The meal that might outlive you

I’ve been waiting patiently to have something I felt was worth writing about here. It’s been a while… things are easier than they were when I started. I know which breads I can eat in the grocery store, but have actually been making my own instead. I no longer spend hours shopping for food, trying to figuring out what I can and can’t eat. Our shops are quick and usually consist of fruit, vegetables, canned beans and tomatoes to use as the base for things, milk, cheese and meat. We barely visit the middle isles of the grocery store anymore. So with the struggle to fumble my way around my new world of food more or less behind me, I find myself with less to write about.

Not to worry though, faithful readers (I know there are a few of you… you’ve been asking me where I went)… I’ve finally had some ideas come my way. Unfortunately I’ve been waylaid by some things that have come up in my personal/professional life that have kept me busy. I was selected to be part of a Community Grants Committee at work, which is amazing… I get to help decide where our company spends its charitable dollars! It is a ton of reading though, and I’ve got to get it all done before I leave for my honeymoon this weekend. I am also up for a new position, so I’m trying to prepare for an interview this week. So things are hectic, but good.

Back to the matter at hand… something disturbing sent to me by a friend: http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/WeirdNews/2010/03/19/13292591-qmi.html

In case you don’t feel like reading the article, you should at least check out the link to see the pictures. In short a woman is claiming to have left a McDonald’s Happy Meal sitting on a shelf for a year. She says it has not rotted or decomposed in any way shape or form, and that rather than getting smellier, it has ceased to smell at all. I want to be clear on my position here (mostly because I’d prefer not to be sued by McDonalds). I am not endorsing this link, or supporting this research. There is nothing quantitative in this particular article, proving that this is legitimate (she may have this proof, I just haven’t seen it).

What I want to talk about is not the information itself, but the way I’ve seen people react to the information. I showed this to almost a dozen people at work. Most shrugged, some said “Yeah, what did you expect?” and still others said the picture made them think they wanted McDonalds for lunch. Someone even went so far as to joke that they’d gladly feed their kid indestructible food, because it would make him indestructible. The only people who were at all upset about this are the ones who would have avoided fast food before seeing this.

Are we really so removed from our bodies and our health that we don’t understand that food should rot? I find it incredible that a species that has lost all ability to instinctually recognize what it should not ingest, has thrived the way we have. We are so confused about what food is.

So if those who are most likely to eat these things are the ones least affected by this information, how do we make any change? I’m reminded of what my husband refers to as the “fattest thing” I ever said (and it was). Several years ago we were lying around watching TV, and I was eating one of those ice cream cones that come from a box. I looked at him and said “I don’t care if it is made of feathers; it’s delicious!” So I can relate to this mentality. What I’m trying to figure out is how I got from there to here. It’s not that I don’t still love and want those foods. It’s just that I finally understand how unnatural it is to eat that way. How much my body suffers when I do. Maybe I’d finally seen one too many articles about food that didn’t rot. I really can’t say. I think that somewhere deep down I always got it, I just didn’t want to get it. In the end I guess that’s the answer… you have to want to get it.

The Three Pizza Week

Since my last post, almost 10 days ago, I've had a slip... which might account for my not wanting to get on here and chronicle what's been going on. It was not a conscious decision, just the path life took me down over the last week. Last Sunday night we had gotten home from the cabin, there were none of our slow cooker easy meals in the freezer (which has been my saving grace on days we don't feel like dealing with the kitchen), we were tired and feeling lazy. It had been well over a week since the last time we'd eaten out... so ordering pizza didn't seem like such a terrible idea. I hadn't had a good lunch, and was really hungry. I over ate for the first time in a month. I wasn't thrilled with myself, but figured there was always tomorrow and tomorrow would be better.

Monday was better. However, Tuesday rolled around and I found myself invited to my mother-in-law's for dinner. Usually a week night dinner over there is a fairly casual affair. She's usually got a home made casserole or something of the sort in the freezer, does up a salad, help yourself to whatever else. Tuesday dinner turned into an impromptu birthday dinner for my brother-in-law, for which we were picking up... pizza. No salad anywhere in sight. M'kay, what now? I had two pieces of vegetarian, which was not so bad until I came home famished and ate again.

Flash forward to Friday. The plan is to have dinner in the city and then head up to my best friend's cabin for the weekend. By the time hubby and I got home from school/work, got all our clothes and food for the weekend sorted, etc. we just wanted to get on the road and get going. We wound up picking up Burger King on the way out of town.

The weekend itself was great. My friends, who have all been extremely supportive of what I've been doing, showed they were willing to be supportive in more than just words. The whole weekend, right down to the snacks was designed to accommodate the way I've been eating. Instead of potato chips we had hummus and pita, guacamole, veggies and dip. Saturday night's potluck dinner was all home made from scratch and tofu was cooked separately for a vegetarian stir fry, so that I didn't have to pick it out. It was definitely the healthiest cottage excursion I've ever taken with anyone other than just me and hubby. Drinking does present a problem though... I'm not sure there's any way to work it into the rules. I had decided that the odd time I do drink it wouldn't kill me to make an exception to the rules. So it was a Caesar filled weekend.

Last night we got home from the cabin... again tired and feeling lazy. I'd thought we would eat the left over Saag Aloo (an Indian spinach and potato dish we'd made for Saturday's pot luck), but neither of us felt like it. Hubby was thrilled when I suggested we order pizza. In true junkie style, I figured I'd get in one last fix and start over Monday morning.

So here I am, Monday morning... evaluating my three pizza, Burger King, Caesar week. What went wrong? Well, a few things, but primarily I got lazy about planning ahead. Previously I'd been really good at looking ahead and spotting obstacles such as Sunday evenings after the cabin and meal times spent in cars. I neglected to make sure I had meals in the freezer and easily transportable foods. It's planning for things like this that makes a few drinks on the weekend, or an unexpected meal at my mother-in-law's, less detrimental overall. Instead a few small hits turned into last week.

All I can do now is start back at square one. I read somewhere that in many ways a food addiction is one the most impossible ones to quit. Now I don't know if that's true, as I have never had to go through the pain and suffering of detoxing from drugs or alcohol, and quitting smoking was not the battle for me it has been for others in my life, and I am not trying to compare my journey to that of anyone else. What I do know is this: unlike other addictions, food is the sustenance your body needs to function. I can't stop eating. So my challenge is not to remove the substance I abuse from my life completely... my challenge is to learn to distinguish between nourishment and just eating for the sake of eating. Last week I failed... but today I will succeed.