Friday, February 27, 2009

Back To The Future

Starting tomorrow, I'll be a gainful restaurant-industry employee once again.  Whether I like it or not, this probably means a massive change in my diet, a move I'm reluctant to make.  

Forget about being thin.  Since I quit refined sugar (and the dreams eventually stopped haunting me), I have slept better, had more energy, and felt less hungry more of the time.  Despite the insane amount of tortuous exercise I have subjected myself too, my cravings never got the better of me.  Sure, pizza still called to me from the slice vendors.  At times.  But those cravings that had seemed insurmountable completely disappeared once the white flour and sugar filtered out of my system. 

Yesterday I ate an entire head of cabbage.  I cooked it--I'm not completely off my rocker--but still, I'm pretty sure you couldn't have convinced me, three months ago, that I could be the type of person who could actually sit down and enjoy a head of cabbage.  But I did.  I found it delicious. 

Like most Americans, I was probably suffering a pretty severe B Vitamin deficiency without even knowing it.  Weight drops off me at the rate of two pounds a week (for those counting, that's ten pounds since I quit refined sugar).  

But I'm going back to a controlled environment, where my food is prepared by other people.  I'm also going back to service, which means ten hours on the floor with little to no food, certainly not in tune with my "eat every three hours" mantra.  

I'm planning the following strategy to combat a relapse: I will stuff my pockets with snacks, I will eat breakfast and pack my lunch, I will eat a very small amount of family meal just so that I don't look like a complete a-hole, and I will stay away from candy, which has always been my go-to decadence when I'm starving during service. 

And no matter how much they tempt me, I'm not making bacon the staple protein of my diet, though it is secretly my favorite thing on earth. 

2 comments:

ramster said...

wow a whole head of cabbbage.how was that cooked? I could do it myself, i am pretty sure i have, but it was boiled in a pot with onions, celery, carrots, beef stock, a bottle of beer and a couple of fatty corned beef brisket. i disnt get the impression your cabbage was cooked that way :)

HANNAH SELINGER said...

Cabbage: Baking sheet, tamari, cane sugar, sesame oil, rice wine vinegar, balsamic vinegar, olive oil, salt, pepper, red pepper flakes. 400 degrees. flip once when the tops have started to brown and burn. Roast until crispy. Yum.