Tuesday, July 12, 2011

Why eat out when you don't have to?

Mark was getting home late from work yesterday and called me from his last stop to ask me if I could cut up some veggies for his usual stir-fry lunch so it would be almost ready by the time he got home. Of course I said I would, and I did. He arrived 10 minutes later, starving, and all that needed to be done was to add the final ingredient, eggs....he does that part because he likes his eggs a certain way!

After he ate I said to him, "you know...you could have stopped somewhere and bought something to eat!" In my judgement Mark can eat whatever he wants to so why not just stop for a burger or something? I already knew the answer he was going to give me because it's the way I feel too.....why stop and buy inferior food when there's plenty of good food at home waiting? And that's exactly what he said! I thought about how far we've come...not just me, but now that I know how to feed myself and my family good foods we all expect nothing less.

I remember the day that I used to eat out at every meal.....well, at least 90%....no, more like 99% For the life of me I can't remember anything that I cooked....what did I cook? Oh sure, maybe every once in a while I pulled out the recipe for lasagna and made super big pan of it....oh, I know, I used to make enchilada casseroles....alot! Lots and lots of cheese, plenty of meat, drowning in sauce and not a green vegetable in sight, lol! (I even put diced potatoes mixed with the ground beef, as if the tortillas weren't enough! At least I knew how to dice a potato, lol).

When I think back to those days, calling on my way home from work....not to ask for some veggies to be cut up, but to ask what kind of fast food should I drive through and pick up. I remember very clearly at one point when nothing sounded appetizing and no one could make a decision...had we run out of good tasing options, or had our "good taste" run out? lol

Although Mark didn't verbally express his tiredness of all the crappy food, I could tell he wasn't eating food he enjoyed and was kinda sad about the whole thing. Here I was fatter than ever, and getting fatter, bringing home greasy bag after greasy bag of shit....

It's a miracle really.

Heading home from Palo Alto this morning I knew I had a salad in the fridge waiting, in fact I had a number of other choices too, and I thought about if I had to stop for a meal what would it be? It would be the same kind of foods. A salad, some soup, some kind of protein, a yogurt, an apple, etc. There will be lots of times when I will have to eat out, but for now I don't!

4 comments:

Diana said...

It's bizarre to think "back" of those horrible days when I ate what I ate....but it's also fun in a way to see how we've transformed. We are who we are because of what we've already experienced in life-now we're just perfecting ourselves!! LOL

Mark and I would be great together for breakfast-nothing beats eggs with all kinds of "goodies" mixed in! I could eat that for every meal and live quite happily ever after!!

Maribel said...

It always seems easier to stop and grab something, but most of the time it's a pain in the a$$.

Right now I feel very disconnected and out of control with food because of time restraints, so I do find myself in that position. I still stop on the way home from work for something fast, but it's a little bit different. I stop at the grocery store, I get some greens and a pre-cooked/roasted chicken. Same amount of time, same amount of effort to stop somewhere, just better decisions.

Tracy Reifkind said...

Diana,

I really wish I was an "egg person". Eggs don't digest well with me and I don't find them satisfying, much like sushi. Neither make me happy, and food needs to make me happy!

And although I've kicked the fast food habit years ago never to return the cookie habit is still so delicious to me!

Tracy Reifkind said...

Maribel,

Pre-cooked roasted chickens are "the bomb"! Interesting though....now that I've brined those chicken hearts I think I may start brining chickens using the same recipe.

Roasting chickens are so easy, minus the time, heating up the kitchen, and the clean up....oops, I guess they are a bit more work! Anyway, I also find the cost of a whole chicken to be expensive? Unless of course you buy two Foster Farms chickens at Costco, or on sale at Safeway, a pre roasted chicken is a steal $$