Starting my relationship with food from scratch...
“You are not a mistake. You are not a problem to be solved. But you won't discover this until you are willing to stop banging your head against the wall of shaming and caging and fearing yourself."
― Geneen Roth, Women, Food and God: An Unexpected Path to Almost Everything
It's truly incredible to me - when I actually sit and think about it which is rare - the amount of baggage that comes with the concept of food. Even odder to me is the fact that a tremendous amount of this baggage isn't even physical. When I pull those threads and look into how I have spent my life dealing with food, I discover that it is related to body image and how I should be, whether or not I'm eating well, am I saving the planet or harming it with my choices, and does a love of ramen noodles and frozen pizza mean I still live like a child?
I'm thinking about all this because I've stopped thinking so hard about food -- a concept I recognize is counter-intuitive. I have two qualifications now -- it has to be nourishing and it has to be basic. It's true that I sometimes treat myself to whatever I want, but when I'm eating on a daily basis, I'm trying to keep my food basic, fresh, natural and nourishing. it's made a huge difference, and even when I sometimes gain weight, it doesn't come with the self-loathing it used to.
Even better, I've taken up cooking as a hobby. Not just cooking, but making things from scratch as much as possible. I try only to eat bread on weekends, but when I do it's now bread I have made from scratch myself.
I pickled carrots and cucumbers last summer, I have a vegetable garden, I make soup stock, my own ice cream for a treat, and last night I made my own peach iced tea, with fresh peaches and brewed tea.
I think our mothers and grandmothers had it right. There is something so satisfying about making food yourself, knowing where it comes from and feeling like you're putting effort into your body. And I have to admit, I get a real kick out of picking a random recipe, making it and knowing I didn't cop out and buy it.
Oh, and did I mention that I've enjoyed salads for weeks now and haven't bought a single leaf? Or that I regularly make pesto by picking off the basil leaves on the plant I grow in my kitchen? I LOVE that LOL