now you get the picture.

I am sure some of you are like me, right? We understand the whole eat to live not live to eat concept, but can’t quite commit to it. Forgive me if I sound like a five year old, but it’s just not fair that some of the yummiest foods are the foods that should be off limits. Wouldn’t it be nice to fill our days with our favorite foods? I propose that if you love to fuel up on chocolate chip cookies, French bread, greasy, wood fired pizza and Ghiradelli chocolate bars (milk, not dark) you should just go for it! If you prefer to fill your day with cheetos, soda and ice cream, then so be it! All in favor…say thigh. I mean aye.

The other day I was in the locker room at the gym. There was this woman there, about my age, well she looked a little older really, still she was cute and confident. She was strutting around that room like she owned the place. I tried not to stare, but on her petite naked body she was sporting quite a pouch. Clearly she didn’t have a baby in tow, but her belly was round like that of someone into her second trimester of pregnancy. You know me, I’m not often judgmental, but I couldn’t help staring at this woman, surely someone who took exercising seriously, but couldn’t kick the sugar habit. Before I could look away, she caught my eye and that’s when I remembered that I wasn’t in the locker room at all, I was in my bathroom and that girl I was staring at was me! What are the odds that Mike installed funhouse mirrors in the bathroom without me knowing? Not likely, I suppose.

Let me stop here and note something that some of you might be thinking right now, how can a girl who can often squeeze herself into a size 4 sit here and cry to me about bad food choices and fat belly pouches? I really don’t know how to answer that, I know that there would be people happy to be my size. I do appreciate this. But I believe that you should take care of whatever you have and the truth is I am taking care of my sweet tooth and my taste buds, but the rest of me, well not so much.

It’s not so easy to change and that’s why I am writing this. I figure if I shout out to the world (aka my 29 followers) that I am thinking about changing my ways maybe I will hold myself more accountable. Perhaps before I grab that third slice of pizza I will think of that girl in the mirror and grab something healthy like a hot fudge sundae instead. Ugh, just kidding, maybe I will grab a handful of carrots or (gasp) maybe I will just walk away from the third piece….imagine that?