Day 6, Vices

You never know what you've got until it's gone.

Before the project started on May 15th dinnertime was a good fifteen to thirty minutes spent spooning food into my mouth, or chopsticking it into there, while watching television or the computer. A horrible habit, I know. Dinner was usually whatever my eyes fell on first when I swung open the pantry door. More often than not, though, dinner for me was "comfort food". You see, I eat dinner after work at the karate school where I'm teaching five hours of classes numbering about twenty to thirty, sometimes more.

So you can see why comfort food is so downright, well, comforting after a day like that.

My bigggest addiction, and something I would eat frequently (three times a week was not uncommon) was a bowl ful of short grain white rice and orzo pasta cooked in water with vegetable buillon and garlic powder and then sprinkled with soy saice. I love it, but that's a lot of unnecessary carbohydrates to be taking in three times a week. Maybe once every other week would be slightly better for me, but even then...

My other addiction is fruit juice. That in itself doesn't sound bad and it's not hugely horrible, I only drink stuff labeled 100% fruit juice and I try not to overdo it. Sometimes it does get the better of me as I've used it as a replacement for all of the soda I used to drink. The problem with that is that I've learned that you should not drink the majority of your daily calories, it offsets things. Plus, unless it an alcoholic beverage, the no real social aspect to drinks like there is for food so it's very easy to not pay attention to what you're taking in.

(By the way, if you wonderful readers have any suggestions for low or preferably no caffeine drinks with no calories I would really appreciate them. Thanks)

Now that dinnertime, or anytime, has become more of an event for me (no more mindless Pop-Tart eating, another habit) I've been willingly forced to watch what I'm cooking and drinking instead of just picking some junk from the freezer and frying it in oil. It takes a lot more work and thought and, believe me, giving up those comfort foods is damn tough (they're called comfort foods for a reason) but to succeed with something like this or anything else you have to look toward the end result as well as how much better you feel now and weigh the potential benefits against your present cravings. Ask yourself, is it really worth it to sacrifice wonderful health and a great, fit body for a bowl of rice and orzo pasta (or macaroni and cheese or mashed potatoes and gravy)?

It's not for me anymore, I can see that now, and I'm loving the food that I am eating (all the extra effort seems to make it tastier). And you know what? I'm totally cool with that.