Let's Talk About Food, Baby.

Today I'm going to talk a little bit about food. I love food, so I could go on about it forever. When I was younger, I rarely had problems with my weight. I ran 30 - 40 miles a week and my body has always responded well to running as far as weight loss is concerned. So, even during the 9 years I worked at an ice cream store and ate it almost every day, I stayed in pretty good shape.

Of course, that all changed when I turned 45 and switched to mainly bike riding instead of running and going through perimenopause (the drop in estrogen levels slows down metabolism). I have been steadily gaining weight ever since...Until last Summer. Last April, I got to a bad weight number for me and decided I would try to do something about it. I don't have junk food in my house, but we do at work and I become like one of those kids who aren't allowed to watch TV and then stare with glazed eyes at yours, the entire time they're at your house. Only I don't just stare at the bad food people bring to work, I consume it. Once I got to the bad number, I decided I needed to take action. It's pretty hard to exercise more than I already do, so I concentrated on my eating habits. My first step was to stop eating crap at work. In order to do that, since I apparently have no self-control, was to make rules for myself. The biggest one being that I could no longer eat between meals and I had to just eat whatever lunch I brought in. And damned if it didn't work. I lost 13 lbs ( a lb a week) just by doing that and watching my portions during meals. It really wasn't all that hard.

cheese tortellini with fresh spinach and creamy pesto sauce, with a mixed green Greek salad.

The weird thing I noticed about it, was how my co-workers react to it. They not only tease me about trying to eat better and make fun of me for working-out too much (according to them), but they try to sabotage me as well by actually bringing bad food to my desk and leaving it with me even after I tell them I can't have it. Bizarre. I think it must be like the times in my life when I didn't drink because my migraines were so bad and I would still go to bars with my friends and order a soda, and even after knowing that I couldn't drink, friends would insist on buying me shots. I suppose people feel if everyone is drinking or eating too much, they're normal, but if even one person isn't, then they have a problem.

I don't do any fad diets, I just try to follow the Michael Pollen quote: "Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants." It really does work...Even if I do have to fight off the sabteurs.