Eat What You Love and Love What You Eat

I love oranges right now. They are juicy, perfect, and bursting with flavor. I love different types of foods at different times of the year. I will devour a great salad but I don’t want anything to do with them in the winter. I wonder if it’s conditioning – that’s not something we had in the winter growing up in South Dakota. All the fresh, juicy flavors of summer are so fun to think about in the winter – and so fun to finally get to when June rolls around. When fall comes, I crave pumpkin bread, chili, kettle corn and turkey legs. In the winter: roasted meats, baked potatoes, soup, soup and more soup, anything that warms the belly.

My friend, Jessica, eluded to this in a comment yesterday. She said when she’s eating well, she only eats what she loves. Me too. This is one of the most satisfying things to be able to do. I’ve eaten some pretty awful things in my life: Laffy Taffy, Funyons, Coca Cola, Mountain Dew, sardines, Twinkies, Oreos, Little Debbies, and SO much Fast Food. I apologize if you still eat these things. Aside from sardines, are any of these even real food?

It’s satisfying to eat only what you love because when you’re doing it right, you’re completely in control of what food you consume. You only want to eat what you love. Some people will respond, “I’d just eat chocolate, all day until I hit my calorie limit.” First of all, that would happen surprisingly quickly. Second, you’d get pretty sick of being hungry. When your calories are limited, you want to make the most of the food you’re eating. You want high fiber because it makes you feel full. You want a good amount of protein to help build the muscle you’re working on. You’re also paying attention to carbohydrates because they keep your energy level steady throughout the day.

What’s great about eating only what you love is that your tastes evolve and you start to love only food that’s very good for you. You crave that clean, natural flavor and the way it sits on your belly – comfortably – not like an expanding brick. There are days when I flat out fall on my face in this endeavor…who am I kidding? There are stretches of days. (Again, this is just between you and I, folks!) When I do this, I can feel it: indigestion, bloating, exhaustion. I try to write it down, remember how it felt, so I don’t repeat my mistake.

Think about a day when, all else being equal, you just had some indigestion. It wasn’t enough to stop you from going about your normal day but how did it make you feel? Sluggish? Maybe a little irritable? Me too. I don’t like it. Let’s make a pact to eat only what we love, only what makes us feel vibrant and healthy; food that sits well on the belly. Let’s start with oranges!