My Food View

Let's talk about food. I love food - always have, always will. And I grew up in a family where the food made the memories when it came to events like vacations. When the question is asked "Hey, do you remember when we went to XYZ?", the response is, more often than not, "Oh yeah, we ate that delicious <insert food or meal here>."

I grew up with the mindset, and still put into practice in my adult life, that calories do not count on vacation. Not a healthy method when you're trying to lose weight, right? Sometimes this idea is somewhat okay, like when my boyfriend and I went to Washington D.C. and ate all kinds of amazing, ridiculous foods, and then returned home lighter than we left thanks to all the walking we did. But there's always the chance that you're consuming WAY more than you're expending, so overall, it's not a healthy practice.

And yet my biggest challenges with eating healthy are often faced on the home front. Whether its PMS, work and school fatigue, or copious holiday goodies at the office, my daily life consists of a minefield of unhealthy foods, especially when you're like me and just don't have enough willpower to ignore the damn stuff. And yet still, I will never be the girl who adopts a rigid "food is fuel" mantra and only looks at my food for the energy it can give me. If anything, food is LIFE. Just look at my dogs, who inhale their kibble without even taking the time to chew it. Having the taste buds that allow us to taste and enjoy all the nuances of food is arguably a strictly human trait. And for thousands of years, we've kept food as a main gathering point to bond with family and friends and meet new people (dinner dates, anyone?). Luckily, we've evolved so that we're no longer wearing animal skins and gathering around the fire pit for animal d'jour on a spit...instead, we gather for a multitude of cuisines and tastes including, my favorite family meal, FONDUE!

But I digress. My goal is to always have snacks on hand that satisfy my two main cravings: sweet and salty/crunchy (because salty things should NEVER be anything other than crunchy). I'll brainstorm throughout the day while I'm doing homework and shopping to replace my roommate's tea kettle that I clumsily broke, and will report back later.

xoxo
amanda