New food traditions...

Book release day ~ I go to P.Croissant... Well, that was the plan. It didn't work out. Life happens.

This next year, I'm going to change my relationship with food.

I do not need food to comfort me, cheer me, fill me, love me, punish me, whatever.

Food is about fuel and enjoyment.

It annoys me when people talk about food being simple fuel. I've also seen what they eat, and I wonder, "Why bother at all?"

I want to develop a healthy relationship with my food.

My food.

I am in control now. I will not starve.

I need to learn to cut unhealthy foods from my diet.

I'm not talking about sugar. Sorry, but your body turns everything you eat into sugar. The only question is how fast and how useable.

I'm talking about not touching almonds. I learned this past year they really don't agree with me. I'm doing pretty good, so far.

My big troublemaker: Eggs.

I love eggs. I love them scrambled, fried, over-easy, on toast, in rice...

As far as I can tell, I'm all right if I have them in things like cake, cookies, bread, as long as I don't overdo. Once in a while is okay.

The problem I usually run into is three or four times a year I CRAVE over-easy eggs on toast. I discovered I do better if I cut off the whites. It's the soft yolk I'm after anyway. How do I know this is a problem? I take an allergy pill before I make breakfast. How stupid is that? That's like having bandages and an antiseptic ointment on standby because I'm going to play with broken glass.

This year: I will not eat eggs by themselves, if I can help it. Sometimes stuff slips by me in food I order or someone else prepares.

I'm going to learn to be more creative with my cooking.

Something I noticed: After Thanksgiving, I ate mashed potatoes, gravy, stuffing, green beans, and turkey, every day, for a week. My cravings for sugar dropped dramatically. I didn't binge. I didn't snack. I ate sensibly. There have to be other meals I can create that are easy and will help me eat in a manner that promotes continued healthy eating.

Let the games begin.