Thursday, February 19, 2009

on eating mindfully...

hello, my name is victoria and i am a foodie.
there, i said it.

I. Love. To. Eat.
I love to experiment with tastes, combining foods in ways many would not think of, lest they were pregnant. ;-)
I love the entire experience: selection. anticipation. presentation. blessing. consuming. digesting.

However, one of my cousins stole my metabolism prior to our incarnating here.
This is the reason why she's nearing fifty, a mother of three - and can still fit into a SIZE SIX! She can exchange clothes with her daughter freely! (I curse her heartily in my shadow moments...lol)
Additionally, I am a daughter of the Earth: dense and curvaceous.
So I need to be mind*full and aware of what I eat, when I eat, and how I eat.

I was not always mindful.
Many were the years where I simply found things to eat that would fill the Void Within me, at least for a little while.
Then I was introduced to an herbal system called Sunrider towards the end of 1994. (They're still around if you wanna check them out. Google 'em.) I dropped two dress sizes, but more importantly, my sense of taste was cleansed, healed, and resurrected.
Suddenly, food became fascinating, and I wanted to experience it.
Or maybe it was simply my dad's genetic legacy finally waking up within me. He was a foodie, too. :-)

For many years, I was a practicing vegetarian. Diet for a New America convinced me to give up red meat for Lent - and far beyond! - while research helped me bid adieu to factory poultry. But the seafood, ah! the seafood! I could never leave it behind; I would always come back to my tuna, my salmon, my shrimp and scallops! Even a bit of "krab" meat now and again!

As for the vegan route...um, no. Soy yogurt doesn't do a thing for me. I'll stick with my dairy yogurt, thank you very muchly!

I still drool when I catch the smell of meat cooking on the barbie, though... :-p

Within the last few years, there were more shifts in my eating:
Gluten had to go; it was messing with my system too much. So buh-bye to bread and pasta. Flour tortillas were my lifesaver! (lol)
Meat began to creep back into my life...a turkey sandwich here, a chicken casserole there...and even some red meat at a funeral, soul food style.
I purchased organic where I could, and avoided processed foods where I could.
I also crossed fast-food pizza and donuts off my list.

Then came Conscious Convergence...and the consumption of mostly raw, all organic (and tasty!) food for the days on end.
I emerged from the retreat even more mind*full of what I wanted to put into my body.
And I've shifted again: my tastes for meat? gone. Even the seafood! :-o
Many things I would have gladly eaten just a few months ago (french fries, onion rings, milkshakes) make me feel terribly "icky" these days.
If something has significant gluten in it, I get bloated.
And my watchword is "fresh" - the fresher, the better!

I found rice-based, gluten-free pasta the other day at Trader Joe's. I did a happy dance.
Once again, they rock the casbah! (lol)

But...I am interested to see how long this vegetarian movement in my awareness lasts. I am looking forward to lotsa salads in the summer. And I'm wondering if I'm going to need to get a belt in case things start slipping off my hips - hey, it happened once before! ;-)
In the meantime, I'll be drinking my water from my new "good" plastic bottle - I just kicked the disposable bottle habit. Yay me! :-D

1 comment:

  1. Just when I thought I couldn't love you any more than I do already.......

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