Eat Real Food Challenge, Day 6
Oops, totally forgot to update last night and when I went upstairs bleary-eyed after having fell asleep on the couch watching “House” and saw my laptop looking all forlorn at me, I sighed loudly and said, “Aw, screw it. Tomorrow morning, first thing!” And indeed, here I am at 8:15am, listening to Barack Obama announcing his candidacy in 10 degree weather! So glad I’m up for this! What an intelligent speaker. ‘Nuff said, onward!
Breakfast: corn grits, coffee with cream.
Lunch: had the leftover pasta from last night, along with some cherry tomatoes, carrots, and sugar snap peas to crunch on throughout the day. Since I knew I was going out after work and not making dinner at home (thereby not knowing what food choices were to be presented to me), I bought some tasty mozzarella balls marinated in garlic from DeLaurenti’s and a small bag of pistachios, which I shared with the office.
Dinner: I had plans to meet up with old friends at a bar for drinks and recalled their food menu being limited to fried foods. As I ordered my first beer (note: beer is fine, having been around since, well, practically the dawn of time), I scanned the happy hour menu and ordered the only item I could–small plate of nachos. Luckily, the tortilla chips were not greasy at all, with real cheddar cheese, loads of tomatoes, black beans, scallions, and a very tasty homemade salsa. Whew! I ordered a second beer much later and that was it. Still, though, I was feeling pretty logy after I got home and I blame the beer. And the cats both laying on top of me as I snuggled under the blanket on the couch. What’s a girl to do?!
Observation: it was the first time in many years that I felt absolutely no guilt about eating 8 little mozzarella balls and pistachios, then having beer and nachos all within a few hours. It didn’t even occur to think that I may be eating “too much fatty food.” How freeing! I’ve conditioned myself over the years to feel guilty and overthink (in the wrong ways) about what I am putting in my mouth every single day. By concentrating on eating only “real” food & food ingredients, all worry has dissipated. No more self-flagellation. All I am doing is paying attention to portion size, which has been very easy since I’m getting fuller more quickly. Huzzah!
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To celebrate my mental emancipation from Food Related Bad Thoughts, Brow Beating, and All Consuming Guilt and to usher in next week’s Eat Real Food All Week Week, we are having a feast tonight with: Butternut squash soup, a mixed green salad with cherry tomatoes, and…a whole roasted chicken, with vegetables and baby potatoes roasted in the chicken juice. For dessert we’re having my homemade apple fig tart and some all natural (organic!) vanilla ice cream. All the ingredients except the greens and ice cream we got at the farmers’ market. All this is my way of saying WOOOOHOOOOO! THANKS SHANNON! (And if you didn’t live in another country, you’d so be invited to the feast!)
Wow, Jeci, I would love it if you would take a photo of your feast tonight! I admit that I do miss chicken so I am jealous of your roasted chicken. An apple fig tart sounds amazing, too. One of these days, I’ll tackle homemade crust-type desserts and overcome my fear!
I’m so happy you’re doing this along with me! But don’t thank me necessarily–Michael Pollan deserves the kudos, along with yourself for tackling it, if you don’t mind me sounding all cheesy and new age-y.
Hey, maybe we could start a team-building workshop in which we get people to cook food together and pay us large sums of money for the experience–we could make them take a test to see what type of vegetable or fruit they are, then have them cook with the opposite food. . . kidding! OR AM I?
Gosh, I wish I had your day of food right now! I totally agree with you about portion size!
Now……having said that…..I spent my day gorging on Apple-Blackberry kuchen that I made this morning. You try eating sensible portions of that!!!!!!
what was that you said? DANGER - LOW FAT FOOD!
yeah, maybe eating low-fat foods is akin to smokin’ “Marlboro lights”.