I’m Hungry

My hobbies include eating and also thinking about the next time I will be eating. ~Words that speak to me in the deepest parts of my hungry soul

The Best Thing I Ate Last Week…

If I’m truly honest, the best thing I ate last week would be one of the four recipes I made from Food & Wine Magazines’s Cook the 40 challenge that I’m doing this year. But hey, those recipes will be featured in their own blog posts, so I’m not counting them here.

I’m also not counting them here because after I ate them, I was pretty much still hungry. Why? Because starting last week, I decided to take it easy for a while. And when I type take it easy, what I mean to share is that I am giving myself a break from being a first-class glutton.

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How Long of a Break?

How long of a gluttonous break am I taking? About three weeks, give or take a few hours or so at O’Hare during a layover to Amsterdam. (Hint, the anti-glutton break officially ends during a Baltic cruise vacation at the end of the month!)

Because, while at O’Hare, I may go ahead and indulge in some deep-dish Chicago pizza, and enjoy an Old Style or two. One doesn’t get those opportunities much anymore since one moved away from Chicago to be back home in Texas.

So other than a possible airport pigout session, and before vacation starts, I’m trying to be a little less bloated than I was on August 1st.

Wish me luck!

Actually, I Kinda Do This Every Year

Now that you mention it, I actually do pretty much do this every year.

Every year, I go a little crazy in July (for Elda Fest, which you may remember reading about in my last published blog post), and every year I take a little bit of what I call a detox break in August. I usually lose the 5 to 8 pounds of mostly water weight and then all my non-stretchy clothes feel better again.

This year isn’t too different except that I’ve been going a little crazy a little longer – since around March, with very few breaks in between. So crazy that even my stretchy clothes had been a bit too stretched, if you will.

Therefore, I have much more than water weight to lose…unless I want to shop for, and purchase, new—and bigger—pants. Which I don’t want to shop for, or purchase, by the way.

So, What Have I Been Eating?

Less. I’ve been eating less. A lot less.

And when I say less, I mean that I’ve been trying to get back to my normal (normal for several years now) during-the-week eating where I try not to be such a glutton so as to stave off diabetes, weight gain and the overall feeling like I may die in my sleep. (Which, if I had no self-control would be how I spent all of my days and how I would likely end up dying…)

So, what have I been eating? A lot of good things, really.

I’ve made some good breakfasts, some good dinners and I’ve been creative with some of my favorite foods like tomatoes, meatballs, cheese, eggs, bacon, and did I mention eggs?

I typically eat a lot of eggs during detox time. Especially deviled eggs. I love those all the time; the difference during detox is that instead of eating 8 or 9 or a dozen deviled eggs, I only eat three or four, depending on how the calories fit in with the rest of the day.

Counting Calories?

Yep. Since August 2011, I have been one of those calorie counters. I measure my food, I count the calories and I deliberately plan how and what I’m going to eat most days. Especially during the week. Now, I do give myself some cheat days, or days or meals where I don’t worry too much about it (or I try to), but those cheat days don’t outnumber the non-cheat days, thus making sure my clothes fit and my bloodwork continues to keep the prescription insulin away.

Eating & Telling the Truth

So, have I been lying to you all these months? No, what I post, I eat.

That’s been the problem, I think! I’ve just been posting too much. That’s it, I figured it out!

Seriously, though, as this blog grows and continues, I likely will tell more of my story as it relates to the struggle of what I call being hungry and eating too much, versus being honest and responsible while finding a way to live happily ever after—or however long ever after is for me on this earth—with the body and biochemistry I have.

Blessed to have, that is.

So, Am I Really Hungry?

No, I’m not really hungry, I just like to eat and I like to eat a lot. Counting calories has taught me that a person of my height and stature doesn’t need much more than 1,200 calories a day to survive (even my scale says that number is too much some days…ugh). But I do want more than that, and when I get to eat more than that, this weekly blog post is probably a little more interesting. (Sorry!)

Until then, enjoy some of the photos here of things I ate last week. They may not be Elda-Fest-July-worthy but they have allowed me to wear my once-again-now-more-comfortable-feeling stretchy pants to type this. (Thanks to losing 8 pounds of water weight so far…)

See y’all next week. I’ll probably still be hungry.

Elda XO

Do you struggle with eating or wanting to overindulge? If so, what keeps you motivated to not eat so much?