A Revelation!

After I spent the night looking up information on "stress & overeating" (true story- it's most often work-related), I began to bake some sugar cookies for a special event in my class. I decided to watch that documentary "Kings of Pastry" that my chef had talked about in class, and about 5 minutes into it, was blown away by this comment...

"The idea in France is to eat the best, best possible on a daily basis, but just in small quantities so your brain is happy everyday. You know, there is no, you don't starve yourself and eat like a pig at the "all you can eat" on Saturday night. They don't exist in France- the "all you can eat." Chef Jacquy Pfieffer

It was like a missing piece of this puzzle in my brain finally was put into place, and then "Everything in Moderation" really made sense to me. Before, this was my ideal way of life, now it can become my real way of life! What an amazing way to relate to food- to recognize the fact that scientifically, our brains respond in certain ways to certain foods, and that some foods really do make our brains happy! The missing piece in our culture is that we begin to think in terms of quantity instead of quality. We find those happy foods, and instead of "indulging" in a high-quality, small-quantity portion, we keep going and going and going (myself included!), and partly because what we're eating lacks quality. Some people go to the other extreme too, and are so careful about what they eat, it takes all the enjoyment out of the act. When we think about food only as fuel, or only as comfort, we neglect to find the balance- the moderation- necessary to live healthily and happily. 

So today, armed with this new realization (and some other stress- relief techniques I learned through all my reading!)... I made a few stops on the way home from work (after a nice 5 mile run in a gorgeous state park down here- exercise is the ultimate in stress-relief!). First, I stopped at Target, where I picked up a few of my "happy foods", for whatever mood I may be in: Tazo chai tea latte mix, vanilla soymilk, Haagen-Dazs mango sorbet, blue corn tortilla chips (with flaxseed!), "Tension Tamer" tea, and 2 bars of Lindt dark chocolate. (I already have dried cherries and almonds at home). Then, I stopped at the liquor store to pick up a bottle of Italian Chianti- a 91 pointer! Woohoo! :) 

I'm leaving guilt behind, and fully embracing the idea of eating small amounts of foods that fuel my body and make my brain happy (everything in moderation!). 

Another awesome quote to end this post... which I'm aware of thanks to my sister, Sarah... 

"Finish each day and be done with it. You have done what you could. Some blunders and absurdities no doubt crept in; forget them as soon as you can. Tomorrow is a new day; begin it well and serenely, with too high a spirit to be encumbered by your old nonsense." Ralph Waldo Emerson