Food is interesting. I mean, a lot of stuff that we consider "food" isn't really something you should put in your mouth. Americans have a bit of a "weight problem", and I saw one of the reasons why last night...
GI Jane and I were in search of our favorite gigantic Chinese Mecca on Route 1 in Saugus, but took a roundabout way to drive all over goddamn Massachusetts and ended up right in our own backyard over at the "nice" Target shopping center at Wellington Circle. GI Jane really wanted a steak. We went to Outback. Outback apparently closed up and moved out of town and neglected to leave a forwarding address. So then I realized that there was "some sort of steakhouse" up in the Target lot. Longhorn? Meaty McHeartAttacks? Ahhh no. Texas Roadhouse, my friends. The monstrosity of neon Texas's dancing on the facade of the building, luring us into it's peanut shell-covered, meat market. We walked in, put in our name, and at 930 on a Friday night were told "It'll be about 20 minutes". We said okay. We sat on the bench. We looked at each other and said "Hmm, we could be at Kowloon in 20 minutes." And then proceeded to make the decision to stay. Big mistake. BIG. HUGE. I'm going shopping now...(Oh. Oops. Sorry, Pretty Woman moment there.)
Anyway, so we are finally called and we're walked to our table. We are momentarily delayed as there is a birthday and it's very important that you are FULLY embarrassed by having to sit on a little saddle after they yell and scream at you. Awesome. Let me sit down. We crack open the menus and Wally, our cantankerous waitress, comes by, "Have you decided on any wings?". As if the menu was full of different varieties of wings and that's all we could order. Strange. No thanks, we'll have water. So then we begin to read the menu...realizing that our new lifestyles DO NOT fit into a place such as this. My eyes wandered away from the menu and began to check out the clientele and their plates, and the food wandering by in the hands of the waitstaff waiting to be delivered to the hungry masses. Wally comes back. GI Jane orders. "Do you want your potatoes loaded?"...."Ummm...what does that mean?"...."Sour cream, cheese, bacon". And at that moment, GI Jane and I begin to crack up. Needless to say, Wally was NOT amused. "Nope, not loaded." I ordered pulled pork, a plain sweet potato and green beans. Great. Awesome. Green Beans. How the hell can you ruin those?! Texas Roadhouse found a way. I was perusing the laminated cards at the table and see a picture of a bowl of green beans. With bits of bacon? Seriously?! What the hell?! Naaaah, that's not right. That won't arrive for me.
Alas. There it was. A bowl of green beans...floating in an oily liquid...with bits of bacon.
Dear America, THIS IS WHY YOU'RE FAT.
Or in the immortal words of Cash Money..."We're fat fucks."...referring to our society as a whole.
I had about 1/3 or so of the pile of meat on my plate. And immediately regretted it. I watched the people around us, delighting in their mounds of potatoes, dipping sauces, fried foods, and marveled at how I got to this point. I used to be one of those people. We would LOVE to go out, order piles of appetizers, large entrees, desserts, drinks, and just gorge ourselves to our heart's content. But now, the idea of eating 99% of the food on that menu kinda makes me sick to my stomach. I felt pretty gross after eating. I joked about wanting to make myself puke and then go for a midnight run to get rid of the shame. (I understand that bulimia is no joke, but that's not what i was referring to...I just figured ridding myself of the vile "food" would make me feel better.) I don't know why I let myself eat that stuff for so long. But I am glad that I'm on this new path...
This morning, I woke up on my own around 7am and went for a run. I felt better. We met GI Jane and Cash Money for breakfast at Ball Square Cafe, where I delighted in the fresh fruit bowls and the egg white/spinach/tomato/mozzarella/smoked salmon sandwich on dark rye. GI Jane made a great point, when you use quality ingredients, it's very hard to mess it up. I love Ball Sq Cafe for that reason. Everything is delicious. I never feel ill. I feel like I'm eating real food, and THAT is a wonderful feeling.
Later on today, after an a-MAIZE-ing day in a corn maze, we actually ended up at our favorite Chinese Mecca....Kowloon. I had no desire to have the piles of fried food, the General Gau's, anything like that. Yes, I had a few crab rangoons, but my meal was sushi. Steamed edamame, and some sushi. (Alright, alright, with tempura flakes...but still....) I'm not trying to sound all self-righteous or anything, I'm just saying, it's amazing how my tastes have changed. Kowloon has the largest menu I've ever seen, and it's full of amazingly Americanized "chinese" food. Fried everything. Covered in sauces. But I couldn't bring myself to order that. I didn't want any of it. I wanted sushi. I'm such a sucker for sushi right now though. I'd eat it everyday if I could. I ate and felt great...not gross and bloated.
We, as a society, must figure out a way to avoid the seemingly inevitable rising rates of obesity in ourselves and our children. We need to reclaim FOOD and not allow our mouths to be stuffed with "edible foodlike stuffs". Are you tired all the time? Do you have zero energy during the day? Do you find yourself running to the coffee shop or the vending machine to "get you through" the day? Put better food in and you'll get better results from your body. It took me a long time to understand it when people said things like "Food is fuel". You put junk in, you get junk out.
You only get one body...treat it well.
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