So, I have a few guilty pleasures when it comes to food. One of those horrible relationships is with Totinos Party Pizzas. As far as horrible non food foods go, it is probably my number one “go to” when I just feel like being bad. Well, lately I have been spending so much time being good that I have been really craving the bad.
So two days ago when I was at the store I caved and allowed myself to buy two Totinos Pizzas. As I sit here writing this they both still sit uneaten in the freezer. I no longer feel the urge to indulge. It still sounds good, but “real” food sounds better. The kind of food I make myself. The kind of food where I know where all of the ingredients come from and I can pronounce all of them.
But it is more than that… Somehow just knowing that I have given myself the permission to indulge is enough. Knowing that they are there and I could have them if I wanted to makes them less desirable somehow. I am not sure how long they will remain in the freezer, but with the crazy schedule I have over the next few weeks I imagine they will stay there for some time.
Our relationship with food in this country, I have traveled enough that I am comfortable with labelling us as one of the worst offenders, is a mess. There is a long list of what I feel are problems, but they mostly boil down to the fact that we don’t consider food enough of a priority to take the time to prepare real food. We want that fast fix, heading for the drive through or the microwave are not the answer to fostering healthy food relationships. Food is the last place we should be looking to for instant gratification. (A whole other topic of discussion is the socio-economic food divide 😩).
Food is what fuels our bodies and makes us go. Food should be the thing we take the most time and consideration for in our day. It controls everything, Food controls our energy levels, our general health and well being, how well we sleep at night. Food even controls how we look. What we choose to eat makes an enormous impact on our lives.
Yet, take a look at our stores. Aisles and aisles of processed food and “snacks”. Whole foods are relegated to the outer edges of these sprawling metropoli, and even that is infringed upon by hot dogs, lunch “meats”, questionable cheese and other sneaky non-whole foods. The number of choices we are given for these “easy to fix” processed foods is mind boggling. Take macaroni and cheese as an example. Why on earth do we need 1/4 of an aisle dedicated to that one item? As the name implies there are really only two main ingredients so why do we need so many options? Spaghetti sauce, same thing. The really sad part is I make both of these from scratch, and it doesn’t take that much more time and effort. How have we let “them” hoodwink us into thinking processed is better?
All these thoughts ramble about my head as I think about those frozen pizzas in my freezer. What is the attraction when real food tastes so much better?
