I find myself torn . . . between wanting to be thin and not wanting to put a bunch of chemicals in my body. The obvious solution would to be to undergo hypnotherapy and re-train my brain to love eating vegetables and to dislike sugar. But let’s be realistic, vegetables are never going to taste like cake.
Somewhere along the way, our food sources became so convenient that we’ve managed to throw health out the window. Instead of making dinner, we can buy chemicals in a box that will turn into dinner with a little heat and water. Instead of having dessert for special occasions, we’ve become trained to crave sugar and dessert every single day, if not after every single meal. We’re surrounded by commercials telling us to bring home a bucket of fried chicken for the family or pizza or that eating a $5 sub is good for us.
I was such a picky eater as a child that I’m pretty sure I exhausted my parents to the point that there wasn’t a lot of effort put into teaching us how to eat appropriately. Just the fact that there was something I would eat was a mini triumph. So after years of eating whatever I wanted, and finding my pants a big snugger each year, I find myself having to re-teach myself how to eat. An interesting concept for a person having been responsible for their own eating habits for about half their life.
Transition number one, must eat more fruits and vegetables. Seriously. I have to eat them. I’m starting small though, at least one fruit and vegetable a day (sadly, this is quite an increase in my previous habits), and I’m attempting to eat salad twice a week. I really don’t care for lettuce as it turns out. It tastes like dirt and it makes me feel like a damn deer.
Transition number two, reduce the amount of starch and sugar I eat. Why? Not because they aren’t good for you. Which they aren’t. Mostly it’s because they make me fat. Which leads me back to the chemicals versus fat topic. The chances of me giving up desserts and baking are slim to none. But there are a lot of substitutes for all that delicious fat and sugar that can make desserts with less calories. But with less calories comes more chemicals. For example, have you tried cool whip lately? I hadn’t had it in years, but in an effort to curb sugar and calories, I tried a drop of cool whip with my strawberries the other day. Delicious. They can do amazing things with chemicals now days.
I know it’s better to cook and bake with natural foods, but how clean are our “natural” foods today anyway? Everything is injected with hormones and sprayed with chemicals. And because I love my desserts, I’m making the case for chemicals occasionally. As one person with a serious sweet tooth, I am perfectly capable of making an entire batch of natural cookies and eating them all. Note that I said I’m capable of doing this, not that I actually do it. Most of the baked goods end up in the bellies of my male coworkers. While chemicals aren’t great for you, they will help to not pack on as many pounds with the dessert. And the extra pounds are bad for your health too.
I know that “nothing tastes as good as being thin feels,” but cake tastes pretty damn good. I realize that the correct answer here is the ever present and boring “everything in moderation.” Of course, realizing that cancer is how I’m likely to go someday anyway, I’d be lying if I didn’t admit to thinking that if I’m going to get cancer anyway, I may as well be thin!
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