Food & I are becoming friends again...

I had wanted to blog earlier but got sidetracked with that cool award thing.

Then I remembered after dinner what I wanted to say... that I am falling in love with food again.

If anyone read any of my posts about 3 or 4 months ago, you can see how insane I was becoming, ranting about food being the enemy and destroying my life.

I realize now I sounded like some disgruntled woman who hated all men because the few losers she picked up screwed her over.

I have always loved to cook, and loved to eat, and now that my body seems to be cleansed of many of the toxins it was once harboring and running on much better quality fuel, I am starting to enjoy, even get excited, about eating again.

Today I had barely eaten... well, I shouldn't say barely; I woke up and had a 3-egg white omelet positively stuffed with seasoned roasted veggies. But that filled me up so I got busy, went to the gym, started doing things and forgot about lunch.

So I made this huge dinner, a little more calories than I like, which made me feel guilty at first... but then, oh, the nutritional value and the size of the meal for the calories I got was just amazing, it was incredibly delicious, I am totally stuffed, and I still came in at about 1200 calories today when I have my sugar free chocolate pudding pie.

It was so nice I had to take a photo of it. Actually, if I had realized it was going to look so good and thought I would be taking a photo of it I would have put it on a real plate, lol. Now let me tell you what I got going on here...

 A quarter-pound burger made of lean turkey meat. In the meat I mixed a spoonful of diced red roasted peppers, some garlic powder, some poultry seasoning mix an salt & pepper. It is on a toasted 100% whole wheat bun (no white flour added, no high fructose corn syrup). I added a slice of canned cranberry jelly as a condiment for flavor and topped it with a few spinach leaves, slice of tomato and slice of red onion. On the side, I have baked sweet potato fries, skin on, seasoned with garlic powder, chili powder, salt & pepper. I used just a tbsp of olive oil to toss all three potatoes I prepared before seasoning them and baking them. My serving is one whole medium sweet potato. I dipped the unfried fries in fat free ranch dressing. Behind the fries you can see my mountain of steamed broccoli. I made 2 pounds of broccoli with 2 tbsp of butter, a splash of skim milk and 2 1/2 oz of cheese, salt, pepper & garlic powder to season the whole two pounds. I have 1 cup of it on my plate, so I got less than 1/2 tsp of butter and less than 1/2 oz cheese in my serving. You may notice, to the left, my glass, which has about 1/4 cup of unsweetened cranberry juice with sugar free sparkling water for a refreshing virgin "spritzer."

This meal rang in at around 800 calories... which is one of my bigger meals, as usually my dinners are 400 to 600 calories. It felt like I was totally cheating... a total feast.

Out of curiosity I looked it up... a McDonald's Big Mac large meal comes in at 1350 calories, and a Burger King Double Whopper meal is around 1800!

And not for nothing-- the nutrition in this meal with the broccoli, sweet potatoes & the bit of veggies on my burger is pretty good... I mean, this is not empty calories! It is packed with lean protien, vitamins, minerals and fiber!

Rockin'!!!!!

I am totally stuffed though. Next time I do this I might have to make smaller portions. I was so hungry after skipping lunch, I overdid it. I need to take this as a learning experience... I don't have the appetite I used to have.

But then I got to thinking how I would sit there and eat that McDonald's Big Mac meal, or that Burger King Double-Whopper meal, and suck down a refill of soda, and want (and sometimes get) another sandwich! And if I didn't get one, I'd walk away wanting one.

My Goddess, how did I eat the quantity of food I ate just a few short months ago?

But the best part is, I can eat like this, and feel satisfied, and not overdo it, and I no longer toss and turn and fidget thinking about stuffing more food into my gut...

I read somewhere that your stomach has sensors for nutrition... and it registers as "full" not when it is actually stuffed full with food, but when the sensors detect that you have consumed the adequate nutrients. If that's the case, it is totally clear why when I was eating empty calories I couldn't seem to stop eating, shoving more and more food into my mouth even though i felt like I could bust a gut...  but now that I am eating nutrient rich food I am getting totally satisfied on much less food.

Even my husband was totally satisfied with one burger, and one potato worth of fries... he used to eat like two (or more), topped with cheese and bacon, and I used to make at least 2 white potatoes per person, or a whole ton of frozen fries. Oh my Goddess, how sick is that? 

Anyway, food is starting to make me smile again, and it feels good.