Food Isn't A Cheap Hooker

I have spent mostly all of my 28 years eating crap. Crap, that the rest of the world wouldn't even sell but Americans thrive on. All of the middle aisles of your local supermarket are full of it. Colored boxes with bright pictures but inside, nothing with substance, no actual food.  I can blame the supermarkets, my parents, for allowing me to eat it or the government for the supply and demand of it all -but it was my own two hands who for at least the last 10 years I hold wholly responsible. It isn't just the food I ate that I consider the problem, it's the way I ate it. Shoving down a quick breakfast before work, a fast food lunch in my car and with no thought, a quick and easy dinner that usually included little cooking and no prep time. I was treating my food like a cheap hooker instead of a nurturing and important part of my everyday life. Got it in fast, and got out of there, and as many of you who know me find it to be true- I couldn't even look at what was leftover after. I have spent the last few months trying to undo the process. Starting at the root. Understanding food, it's purpose and learning to enjoy it. In the beginning of this journey I have already learned some valuable lessons.

1. Food needs love and attention.Most of my eating is an almost unconscious event. I eat in front of a TV, in a movie theater, watching a football game, gorging on pizza while playing a drinking game or in a hurry before I have to get somewhere and do something else. Not only do I have NO time to prepare a meal, but I have no time to even eat it! So I thought. In the last few months I have taken a few lessons from the zen masters of the east. I am conscious of my food. I don't prepare it in haste. I set time in my day aside to cook and consider what effort went into the growing, picking, delivering and selling of my food. I respect it. And in this respect, you tend to put a lot less shit in your mouth, and a lot more good food. When I am in this mindfulness of food I care about where it comes from, what was used to preserve it, how far it has travelled because these things matter when it is your body that will be storing and using them. I also respect the process of eating more.

2. Eating is balance between nurturing and pleasure. I have spent boatloads of cash on bad food because I crave it. I don't think about what it will do to my body. I don't think about anything but the pleasure that comes from it. These days, I can assure you, there is tons of pleasure in my eating. But it is just different. A well cooked meal, of fresh food, is a great feeling in itself. A complimentary wine, a variety including a small appetizer can go a long way. Before I started cooking, my favorite foods were butter and salt. Yep, foods. I would have a little steak with my salt, a little rice with my butter but those were the only tastes my taste buds searched for, and wanted in everything and anything I ate. After slowly getting used to herbs and spices, I have found that I don't even need to add salt or butter to my food because it has so much flavor in it already. Another very important change i went through is I stopped dieting.I stopped buying diet food, I stopped binging, I stopped counting calories and I realized that dieting has nothing to do with nutrition. In fact, I have found it's quite the opposite. Starving myself only leaves my body to absorb all of the carbs that I ate because it is afraid it won't eat again. And diet foods have just substituted horrible processed junk in replacement of natural foods. As long as I can use portion control and balance, and I eat real food- the food on the OUTSIDE of my supermarket- then I think I will be much better off. For example, the atkins grease fest of my all bacon and eggs extravaganza left me weak and feeling dirty. Who cuts out fruit? Anyone who cuts out fruit I just don't trust. your body is naturally designed to need those good carbs. Ok, enough ranting.

3. Like a hooker you get what you pay for, sorta. . I have found that even the thriftiest person will shove out money for something they love. Expensive monthly cable channels, designer handbags, fancy cars. But when it comes to food, something that goes in our bodies, our one and only bodies- we want things for chump change. It just reminds me of the time I went to the supermarket to get a pregnancy test and saw one for like $4 on the bottom shelf. Um, no thank you. When something is important- you get the good one. And so yes, I have opened my food budget up, picked up the healthier choices, the fresher meats and cheeses- and found that I actually am spending less than before. How? Because I cook all of my meals. So, even though I am buying fresh mozzarella and imported wine instead of boxed wine, even though I have been using varieties of decadent deli meats, panera bread instead of Strohman and Grey Poupon instead of acme brand mustard- I am saving money. That's the beauty of it! I found that on LUNCH ALONE at the likes of McDonald's, Burger King and Taco Bell Andrew and I were averaging $112 a week. That in itself is enough money for our weeks groceries.

So on this journey, I wanted to document it. I want a log of all my trials and tribulations through the process of learning how to cook, how to eat properly, how to find wines and how to stop giving into the crap! If you have ever eaten oodles and noodles- you should understand where I am coming from. You are what you eat! Love your body, and give it what it deserves!