Getting Un-spoiled

Seeing as how I have a fairly unhealthy relationship with food, its rarely something that I'm not thinking about. What am I going to have for breakfast? What's next? What about dinner? Always thinking, planning, wanting. Part of this I know is learned, because that's how it was growing up in my house. Nothing could be done until we knew what the menu was.

Eating healthy has always been a challenge, because in addition to thinking about what and when my next meal would be, I had to factor in that it had to be "good" for me too. A few years ago I began eating oatmeal every morning for breakfast because as far as I knew, it was healthy, and that was one less meal I had to plan. Unless I had ready to go, planned out meals for lunch and dinner, my choices tended to stray from better to worse. I can't count how many times I said "oh, we have nothing to eat, let's just go out." When, in reality, there was plenty of food to eat, I just didn't want to eat it.

Enter in more awareness of our Paleolithic ancestors: Did they have choices like this? Could they pass up the kill they had been feasting on for the past 2 days because they were "sick of it?" No. They ate what they could, when they could. So basically, I've been being a whiny baby when it comes to food, and giving into my every whim and desire. Spoiled.

This experiment is much more then giving up sugar, grains, dairy and legumes for 30 days. This is about re-learning many of my behaviors regarding food and food choices. There are fewer choices of what I can eat. I will be eating a lot of the same foods, day in, and day out. Because I am a Generation Xer I will inevitably get bored of this at some point. Well? I'm going to just have to tell my brain tough shit, and get over it. Perhaps that can be when I re-try lamb, or a kohlrabi, or buffalo. But I think the real solution to the problem is learning how to be happy with what I can have, which is more than enough to keep me alive, and certainly WAY more then my ancient relatives had.

This week has worked out pretty nicely for me. Making my breakfast for the whole week in one big batch has taken the guess work out of that meal. My lunches have been leftovers from dinner the night before, so, in reality, I'm only thinking about/preparing one meal a day. Last nights dinner, and today's lunch:

Skin-on free range, hormone free chicken thighs with pepper, dusting of sea salt, and lemon. Asparagus tossed in olive oil and pepper, with lemon slices on top (I used to use balsamic vinegar). Yes, it was as good as it looks.