What I Ate Wednesday

Another bit of randomness....

This must have been a weekend, since I never have time for croissants and burger lunches on weekdays. The chili cheese fries were a new thing, but I have been wanting green chili lately, so I thought I'd try it. Dinner was sorta odd, too, but I *really* wanted beets.

Breakfast: Croissant (with butter and strawberry jam), tea

Lunch out shopping: Bacon burger and chili-cheese fries

Tea: chocolate chip cookies right out of the oven, tea

Dinner: Chicken Korma,  onion bhaji, chutney and sliced beets and arugula. Another couple of cookies

Book Day

Hello snow, not so nice to see you on this Mother's Day morning!

I've ditched all my previous plans for the day and am going to spend my day reading. Three of my ebook holds came available all at once, so I have a (virtual) pile of books to curl up with. I just hope we don't end up with too much damage from a heavy snowfall this time of year.

Reflections From the Recliner

When it comes to aging, the negatives seem to get all the attention. At least in this culture. I hear about other cultures that respect and appreciate age, but all I know for sure is what I've experienced.  I learn more each day about those negatives, but I am also aware of the positives. 

I can almost hear the 'What is she on about? What positives?' 

But I really do like a lot of things about the age I am now. I like the fact that I take things slower now. I think more, talk less. I ponder more and act more deliberately. I take more of a long view of things, mainly because I've seen more things. I am less 'up and down', and more steady which makes me calmer - and I hope more calming to others. 

The 'less up and down' is the part that I think applies most in the context of food and eating. In my late teens, 20s and most of my 30s I jumped from one 'plan' to another in a quest to lose weight and 'eat healthy'.  Every plan was extreme and unfailingly accompanied by an equal and opposite binge. Up and down, indeed. 

After I stopped dieting, I continued the quest for the 'perfect diet' (diet in this context being the original meaning of the word rather than a weight loss diet). I had learned that everything I had done the previous 20+ years to 'eat healthy' had been utterly and completely wrong, so of course I  threw myself down the 'Real Food' rabbit hole.  

Don't misunderstand. I don't mean I've abandoned 'Real Food'. And for what it's worth, I only use the word 'real' because that's the commonly used phrase these days. I dislike like it. To me it's just food. And why would I settle for less for myself or my family?

I only abandoned the rabbit hole and the quest for 'perfection'. I buy bread once in a while.  And sometimes it's not sourdough - heck, sometimes it's white bread. Sometimes we buy pizza instead of making it from scratch with soaked dough, homemade sauce from backyard tomatoes, full fat organic cheese, and nitrate free blah, blah, blah. I even buy milk from the store now instead of driving an hour each way to the farm to get it. Scandalous, I know, but there it is. 

Those extreme approaches to food (and fitness) of the past have been cast aside. I hope for good. Life now is more about balance and sustainability.  There are no more diets: so there are no more obsessions; no more binges; and no more feelings of guilt. I cook because I like to and because I like caring for my family and myself. I eat 'real' food because  it tastes good and I enjoy it and there's no point eating food I don't like. I don't 'work out' - I do things I enjoy so it's easy to stay active. And I dropped that whole 'sleep is for the weak' attitude, too. 

Good food that I like, activities I enjoy and a Sunday afternoon snooze. Too bad it took so long to figure it out.