Day 23 {Whole30}

I used to work with a really wonderful woman who, for lunch everyday, would heat up a frozen Amy’s burrito. Don’t get me wrong, I love me some Amy’s Indian Mattar Paneer, but she would seriously eat one burrito. Every. Day. I made some joke about it once when we were eating together and she told me, “I eat to live, I don’t live to eat.”

I think about line all the time. It just really struck me. Part of me thought she was calling me a fatty for caring about having some variety in my lunch menu. But I don’t think that was it. Maybe she meant that she wasn’t a slave to food. Whatever the meaning, it was a curious thing to say.

Today I took a meal to my friend who just had a beautiful baby boy. I made them the Chicken Cacciatore we had last week. I added spaghetti and Rice Krispies to round out the meal. She texted me later that it turned out really delicious (it is a really good recipe, bookmark it!) and that her three year old had 3 servings of everything.

For whatever reason, I thought about this “eat to live” line. I think that God has designed our body to love good food. Sure, we need to love food in moderation just like we should have moderation in all parts of our life, but there is not much that can rival a really good meal with really good friends. Or a good meal to lift a person’s spirits when things are really shitty or stressful. Or cooking for someone and watching them savor every bite because it’s so delicious. Or eating a meal where all the flavors are so perfectly balanced that you have to close your eyes or do the this-is-so-good-I-have-to-do-a-little-shimmy dance.

I don’t think the sole purpose of food is to give our body energy. There is something deeper to food than this.

I think in order to have a healthy relationship with food we have to accept that we love good food. We do. Now what we consider good food can change. And doing this Whole30 I have found recipes for some really amazing food. But I think the goal of Whole30 – to help you achieve food freedom – doesn’t mean that we should only eat for the energy it gives us. We have to accept that food is a way to connect with people, a way to show love and receive love. Food is a way that we can relate to the world. We just have to figure out the best way to do it for our health.

Breakfast:

• Sweet Potato Hash Browns – I almost set our house on fire cooking the sweet potato in the microwave like the recipe says. I also made the hash brown patties too big and I tried to cook them on the griddle so they didn’t crisp up as they would have had I fried them. The whole thing was soggy. Not the best. But it might be my fault not following the recipe closely enough. Except for the sweet potato in the microwave. I can’t see how that would ever work.
• Trader Joe’s Garlic Herb Chicken Sausage
• 2 Fried Eggs
• Fruit

Lunch:

• Spinach with Cherry Tomatoes and Balsamic Vinegrette
• Hard-boiled Egg
• 1/2 an Apple with Almond Butter

Dinner: (All the leftovers)

• Applegate Hot Dog
• 1/2 a Hamburger Patty
• Grapes
• 1/2 an Avocado
• Spinach
• Hard-Boiled Egg
• Leftover Potato and Green Bean Salad

How We Felt:

Sometimes you just get tired of cooking. Thank God for leftovers.

Also, the author of the blog – Pretend It’s a Donut – wins at life. I haven’t read her stuff, I just wish I had come up with a blog name like that.