Chopsticks. I am on a chopstick diet.
I don't really feel like I need to go on a diet. All women think they need to be on a diet, so in that respect I do (I could always stand to lose five pounds, you know?) but overall my bod's alright. I would dig it if it were a bit tinier overall, but that would require both shaving my bones down and taking a few inches out of my absurdly long legs, so I won't keep my fingers crossed. For now, I just would like to alter my eating habits.
I used to be obsessed with nutrition. Say, from the age of 14 to 17. This resulted in what I can recognize now as having been a very slim figure, but honestly back in the day I felt like a hog. I can say first-hand that those anorexics aren't lying that when they look in the mirror, they really see a fat person. I know I did, but when I see the pictures now I can only think, "Wow, I was skinnier then, wasn't I?" Regardless, those were my days of "healthy" eating in that I avoided desserts, chips, fat and cholesterol like it was the plague.
Unfortunately, it also meant I ate very little. I wouldn't say it was to the point of starvation or anything, but it was definetly on the absurd side and I am sure I wasn't getting enough vitamins.
Once I got to college, I was too busy to eat. I mostly ate at work, and my healthy concoction usually included a bowl of beans and rice with some salsa added on top. It's amazingly filling, lasts all day, and tastes good. Thanks to a close friend and her unusually healthy eating habits, I also started to enjoy the wonders of full meals and Subway. And I also fell in love with burritos.
Now, in France, I would say I am a still a healthy bugger, but maybe less so. I avoid chips, excess fat, and three full meals a day (ok, that's not healthy, but whatever). But, on the other hand, I do indulge in an occasional dessert, and the availability of healthy foods in the center of Paris is comparably much lower than their availibity in the middle of sunny California.
Not that it's a real issue. I think eating is a state of mind. Diets don't technically work; what is usually needed is an entire change of lifestyle. It might be torture to be on a diet, but most people plan on going off the diet eventually and it is the reminder that the diet is temporary that keeps them going. As long as a diet is seen as a suspended amount of time outside of "normal" eating behavior, any weight loss accomplished during a diet is going to be put back on once the diet is over.
I do, however, think it's sometimes a good idea to inspect one's eating habits, to do a sort of check-up with the old mental food doctor to see how things are cooking.
So I'm going on the chopstick diet. Besides eating out, all food will be eaten with chopsticks. The only exception to this rule will be my required three yogurts a day.
I like bowl food. I like food eaten with chopsticks. I never cook big slabs of meat so that won't be a problem. It's not just Asian cooking that can be eaten with chopsticks. Everything can. Forcing myself to always eat with chopsticks will not only slow me down, but it will also require that I look at my food while eating it. In order to pick up that tomato and eat it, I will have to have a look-see into my bowl/onto my plate. This will make me more aware of the taste, and the pleasure I am getting from the food.
Really, people eat so quickly nowadays, just shoveling food into their mouths so that they can get back to work before the 14.00 meeting. I'm all about slowing it down.
And plus, it'll be fun. And preparation for my trip next year.
Nice to meet you :-)
I was googling along looking for a translation of Merovingian's silky swearing in The Matrix: Reloaded and I found your blog. Alas, no translation...
If you know it, could you pass the info along? Thanks muchly.
Cheers, -Rea