What is Blog Action Day? It's a day for bloggers worldwide to unite on one global topic. This year the topic is food and Christina and Kacie each share their own thoughts on the subject. To learn more about Blog Action Day, click here.
I love it when my kids ask, “Mommy, what is your favorite food?” How can I answer a question like that? I mean, I could quickly respond with an obligatory kid-friendly answer like, “pizza,” or “ice cream.” Or I can ponder the question for a minute, leaving them in anticipation, and then deflate them with, “tomatoes.” If I’m too busy, washing dishes, or sweeping the kitchen, I might just say, “oh, that’s too hard, I like too many foods.”
Trying to pick out a favorite food is like asking someone to tell their favorite song, or their favorite movie. There are just too many good options out there to really commit yourself to just one. Now, I’m sure there are plenty of people who know what they love for certain. “Oh, that’s easy; I love a mean homemade spicy chili.” Or, “why, etouffee, of course!” While I admire their gusto in favorite foods, I must admit that I judge them on that certainty. How can you only say one thing is your favorite? Really, you think chili is more delicious than a sweat-inducing Mexican pozole, or that etouffee is tastier than an Indian red curry?
OK, OK, so you get the point. I am not a “certaintist” (new word of my own creation). I am one of those melting pot kinds of girls (though generally I don’t like to mix up my food too much). I could never decide that only one food was my favorite. There are so many amazing flavors and foods that taste fantastic. Not to mention that different food, eaten at different times, in different places could make someone suddenly believe that, “Oh my god, this has to be my favorite!”
For example, when I go home to Miami, sit down at a Latin America restaurant, and order a medianoche sandwich with platanos maduros and a Malta to drink, at that moment I believe with all certainty that this must be my favorite food. But then, on a trip to China, while eating some meat-filled steamed buns in front of a tiny Beijing food stand, enjoying taste bud bliss, I believe I am eating my favorite food. How about when I go to my favorite local ice cream store and eat two scoops of fresh peach ice cream on a waffle cone? That is definitely my favorite. Or when I am sitting at home, at my dining room table, with candles lit and a cheese and veggie stuffed pork loin, with new potatoes and homemade bread before me? The romantic ambience, and evening shared with my husband suddenly make that pork loin my favorite. And don’t even get me started on the local farmer’s market. Every food and vegetable there, when it is in season, just picked, and ripened to perfection, is most definitely my favorite food of the day, week, or month.
I don’t believe we should have favorites. Not in friends, not in children, and not with food. The world has so many homegrown flavors that are satisfying, nourishing, and exciting to taste. We would be selling ourselves short by saying, “cheeseburgers” are my favorite, or “kale” is my favorite. Because often, once we label something, we either commit ourselves to over-indulging, or despise it because it’s overkill. I don’t want any food to ever become a regular clutch, so that my diet becomes unbalanced. And I definitely don’t want to eat something to the point of abhorrence (though I’m sorry zucchini, I am not sure I can ever truly love you again). So, to make a long story short, I’m going to eat all of my favorite foods, as much as I can, and in as many places as possible. And that much, I know for certain.
--Christina
I LOVE FOOD. I love eating food. I love pretending to know how to cook. I love watching Top Chef. Food is something that we need for nutrition and something that we want because of the delicious taste, the burst of energy, and the connections we make around the table with family, friends and dates. Yes, I love food, but recently food has not been loving me back.
In January, I started a semester abroad in Prague, Czech Republic. When I came back to America four and a half months later, I was 15 pounds heavier. It was sort of shocking, because I quadrupled my daily exercise while I lived there. I walked everywhere, I avoided the 17th century elevators in my dorm and school, and I danced into the wee hours of the morning in one of the world's capital cities of club culture.
But I was also eating a lot of Czech food. I have always loved to travel, and I always try to eat some traditional foods when I am in another region. Sometimes, the food isn't for me, like in Korea where everything was covered in so many spicy ingredients I could barely handle it. Also, pickled cabbage covered in chili powder, seriously? Sometimes I eat the food to be polite, which was the case for every meal in Japan and my 12-year-old taste buds hadn't matured to their current tolerance. Czech food, however, was just downright delicious. I couldn't get enough houskový knedlík (bread dumplings), guláš (goulash), and smažený sýr (a patty shaped hunk of cheese fried in bread crumbs on a bun with ketchup and mayonnaise.) Also, we have to keep in mind that some of the world's most famous beers were at my disposal for a mere 30 Kč (about $1.50) per pint.
Let me take this opportunity to state that I am not one of those girls who obsesses about her weight. I do not regret a single meal from my time abroad and I still love food. I do, however, feel that such a significant weight gain in such a short period of time needed to be addressed. When I got back to America, I allowed myself two weeks to eat all of the foods I had been missing. (Despite my fondness of Czech food, I still barely survived those months without my mom's shepherd's pie.) After that, I started the process of getting back to my prior weight.
I knew that I would never survive a diet that involved counting calories or eliminated any of the major food groups. I decided instead to make small changes to my diet in an effort to become a healthier person in general, and possibly drop the goulash and pilsner weight.
- I switched all of my grains to whole wheat: whole wheat bread, whole wheat tortillas, whole wheat pasta, whole wheat cereals, whole wheat pizza crust, whole wheat cookie dough, etc.
- I harnessed my terrible snacking patterns and cut my chip, soda, and candy intake by 90%.
- I don't drink my calories and I choose water over juice, soda, and sports drinks.
- I switched from milk/soy milk to almond milk, which has only 60 calories per serving.
- I eat breakfast, which allows me to be less famished at lunch time.
I have also taken a cue from my six year old nephew, who has to be told at least five times per meal that “food tastes the same no matter how fast you eat it.” I take the time to enjoy food bite by bite, allowing my body time to say “I'm full” before I grab seconds.
Even though food has recently betrayed me, I still love it with every pound.
--Kacie
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