It’s no secret: I love to eat. I love food. I think about food all the time. I don’t want to diet, ever. I have barely any desire to eat crap, but I want to eat non stop and it’s usually carbs. Two semesters ago I tried to diet and my brain stopped working completely. Now granted, I don’t eat poorly every day. I try to taper off my carbs as the day goes on, I eat lots of lean protein, and I eat a ton of veggies. I try intuitive eating where I listen to my body. If I want something and I deny myself, it sends me in to a tail spin.
I basically work out to eat. I consider it a huge bonus if I work out hard and eat semi good for the rest of the day. I’m also learning to think of food in the opposite order: I’m trying now to eat to work out. My food is my fuel and my body has an engine that needs to run properly. It’s still intuitive but it’s for a better purpose of just “Oh this is delicious”.
One thing I really had to learn was to not be a member of the clean plate club. Most of my friends in their early 30s like me had parents who pushed membership to this club. I guess pediatricians in the 1980s all got the same memo, or maybe our parents all saw it on the Today show. I have this internal monologue that yells at me and tells me to finish my dinner or no dessert! Speaking of dessert, I can’t finish a meal without having something sweet. I’m doomed!
With all of that being said, tonight I had pizza, beer and wings. They were all delicious. I also didn’t work out today. I worked out every day this week, hard, and yesterday I went for 2 hours at the gym with double classes. So I rested today and ate. It was amazing! Isn’t that what the Superbowl is about? Food and beer? Work hard, play hard!