I should begin by saying that I haven’t fallen off the wagon or cheated. I’m still here; still going. (!) We’re almost at the halfway mark!
A lot has been written about sugar lately, and how it affects our brains and waistlines. I know for a fact that when I eat sugar I crave more sugar. (I really enjoyed this piece about sugar on the New York Times website. You might like it too.) The addition of sugar, in all of its forms, in All The Things, is stunning. A few of you Fishies may remember our family “Sugar Fast.” We cut out desserts and foods with added sugars in them for a week, and it was very hard to do, especially with kids who like ketchup on their meat and dressings on their salad. The big takeaway: it isn’t until you really read the labels that you realize that some form of sugar is added to almost every processed food. Case in point: I bought frozen shrimp the other day and was looking forward to eating them with seafood sauce… because seafood sauce can’t POSSIBLY have sugar in it, right? WRONG. So wrong. When I got home from the grocery store I checked the label, and sure enough, there is sugar in seafood sauce. I thought seafood sauce was just tomato sauce with herbs, spices, and horseradish?
So for the past little while I’ve been making my own mayo, dressings, dips, and sauces. Most of them have been pretty good too.
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I’m not having too many difficulties keeping this up but as I mentioned in my Whole 30 Day 9 update, it is a lot easier to focus on the foods I’m enjoying rather than the foods I might be craving or missing.
“You know what I’m craving,” announced my dear husband the other night (who is ALSO DOING THIS WITH ME), “a big cheesy pizza.”
Ha. Well. I don’t know about you, but I prefer to banish the thought of cheesy pizza from my mind for the duration. I’m choosing to REALLY enjoy and dwell upon juicy grapefruits, perfectly seasoned salmon, and ripe avocados, and reflect upon how fortunate we are to enjoy these fantastic foods.
Speaking of fantastic, I had ribs for breakfast the other day. Ribs! It is a bit unorthodox but when you need protein on your plate and there are ribs in the fridge, this is what one has to eat. I cut the meat off the bone and threw it all on the frying pan, along with an egg. As I was about to take my first bite I felt like I was really forcing the issue (“food is fuel!”) but then I relaxed and actually found myself enjoying the meal. Who knew?
Isn’t it weird that in North American society, the meal we eat in the morning consists of just a small group of foods that we’ve collectively decided to categorize as breakfast foods? Why bacon and sausage for breakfast, but not ribs? Why ham but not chicken? Why fried potatoes but not cauliflower? It doesn’t really make sense when you think about it, so I’m trying to get over these preconceived ideas of what breakfast is supposed to look like.
I’ve also thought a lot about the structure of our meals and why they look like they do. I suppose most of this falls under the category of cultural food traditions. Why do we feel we need to eat a big baked potato with steak? Why not just steak and vegetables? (Perhaps it’s because once upon a time, potatoes were considered filler, especially since the cuts of meat were probably smaller.) Why serve bread with a pasta dish? Who said there needs to be bread at breakfast, or at almost every meal? Who said there should be dessert every night after dinner?
I can make my own mealtime rules, ones that involve fewer calories and less sugar/flour/etc. and benefit me and my health. I certainly don’t need to follow a script. I can eat ribs for breakfast if I want to!
