What I eat

So.  I eat.  As does everyone, as it is a requirement to live.  When I quit the blog, I'd been doing the eat-what-I-want thing for a little while, and that's continued.  I truly do eat only what I want.  Although, I will say this:  I have restricted myself to a vegetarian diet two days a week.  It's not a big deal; I do it because I recognize that eating lots of meat, and especially meat that is farmed in conventional ways, is detrimental to the environment.  If everyone went meatless two days a week, I think we could reduce pollution by some crazy amount, so that's why I do it.  It's really NOT a challenge.  Most weeks, it naturally happens, as I'm almost always eating meatless at lunch, unless I've got meaty leftovers (and leftovers aren't always meaty; this past week I ate leftover cream of tomato soup with pastina in it).  Some weeks I have to be more mindful of it than others.  Some busy weeks, I don't manage it, because I like very much to eat meat when I go out to eat, for some reason.  It hasn't really changed my life at all, and I didn't expect it to.  I also won't be giving up meat full-time.  I don't want to end up at a restaurant like Frontera and not be able to eat meat.  That would be near torture.

So I guess I do restrict myself, but just a teensy bit.  Everything else is fair game.  I've basically stopped eating sweets, is what has happened.  I don't like them.  (I ate no desserts or sweet treats at all in Vegas.  Literally, not once.)  When I do want something, I eat it.  But my favorite things in the world are savory--cream cheese and bagels.  Vinaigrettes and salad dressings of all kinds.  Sour tastes--pickles, capers, olives.  I cannot get enough green olives.  They are so damn tasty.  More sour/tart: ceviche.  I love limey fish, cooked by the acid in a citrus fruit.  I don't like pizza sauce anymore.  Or most red sauces, for that matter.  Most days, I really don't want to go near Italian restaurants.  I still don't like most shellfish, but I'm obsessive about King Crab Legs, chilled.  I'm completely over the moon for guacamole at nearly every place I can get it and the spring rolls at the Thai place down the street.  I'd rather eat more salad and more appetizers, and no dessert.  I'm starting to develop a strong taste for raw red onion and green onion, but no others.  I can't eat red meat anymore in the form of a steak.  It makes me sick.  I can't eat most processed meats, in the form of corporate sub sandwiches (Jimmy John's, Subway), so I stick with the veggie, always.  My desire for fries ebbs and flows.  Mostly ebbs, depending on how good they are.  I don't love mashed potatoes, or baked potatoes, or roasted potatoes, unless they're done really well.  I love toast.  And croissants with butter and jam.  Eggs are hit or miss.  Sometimes, they make me nauseous, other times I crave deviled eggs and egg salad.

I know people will wonder how this eating has effected my weight, because that is always a question.  We're obsessed with weight.  The truth is, I've maintained my weight pretty much evenly since I started this thing.  I definitely haven't lost weight.  But for the first time in my life, pants from last season fit this season.  I'd been going up and down (and up and up) for so long that I forgot that you don't have to buy new pants every winter and summer.  It's amazing.  Yes, I'm fat.  I'm not in the dark about it, and I understand what it means.  But I don't care.  I still have ups and downs with it, but mostly ups, to be honest.  I am who I am, and I'm really pretty good with that.  If it means I can eat like a normal human being, and not obsess about every damn thing I put in my mouth?  I'll take it.  It's a hard fought peace of mind. 

Comments

[comebacknikki]

It sounds like you have a really healthy attitude toward food - that's awesome. I'm *still* doing the Lean Cuisine thing & I have to say it's incredibly boring!