Friday, August 14, 2009

A Difficult Relationship

I love food, sometimes a bit too much. Several years ago (as well as when I was pregnant with the toddler), I gained quite a bit of weight. It wasn't that I was eating "bad" food; it was just that I ate too much "good" food.

What did I eat, you ask? Well, first of all, I love salads, and I eat big salads almost every day. I prefer simple dressings with a little olive oil, lemon juice, and balsamic vinegar. I also love adding "interesting" things to my salad such as nuts & cheese! I also love veggies, raw as well as cooked. When cooking veggies, I usually roast them, and I don't add a lot of sauce or anything. I love the taste of roasted veggies. Oh, and oven roasted potatoes! And I love whole grain breads, freshly baked with just a bit of butter and a small slice of good cheese. Yup, all of the above are foods I love. And, for the most part, I can eat them and stop eating them after a more or less "reasonable" amount.

But there is one food that I have an obsessive relationship with: pasta! If you put me in front of a giant bowl of pasta and didn't allow me to think, I would eat it all! Yes, I believe I could actually eat eight servings of pasta...

So, over the years, I have tried to "manage" my relationship with pasta since pasta is way too good to break up with completely. So here are a few things that I try to do:
  • Make just enough for the present meal; don't boil the entire box! - This has taken me a LONG time to realize as I love leftovers. But with pasta, it just doesn't work...
  • Be mindful when you serve yourself.
  • Think before taking seconds.
  • Ask yourself: Why do you want to eat this? Aren't you full yet?
  • Remind yourself: This is not the last time you'll be eating pasta. You don't have to eat it all at this meal...
  • Add plenty of veggies and/or salad to your meal, so you don't only eat pasta.
The other day, I made some pasta with my Tomato-Garlic-Basil sauce. I had two different shapes of pasta left over from previous meals. It was just the right amount of pasta for all of us. I was more mindful and ended up eating an okay amount (still a bit much, but okay).

Questions: What's your favorite food? Do you ever have trouble to stop eating? If so, what do you do?

Be well,
Andrea