I'm Trying

Last week a group of my co-workers got together to order a few pizzas for lunch. They kindly asked if I would like to participate. I thanked them for asking me, but said no. One of the women then said to me, “You’re so healthy.” All I could think of to say back was, “I try to be.” Now, I hadn’t given a reason for not going in with them to get the pizza. This woman jumped to the conclusion that the reason was because of all the fat and calories in pizza. In fact that was only part of the reason. I really just didn’t want to buy lunch when I had already brought one with me. Don’t get me wrong. I love pizza. And I do eat it . . . from time to time.

At the risk of getting all psychoanalytical I wondered if she was projecting onto me her own thoughts about what she was about to eat. Bear with me here. While I have developed a reputation at work for eating healthy, these women also know that I don’t eat well every minute of every day. This particular co-worker has brought in cupcakes on two occasions. On both of those occasions I took a cupcake. In other words, she knows that I occasionally eat something unhealthy. Why then assume that was my reason for turning them down?

I frequently see people at work sitting down to eat lunch and then saying, sometimes to me, sometimes to no one in particular, “I know this is really bad for me, but . . .” To whom are they justifying their lunch and why?

Somehow I’ve Gained a Reputation

Somehow I’ve gained a reputation with my co-workers for being “the healthy one.” I’m not displeased with this moniker, but it did puzzle me the first time I heard it. I don’t prance around the bank telling everyone what I’m eating or not eating (though now I frequently get asked). I don’t berate those who eat fast food every day. I am, however, not particularly good at masking my feelings. It is very possible that when someone near me is drinking Mountain Dew at 9 a.m. or eating 2,000 calories worth of fried food for lunch again I might curl a lip in disgust. This is unintentional, because I know how I eat. And while, yes, I might be the only one in the bank who brings homemade lentil or baked potato soup (made with organic soy milk) for lunch I know that I sat on the couch last Saturday and ate an entire pint of mocha almond fudge soy ice cream while I watched Inception. I do not wish to cast stones. I know it is sometimes easier and more pleasurable to have a bowl of cereal for dinner rather than cook a balanced meal, and I sometimes do this, but it is far from the norm.

 

Perhaps then my reputation has come about not from preaching against unhealthy eating, but from simply eating healthy myself. My work week lunch never comes from KFC, McDonald’s, Taco Bell, Bojangles, or Carolina Fine Foods (please help me). It is also never made by Campbell’s, Progresso, Weight Watchers, Healthy Choice, or Kraft. It doesn’t include anything from Coca-Cola or PepsiCo. I eat real food prepared predominantly by myself alongside fresh fruits and vegetables. My meals include, apparently, unfamiliar and unusual ingredients such as lentils, quinoa, and chickpeas. These things, unfortunately, are enough to make me stick out amongst my colleagues like a single raisin in a bowl of oatmeal (thanks to Thomas Sowell for the word picture). Are being fit and eating good, unprocessed foods such an anomaly now that I am an oddball? Apparently so. How sad. 

Question: What's your food rep?

I Think I Spend Too Much Time Thinking About Food

I don’t just think about food from time to time, say, at meal times. I’m not one of those people who suddenly realize they are hungry and then wonder what to eat. Oh no. I plan out my eating days in advance. I go over it in my head every morning. Each day’s menu is specially crafted around the day’s activities, meal times, and the amount of time that will lapse between meals. This is serious stuff.

Each week I plan seven daily menus from which I make a weekly shopping list, but I also need to think ahead to the next week’s meals in case there is a little money left in the budget with which I can buy an ingredient or two I might need the following week.

I watch Top Chef faithfully each week, whether it is the original version, Top Chef Masters, or Top Chef Just Desserts. I love them all, and they all make me equally hungry.

I love grocery shopping, especially at Whole Foods. I love standing in front of the pastry case trying to decide which freshly-baked vegan cookie to try next. I love wandering through the produce department to see what’s on sale or what new vegetable I might want to try. I get a high out of squeezing the most food out of my small-ish budget. I get a thrill when something on my shopping list is on sale or when I discover a coupon for something I wanted to try, but didn’t think I could afford.

I love talking about food. I dine out vicariously through my family members who do it more often than I can. If there is a PDF of the menu available they e-mail it to me so I can drool over the options, and then I decide what I would order if I could eat there. I am not making this up.

The best meal of my life was eaten at Craft New York. I still think about the gnocchi and the espresso ice cream that came with my sister’s dessert. That was 14 months ago.

I’m trying two new recipes this weekend and I can’t wait to see how they both turn out. I think I spend too much time thinking about food, but I love it.