what if one day "they" discover that sugar was GOOD for us...

so today . . . i despair.  again.

i try to eat in a healthy way, i really do!  well, ok, that isn't totally true.  i know how to eat in a healthy way, and sometimes i make good food choices, but lately it has been awfully difficult.  i am finding that when it comes to eating, i am an 'all or nothing' type of person.  that hasn't always been true.  several years ago when we went on the south beach diet, i found that i could eat half a peanut butter cookie from subway after my lunch and feel satisfied.  HALF.  who eats half of a cookie?!?!?! but i was trying to make good food choices and had decided that half a peanut butter cookie a day was ok, but just half...

now before you all jump all over me about dieting when i was already pretty scrawny, let me just say that it wasn't so much about losing weight as it was about giving my body healthier foods to eat.  because the truth is, i could pretty much live on junk food and be happy.  but as we age... well, you know...  i don't want to die any earlier than i have to!  and i found that after following the south beach diet, my cravings for sweet things really did go away... until i ate something sweet.  which of course i did, because i like sweet things!

yesterday on facebook one of diandra's friends posted something about a dietary supplement that she was taking that was really helping her lose her post baby fat  she said it really helped to curb her appetite, and thus, her eating.

this would not work for me...

this would not work for me, because my eating is rarely about being hungry.  it is about what tastes good!  i am hardly ever hungry-i don't give myself a chance to be hungry!

i love to eat.

i blame my constant eating on some medication i am on.  my doctor keeps saying it is going to get better, but i am starting to despair just a little bit!  my brain knows i need to make better food choices, but my car keeps taking me to burger king for cinnabons!  yes, they now have authentic cinnabon rolls at burger king!  i am doomed...

...and then yesterday i got an email that said "eight superfoods to add to your diet now!"  i've heard of these superfoods, i just can't remember what they are!  so i thought i would check it out, and here is what i found...

1--salmon.  ok, i am good with this.  i LOVE salmon!!  it is almost always my food of choice when we eat out... well, when we eat out at a real restaurant where the menu isn't posted high on the wall behind the bank of cash registers, and you have to leave a tip.  but for some reason, i rarely fix salmon at home--and not just because i rarely cook!  i think it has something to do with having to actually buy the salmon from a store.  i grew up in oregon, and in oregon our salmon came from the ocean!  my dad went out and got on a boat and caught the salmon, and then he brought it home and cooked it in any of several delicious ways--my favorite being with cheese sauce (which i know maybe sort of defeats the purpose of eating a healthy fish, but it tastes soooo yummy!)  and so, during my formative years, i am pretty sure my mom never bought salmon at the store.  she just went to the freezer and ta-da! there it was.

salmon does not magically appear in my freezer, fresh from the ocean...

but still, i do love salmon, and so even though i don't eat it as often as the 8 superfoods article said i should (2-3 times a week,) i'm putting it in my "plus" column.

2--walnuts.  chalk up another one for me!  i have always loved walnuts.  in fact, i like almost every kind of nut (just ask rollie-teeheehee,)  walnuts are a little bitter, though, so my favorite way of eating them is by the handful, mixed with chocolate chips.

i'm pretty sure chocolate chips are not one of the 8 superfoods...

i have just the opposite problem with walnuts that i have with salmon--i eat way more that the recommended amount (15 nuts a day.)  fifteen nuts a day???  who can eat just 15 nuts a day?!?!?  and since i can't have chocolate chips with my walnuts, i have to mix them with pecans, so then i am eating at least 30 nuts a day...  and i've heard that almonds and pistachios are also good for you, and don't even get me started on cashews!  i haven't heard that cashews have any specific health benefits, but they sure are tasty!  and addicting...

3--broccoli.  a few years ago, this would have been a definite "i will die before i eat this" food.  but while we were on the south beach diet, i taught myself to tolerate it.  and now, i really like it!  i can eat it steamed or raw, and i don't even have to embellish it with fattening sauces (although a little ranch dressing is always a good thing, isn't it?)  broccoli is a superfood that i love, which is a good thing, because the list of other cruciferous vegetables (cabbage, brussels sprouts, kale, bok choy, and horseradish) are definitely "i will die before i eat this" foods.  i guess i'll just have to eat a lot of broccoli.

so as i was reading this article, i was starting to think, "i am doing pretty good!  i have no problem eating the first three superfoods.  maybe i won't die young after all!"  and then, i looked at the next superfood...

4--sweet potatoes.  eew.  in my family we only ate sweet potatoes once a year-at thanksgiving.  that was not often enough to develop a taste for them--even when they had marshmallow filling. i have noticed several places are starting to serve sweet potato fries, but i am thinking that those might not really count as a superfood, although i could probably learn to like them.  i think my main problem with sweet potatoes are their texture.  maybe if i could hide them in a smoothie... a few days ago, ms. jessica gave me a little taste of her smoothie.  it was very healthy.  it had spinach in it.  "but you can't even taste it!" she said.  does she think i am five years old??  i am not that easily fooled.  it was GREEN for goodness sake.  it may have had all sorts of wonderful fruits and vegetables in it, but it was green.  there was spinach in it!  i tried it, but i can tell you that there was no way i would be able to drink a whole huge cup of it like she had.  no.  way.

now, if sweet potatoes tasted like pumpkin, there might be hope.  then again, i don't really like pumpkin either, unless it is in a pie or cookies or ice cream... and it is fall...

5--mushrooms.  ok, listen to this.  "mushrooms have long been an unsung hero in the realm of superfoods, but they are now starting to get recognized as a major player because they're the only fruit or vegetable source of vitamin D."  are you serious???? vitamin D comes from the sun.  the sun!  ten to fifteen minutes a day is all it supposedly takes to get your vitamin D fix, and i am out on the playground a whole lot longer than that every day!  even if you are not fortunate enough to live in the land of perpetual sunshine, there are always delicious, chewy dietary supplements that can be taken-i know because i take them.  i am NOT eating a mushroom.  it is a fungus, for goodness sake!!!

6--tomatoes.  "studies show that eating tomato products may reduce prostate cancer risk."

not my problem.

however, i know there are other benefits to eating tomatoes.  so i tried to learn to like them.  after all, i learned to like broccoli (and cauliflower, btw, which apparently is not a superfood.  i wish i had known that before i made myself eat it...) i thought i would start slowly, so whenever i ordered a sourdough jack at jack in the box, i would just say "no ketchup," but i would let them leave the sliced tomatoes on it.

baby steps, people, baby steps.

here was the problem--the hamburger was hot.  the tomato slices were cold.  and apparently the cold was stronger than the hot, because i know, i KNOW those tomato slices cooled my hamburger off to the point where it was barely edible.  so maybe tomato slices on my hamburgers was not a good idea...  and as we already know, the tiny grape tomatoes had too much of a squish factor to become a regular food.  although, i did plant a grape tomato plant, hoping that fresh ones would taste better than the ones in the store.  everyone said they would.  but what i discovered was that they just tasted more like a tomato!!!

7--blueberries.  this should be an easy one.  blueberries are a fruit, and fruit is sweet, and i like sweet things, so this one should be easy... and maybe it would be. except for the dreaded squish factor.

i can't help it.  i have texture issues.  little did i know that the blueberry muffins that you make with a jiffy mix, which i love, don't have real blueberries in them.  the first time i had a real blueberry muffin, i was horrified!  after the first blueberry exploded in my mouth, i laboriously picked out all the other blueberries so i could finish my breakfast!

my mom eats blueberries every morning on her cereal.  frozen blueberries.  she thinks they are wonderful.  but then, she also eats flax seed...

the last time i was at costco, i bought a bag of dried blueberries.  for rollie.  because i certainly don't want him to die, and if blueberries are the key to longevity, then by golly, he has got to eat them.  and he loves dried fruit, so i thought it was worth a try... yesterday i went into the man room just in time to see him throwing away the bag of dried blueberries.  "what are you doing?" i said. "those are good for you!  and you like dried fruit!!"  he made a face.  "i don't think i like dried blueberries.  they taste funny."  listen, those dried blueberries don't grow on trees!  those dried blueberries were expensive!!  i was not going to just let him throw them away.  "give them to me," i said.  "i'll try them.  maybe i will like them!"  i put one in my mouth.  "i think maybe it is ok to throw these away," i said...

8--dark chocolate!!  ok, now we are talking!  i can totally get on board with this one!  in fact, since i have started eating dark chocolate, milk chocolate just tastes too sweet for me--a novel concept, i know.  but anytime "they" say dark chocolate is good for me, i am just going to accept that at face value and do my very best to stay healthy by eating as much dark chocolate as i can get my hands on.  yep.  i will live to be 100 by eating dark chocolate...

one day i am going to come up with my own list of superfoods.  it will have absolutely nothing to do with nutrition and everything to do with satisfaction.  because the truth is, no matter how bad it is for you, sometimes you just have to have a cinnabon.

or two.