For the Food

“Mary Poppins thought of the raspberry-jam-cakes they always had on her Day Out, and she was just going to sigh, when she saw the Match-Man’s face. So, very cleverly, she turned the sigh into a smile—a good one with both ends turned up—and said: ‘That’s all right, Bert. Don’t you mind. I’d much rather not go to tea. A stodgy meal, I call it—really.’ And that, when you think how very much she liked raspberry-jam-cakes, was rather nice of Mary Poppins.”

--from Mary Poppins by P. L. Travers

I have a confession to make: If you have ever invited me somewhere, and I accepted, chances are good that I came for the food.

Try not to be too offended. Notice that I was careful not to say that I only came for the food. However, I’d be lying if I told you that food was not a major component in my decision making process.

Want to go running on Saturday, Katie? Sure, great, we can go to brunch after! Hey, Katie, let’s go to this street fair! Okay, maybe they’ll have one of those sangria stands! Remember when we used to do that walk on St. Patrick’s Day? Oh, yeah, and my mom made that awesome crème de menthe cake. Good times.

I love food. I’m the least picky eater I know. I eat poultry, fish, and red meat. I like every kind of starch and vegetable I’ve ever tried. I have a taste for sweet things and salty things. I love going out for gourmet meals but will also happily eat fake mashed potatoes and pretty much anything that comes out of a box. There’s only one thing I can think of that I don’t like, and that is grapefruit.

I think my lack of pickiness is both a blessing and a curse. On the plus side, it allows me to shop with the sales and eat cheaply. It also helps me to eat a reasonably healthy diet; I like celery and hummus just as much (maybe more) than potato chips and French onion dip. But on the other hand, it also means that I will eat pretty much whatever ends up in front of me.

I’ve been thinking about this issue a lot lately, because… well… let’s just say my clothes have been fitting differently in the past month or two. I’m sure part of the reason is that for the past few summers, I’ve been in the thick of a training plan by now. This year, I have been purposely taking a break from a structured running plan. And as my eating has not changed, there have been some consequences.

Because I am not quite ready to go back to structured training, if I want to curb my weight gain, I need to change my eating habits.

I’m not talking about dieting in the uber-restrictive sense. I’ve just been thinking to myself that maybe I need to start bypassing one or two of the things that end up in front of me. Like the piece of chocolate cake handed to me at my office’s celebration of June birthdays. Or the 400 pieces of candy I’m supposed to be saving to give to volunteers as I plan a service project. Or the stale, dried-out cheese cubes they are offering as free samples at the grocery store.

I hate it when I find myself in this place, because giving up food goes against my general life philosophy that food should not be something that is eschewed. (Chewed, yes. But not eschewed.) (Ba dum bum!) Moderate portions, yes. Stop eating when you are no longer hungry, yes. But don’t refuse food or be ashamed of eating it.

So, I don’t like the idea of restricting what I eat. I want to eat some candy if I feel like it, and not feel bad about it. However, it just seems that lately, my opportunities to eat food, and bad-for-me food especially, have abounded. Eating everything that is presented to me would mean violating some of my other food principles, like don’t eat when you’re not hungry. And my common argument of “I can do this because I don’t eat like this every day” is failing me, because I actual am eating badly almost every day.

I so admit that I need to think a bit harder about what I eat. I can’t eat like I’m training for the marathon when I’m not training for the marathon. So I’m choosing to give up some random food opportunities that don’t have a big effect on other aspects of my life. I can skip getting biscotti out of the tub in the conference room every time I walk by. I can actually leave that candy for the volunteers.

What I still refuse to do, though, is not attend any social events to avoid the food. No matter how many times I go out to dinner in a week, I won’t turn down another invitation because I had big meals for several nights before. I won’t let food restriction affect my social life.

Sometimes, I only come for the food. I admit that. But I refuse to ever not come because of the food. (There’s a double negative for you.) My jeans might be fitting tighter. But I don’t care. Life’s just too short.