My husband and I live right next door to a BBQ place... THE bbq place for this city actually. It's always crowded, it got voted best BBQ on one of those morning news shows (like the Today Show, but it might have been a different one), and it was featured on Man vs. Food on the Travel Channel. Even though we live next door though we hardly eat there, but I do have to say in the mornings when we go out to the car it smells pretty darn good. They have to start preparing the meat in the mornings in order to sell it that afternoon/evening because they slow cook everything.
So last night my hubby was hungry and wanted to order some take out from there. I justified eating some red meat because I read somewhere online that before you have a C section you need to make sure you get a lot of iron in you since you might lose a lot of blood during the procedure. Yes, I know I can get iron from beans and other foods besides red meat, but I guess I was using this as an excuse to eat some meat and also my brain has probably been hardwired over the last 34 years to believe that iron from beans isn't as good as iron from meat. Either way, point is, I got myself a brisket sandwich with two sides.
I bit into the sandwich and while it was "ok", it wasn't great, and the brisket meat had quite a bit of fat on it. I personally DO NOT eat that and will pull it off. I ended up eating maybe only half of the sandwich, pulled a good portion of fat off the meat, and was done with it. In all honesty, it just wasn't that good and after I had finished eating it my hands smelled gross, like bbq. It was sort of disgusting to me. I did eat the sides which was mac and cheese and chili and while they tasted good in the moment, afterwards I felt heavy and sluggish and sorta wished I didn't eat any of it.
The good news is I think my taste buds are definitely changing already since I'm doing more green smoothies and raw foods. I may not be eating raw 100% of the time but I can tell that I'm leaning more towards lighter foods in general, which by the way, is amazing considering it's winter and snowing out, a time when people tend to want to eat heavy, hot meals.
So this is just something for me and you to consider next time you're eating something. Is it really worth it? That donut you're going to eat, is it really THAT good and will it really satisfy you or are you just eating it because a) it's a habit b) you think you want it c) you aren't consciously eating d) you're bored, etc? If you want something sweet, maybe try eating some fresh fruit first and see if that satisfies your craving. If it doesn't and you REALLY want to eat that donut, then allow yourself to. I'm going to really try to start thinking in these terms. Is that dessert one of my favorites? then maybe I will allow myself to have it.. but if I'm eating it just because my husband is eating something sweet and I don't want to be left out, then I should reconsider it.
I think you're right - we'd be much healthier if we stopped and thought before we ate a lot of things! I'm tending towards fresher, less stodgy foods as baby grows, which is so new for me because I used to feel so unsatisfied by dishes that weren't piping hot.
ReplyDeleteNow, my biggest treat is the raspberries I have in the freezer, or juicy pomodorino tomatoes that don't even last long enough to be put in the fridge! It's a shame that they're so much more expensive than the junk I used to like before, but it's definitely worth every penny.
Becca
xx