I love food, and I love cooking. Unabashedly, unequivocally, and unapologetically, I just
do. I’ve spent pretty much most of
my adult life overweight, searching for the right combination of foods and
lifestyle, and I’m calling it quits.
I have no plans to balloon to twice my size, but for the past month,
I’ve thrown out the diet “rules” and learned to listen to my body. I think I’m losing weight slowly (I don’t
weight myself anymore). My clothes
are somewhat more comfortable.
It’s not drastic, but it feels right. I’m learning how to cook the foods that I crave at the times
that I crave them. I find that I don’t crave crappy food, and if I don’t keep
crappy food in my pantry or refrigerator, I’m forced to forage on nuts and
berries for snacks and make meals from scratch, which ultimately are divinely
delicious and make me feel pretty good.
One of my favorite George Carlin’s specials is called “It’s
Bad for Ya!” If you do enough
reading on food, you quickly come to the conclusion that it’s all bad for ya. He was a man of his times, the acerbic wit and wisdom have
become quotables for me.
Let’s take a look at some of the advice …
Don’t eat fat! But wait, avocados are okay.
Count calories. Stop counting calories, just eat these
4 foods to burn belly fat!
Don’t
eat transfats. (What’s a transfat?)
Eat whole grains. Don’t eat carbs, though.
Low-cal, low-fat is the only way to
lose weight! Protein, lots and
lots of protein to shed pounds!
Sprinkle fairy dust on your food and you’ll drop inches in hours.
Swallow a pill, it’s not FDA-approved
yet, but you’ll be the first to test it out!
Adkins, Slow Food, South Beach, Dukan, Paleo, Vegan
– good
carbs, bad carbs, lions, tigers, and bears, OH MY!
Is it any wonder we are the most obese, unhealthy developed
nation ever? If I had the
inclination, I’d cite some studies here, but I don’t care anymore. We are sold a bill of goods on all of
these products that companies have made “low-fat” or “low-cal” or “natural” or
“organic,” so how do we know who’s right?
We just don’t anymore. I
have read so many studies and reports on food, I’m amazed I can consume any
food at all. So now begins my
quest to simply eat what makes me feel good, and cook what makes me feel happy.
I’m doing it. I’m going to stop listening to people who are
paid to conduct and interpret studies on food, who write horrible stories
designed to scare me into submission.
My food ideally doesn’t even come with an ingredient label, and if it
does, I try to make sure it doesn’t have more than a few ingredients, all of
which I can hopefully pronounce. It
just tastes better to me.
I’m no dietician, and I’m certainly not a lithe
supermodel. And I’m not going to
lecture you on what to eat. I know
what I like, and I know what makes my body and soul feel healthy.
When I was growing up, my grandmothers
and my parents cooked all of the time.
They had gardens and made nearly everything from scratch. We all cooked, that was where we gathered, the kitchen. That is what I aspire to do. We didn’t even have a fast food joint
in my small Wyoming town. We
rarely dined out, it was a treat when we did. I remember being so excited to eat frozen pizza because it
was so novel. Little did I know,
most of my friends were choking down this crap nightly because their moms and dads
did not cook, and they longed for the homemade pizza my mom made and let us top
with whatever we wanted (no cheese for me).
So here’s the thing, I have little interest in preaching to you. You’re an adult, and I don’t care what
you eat. I certainly don’t have
all the answers. I’m not a doctor,
nor do I play one on TV. I am
intensely infatuated with cooking good things for my family and friends, and I
want to share the recipes with you.
You may not have the time or the desire to make some of these dishes,
but it’s my hope that I entertain you, or give you some recipes that you really
want to try. And really, is there anything more fun than hanging out in the
kitchen, sipping a tasty libation and making memories?
What This Blog Is:
- My favorite things to cook and eat
- A springboard for you to try your own ideas
- Delicious recipes developed throughout years of trial and error
- Archaic notions, such as gardening and canning
- My Culinary Adventures of Restaurants and Travel
- Good Times along the way
What This Blog Isn’t:
- An expose’ of how horrible our food supply has become (although I will probably mention it now and again, just because it does seep into my psyche)
- The most exact recipes ever
- Sound nutritional advice
- The quick-fix to being fat
