After gestational diabetes and the measuring/fretting I did over every morsel that went into my mouth (which contributed to my OCD becoming a real and true disorder rather than a personality quirk), I really have to be careful when it comes to food.
It is so, so easy for me to obsess about it. Although I probably should measure portion sizes better, I'm truly afraid that it will set me on an unpleasant path of withering down to 112 lbs (which looks gross on a gal who is 5'7").
Right now, I'm battling an obsession about food that stemmed from reading The Omnivore's Dilemma. (As usual, I'm way behind the rest of the world in reading this.) I was pretty stunned by how much I didn't know about the various food chains. I have been buying from a local CSA for a few years now, and switched to organic milk in 2007, but after reading the book I decided I am only purchasing grass-fed, locally raised beef.
Over the past year or so, I've cut way back on our consumption of meat/poultry. While we are certainly not vegetarians, we probably eat at least 3 meals a week that are meat-free. Since I've cut back so much on our meat purchases, I've rationalized that we can splurge a bit to purchase beef that I feel comfortable eating. Read that book and you'll never look at the meat department in the same way.
I found myself starting to get a little undone with fretfulness about where I was buying my food and whether it was all organic and how much it was processed and how much sugar it contains. I was feeling guilty when buying certain healthy foods because it wasn't in season (so is being shipped from across the US and making a large carbon footprint) and it was probably sprayed with pesticides. I was flogging myself internally a bit over not making more stuff from scratch and sometimes buying foods with more than 5 ingredients. (THE HORROR!!)
Suffice it to say, I had to have a little intervention with myself. A person could drive herself nuts over food purchases. I decided that it is a little ridiculous and such a first world problem to be stewing over things to such an extent.
It is so, so easy for me to obsess about it. Although I probably should measure portion sizes better, I'm truly afraid that it will set me on an unpleasant path of withering down to 112 lbs (which looks gross on a gal who is 5'7").
Right now, I'm battling an obsession about food that stemmed from reading The Omnivore's Dilemma. (As usual, I'm way behind the rest of the world in reading this.) I was pretty stunned by how much I didn't know about the various food chains. I have been buying from a local CSA for a few years now, and switched to organic milk in 2007, but after reading the book I decided I am only purchasing grass-fed, locally raised beef.
Over the past year or so, I've cut way back on our consumption of meat/poultry. While we are certainly not vegetarians, we probably eat at least 3 meals a week that are meat-free. Since I've cut back so much on our meat purchases, I've rationalized that we can splurge a bit to purchase beef that I feel comfortable eating. Read that book and you'll never look at the meat department in the same way.
I found myself starting to get a little undone with fretfulness about where I was buying my food and whether it was all organic and how much it was processed and how much sugar it contains. I was feeling guilty when buying certain healthy foods because it wasn't in season (so is being shipped from across the US and making a large carbon footprint) and it was probably sprayed with pesticides. I was flogging myself internally a bit over not making more stuff from scratch and sometimes buying foods with more than 5 ingredients. (THE HORROR!!)
Suffice it to say, I had to have a little intervention with myself. A person could drive herself nuts over food purchases. I decided that it is a little ridiculous and such a first world problem to be stewing over things to such an extent.
2 comments:
Oh my goodness, I can totally relate. I call these my "white lady problems," but the obsession can seriously take over my brain at times! I think for me, it's also a budget issue. We have five mouths to feed and all organic/local/pasture-raised is soooo expensive!
You're right, it's possible to get completely wrapped up in fears and anxiety over feeding our families a pure diet. Or, as pure as possible,given the restraints of a non-millionaire household. I just try to remember that God created our bodies with ways to fight off bad stuff and rid itself of toxins, so everything bad that comes into our bodies doesn't just sit there and build up in the same amounts that it went in. And I also just try to focus on always buying organic of the stuff that's we consume the most of -- dairy, grapes, berries, apples, ground beef -- and just get the other organic stuff when the budget allows, which varies from week to week.
But you're right -- it can become an unhealthy obsession, thanks to the zillions of magazine articles and news stories that scare the bejeebies out of a normal person.
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