My Affair with Food

I've loved food for as long as I can remember.  Luckily while I was growing up my Mom didn't have a lot of junk food or sweets around, so I ate pretty healthy.  In addition to food, I've always had a bit of a sweet tooth!  I would always look forward to the Sundays we would make chocolate cake or brownies!  I guess that's not so unusual for a young person (however it really hasn't changed much).  There really were only a handful of food that I didn't like (macaroni & cheese and split pea soup).

When I went on my mission I really learned to love oriental food and rice.  They had the most delicious fruit and vegetables.  They also had some of the most delicious dishes!  Luckily or sadly, my native companions were unbelievably awesome cooks.  This is where my love of food backfired on me.  It started doing what had never been a problem in my life before.  I started to gain weight.  Of course I was a little older, so I'm sure my metabolism slowing down didn't help matters (or every house we visited giving me food and sprite, because we couldn't drink unboiled water).  Whatever the issue, my body would never be the same.

When I got back I dieted to take off some of the extra weight.  It worked pretty well.  I never really got back to my college weight, but I was definitely not overweight.  I was able to balance my lover for food and my weight for the next few years.  Of course when I got married, the typical thing happened and I put on more weight than I had gained previously.  That's when I reached my limit and was willing to try something I had never tried before.  Diet Supplements.  As some of you know, my in-laws sell Herbalife as a side business.

It really helped me at that period of my weight loss.  It helped me manage my appetite and slowly learn the amount of food and the kind of food I should be eating.  That was really the start of not only me become more healthy, but the metamorphosis of my love of food to my love of cooking.  I would have never guessed I would love it so much or be pretty good at it.  Since then when I look at a recipe I automatically judge 1.  if it's calling for an ingredient I've never heard of before and will never use again and 2.  how healthy the dish is.  If the ingredients are too hard to find the recipe gets scraped.  Also if the recipe is unhealthy I probably won't even add it to my list, unless it has amazing reviews than I might consider it.

I am once again in dieting mode after Thanksgiving, than Christmas, than a month eating out in Japan.  I'm trying the whole Herbalife thing again, but I'm not sure how well it's working this time around.  Obviously I don't have as much weight to lose, so it's not coming off quite as fast.  But at the same time I'm not quite sure if the cost of the product is worth it.  I have come far enough now that I could probably do it on my own.  Tom's also going to try it again when he gets home.

What I've learned is food can be one of the best sensory things in the world.  I love the social interaction that tends to happen naturally around food.  But at the same time I've learned to be smart about it in most instances.  There are delicious dishes out there that are very good for you!  You just have to be willing to sometimes step out of the box and try something new.

Thanks babe for always being my guinea pig when I cook something new!