So, I had Indian buffet for lunch today. Normally, this is about the closest I can get to restaurant heaven: navratan korma, chicken makhani, naan, raita for dessert, some really sweet tea, oh, and saag paneer—can’t forget that. Things started normally for me today, too. I came, ate my weight in cream and butter, and left. Something was different today, though. It was not quite as, I don’t know, blissful as I’m used to feeling. I still shoveled the food in like you are supposed to at an Indian buffet, but at the back of my head I was thinking to myself—or not even that, I wasn’t exactly thinking to myself; it’s more like two thoughts were talking to each other about me, and they were saying “that dude has got to stop putting it away like that.” I overheard them a little, maybe, and I realized they are right.
On the radio or somewhere recently I heard about an interview project they did with people who live to be 100 on the island of Okinawa and it turns out that most of these old people have a saying that you are supposed to eat only until you are “80% full.” I might try that.
That would be hard, though. I used to eat anything I wanted with no problem because I rode my bike 200 miles a week all summer and it didn’t matter. Kids changed that. They like bikes okay, but they don’t like to go on three hour rides. They prefer riding circles in the driveway on their tricycles, which is fun to watch, but I can’t very well get my exercise that way. Instead, while they ride, I garden, and that doesn’t really burn the calories.
So, I think I’ll try to stop killing myself with food. Less of it. Less meat. More legumes, whatever those are. I just bought some chorizo for a recipe, though. I’ll eat that. And I will exclude from the definition of “meat” things like fish and sometimes chicken and definitely proscuitto—no way am I giving that up—and the occasional hamburger won’t count either. Sounds like a plan to me.
To be honest, I had this same plan a week ago, and then Mike and Michelle came over to grill and C and I were going to grill our portobellas and I told them about our plan to eat less red meat, and they were real supportive. They said “why would you want to do that?” And then I ate one of the huge burgers Mike made even though I was already 120% full and it was 10:00. Maybe it will go better this week.
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7 comments:
I think it's cute that you're trying to give up something for Lent. Luckily for you there's only one more week! Why are you trying to fight the unfitness of the Summit City?
Maybe if you didn't always eat the same thing - maybe you could try "meal rotation".
Beware the butter chicken.
My friend Ed's wife and 4-year old daughter are vegetarians...which means that he's a vegetarian too, but he's one of these vegetarians who eats 3 bowls of cereal in the morning and three more at night. When we go to lunch, he treats it as an opportunity to "cheat" on Kim and Margaret, and we always end up eating a lot of meat. He e-mailed me last week to ask if I thought we would have time during lunch to drive all the way to GnawBone to get a fried pork tenderloin at that gas station that was written up in Gourmet magazine a few years ago because of their tenderloin prowess.
I like the 80% full rule. That's healthier than looking at it as 20% hungry.
meal rotation. Yer killin me.
I love that Ed story, too. It should be in a movie or a sitcom or a short story or a blog entry. The things guys will do for love.
Oh, and "20% hungry"--I hadn't thought about it like that. That's a bowl of cereal or a smoothie. I don't know if I will be able to say no to that.
Scott, I've been thinking about you and meat recently, and last night it occurred to me that you once sent me a funny postcard from Ireland (ca. 1993?) that said, "I eat 10 pounds of meat a day here -- I have no choice."
I probably only eat red meat twice a week or so, but any time I try to give it up completely I find myself craving the worst incarnations of meat -- sausage gravy and biscuits, chorizo tacos, grilled bratwurst. It's like my body fights me every step of the way.
I remeber that trip. It was Scotland. Breakfast in Scotland is sausages, bacon, and an egg, and sausages. Lunch is whiskey, and dinner is some kind of meat. I tended to skip the whiskey; it was cold and got dark at 4:00 and the people we stayed with had peat fires in their fireplace that warmed their parlor to 80 degrees. Any alcohol in your system in that room and you'd be asleep before you set the glass down.
yeah, wes and i made a vow to each other never to eat at an all you can eat buffet ever again (save for Indian) because something about people paying to stuff themselves sick just didn't seem right anymore. you end up with all those half-eaten plates of glop. that's when the phrase "there are starving children in africa" would seem appropriate.
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