Tuesday, October 28, 2008

You Are What You Eat

Kyle is apparently dieting. And by dieting I mean barring all cookies from his apartment and taking smaller second helpings than I do. Neither of us will ever be calorie counters, but at least he's making a concerted effort to be healthier. I should perhaps be "dieting" too, especially for the next dress fitting, but I'll probably just rely on my workout regimen to slim me down and tone me up. Not that I have a real workout regimen right now, but I will soon. (More on that in the next biking entry.) Kyle's healthier eating habits did make me think about how a diet would fit into my current lifestyle, however, and I made the following realizations.

Things that would hurt a diet attempt (besides the fact that I never seriously diet and possess almost no will power):

1. Lindt dark chocolate truffles.

Have you tried these delights? They are incredible: little orbs of deep, chocolate ecstasy. I only recently developed an appreciation of dark chocolate (which I read as a mark of my increasing maturity) and Lindt is the main source. The other day I walked past a Lindt store running a spend-a-boatload-on-chocolate-and-get-free-truffles promotion; I was really close to buying everyone on my list chocolate for Christmas just to score some truffles for myself.

2. Gifts from my ESL student.

For the past year I've volunteered at the local literacy center, helping a man from Burma (now known as Myanmar, but as he still refers to it as Burma I follow suit) with his reading, writing, listening, and speaking skills in English. He must have felt overly bad/appreciative when we had to switch our tutoring sessions to the late evening due to his work schedule, because he's started bringing me food products each week, no matter how much I politely protest that it isn't necessary. At first I got strange offerings like rusk cake, Red Bull, and giant containers of malt energy drink mix (apparently he could tell I was exhausted) but then he switched to homemade bread products made by local Mennonite women. I'm very thankful to be receiving food that I want to eat, but I know those loaves of nut bread and packages of cinnamon rolls are going straight to my hips. I try to share them as much as possible but Anna is usually the only one who can help me out.

3. My Carb Loving Origins

I'm from Lancaster PA, the land of soft pretzels, funnel cake, and dumplings. This is Carb Country, and we never met a starch we didn't like. Even though we like meat too, the Atkins diet and other anti-carb mantras are just never going to work for us. I really wanted to show solidarity with Celiac Sabrina and give up gluten for Lent but honestly I don't think I could ever manage it. My body demands breads and potatos on a regular basis.

Things that would help a diet attempt:

1. Small Lunches and Breakfasts

I'm too poor to buy lunch at Charlottesville prices, but I'm also too lazy to pack a full one. So for the past few weeks my lunch (which is also my breakfast) has consisted of almonds and Campbell's soup at Hand. If I didn't eat large dinners followed by Lindt chocolate I would probably lose a lot of weight.

Oh well. More reason to climb on my bike!...

| posted at: 10:40 | permanent link and comments

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