Here is the scene on my counter the last time I made the grocery store run…
They're here...
For me, it looks like a scene out of a horror movie because, to put it quite bluntly, I do not like healthy food. I know, I know…but it’s true, well maybe it’s not entirely true. Allow me to clarify. I do actually like each of the “healthy foods” on their own. Really, I think most food is pretty darn tasty but it tastes infinitely worse to me if someone starts throwing around words like “low-carb” or ” antioxidant” or “protein packed” or the worst, “only___ calories per serving”. Ick. This language is grossing me out right now.
Why do I feel this way you might ask? Did some fruit or vegetable abuse me when I was a child? Did someone water board me while repeating the phrase, “serving size”? Was I involved in some domestic dispute that involved a piece of whole grain toast or a package of skim milk cheese? The answer to all of this is, “Um, no”, but nonetheless, I do recoil at the slightest whisper of these phrases and frankly I think this is a little bit weird. Why do I rage against those things that are good for me to eat and their verbiage?
Well, unless I’ve repressed something in which case we’re gonna need to call Dr. Phil, here is my own self diagnosis of the problem in one word…and another word…in two words:
Rebellion and Deliciousness. Let’s explore these separately, shall we?
Rebellion
Sometimes I just feel the need to rail against some of the current trends. And the idea that I have to have some book to tell me that eating an entire family size bowl of Mashed Potatoes or seven slices of Pumpkin Pie is inappropriate, well, it just rubs me the wrong way. I only ate six slices of pie last Thanksgiving and that was without using any book as a frame of reference.
Deliciousness
I have always lived my life with the understanding that chimichangas taste better than brown rice, that whole milk is sweeter and creamier than the blue water that is skim milk and that real Coke tastes a whole lot better than plain old water. I don’t know, I just don’t think taste buds lie.
All this rambling is leading somewhere, I promise…and here it is:
I recently had an epiphany that turned all of this fine thinking on its head.
All of my feelings about healthy food and the words used to describe it were…wait for it…immature. Shocking, I know. Actually, I got started thinking along this line of maturity while reading my Bible. Those of you Fellow Daily Bible readers will know exactly what I mean when I say that I was reading in 1 Corinthians 13, the chapter on love, and instead of stopping in the usual place, in Verse 8 “Love never fails”, I went on to finish the chapter and here’s what I found in Verse 11.
“When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I gave up childish ways.”
Now, it’s not like I’ve never heard this verse before. No, I’ve been a believer for a long time and I’ve heard this verse many times but this time it carried with it such conviction that I had a hard time moving on from it. I tried to think honestly about the many components of my life. Had I put away childish ways in many of them? In some cases the answer was a sure and resounding, Yes. In others it was a sure and resounding…Kind of. In the area of maintaining a healthy diet and regular exercise, it was an Absolutely not. I realized that I had some immediate growing up to do.
Sour Potatoes 