If you’ve been following my blog, you’ve noticed I’ve been paying more attention to diet. I started reading Tilden and his rules of eating, and then quickly realized I had a food addiction.
Awareness is always the first step. Then, it helps to seek out motivation that encourages you to change in the direction you want to go. I’ve been paying attention to any information that supports my new relationship with food.
It was a pleasant surprise when I was reading Ben Franklin’s autobiography last night that I found a great quote about food and Ben Franklin’s relationship towards it:
My brother and the rest going from the printing-house to their meals, I remained there alone, and dispatching presently my light repast (which was often no more than a biscuit or a slice of bread, a handful of raisons or a tart from the pastry-cook’s, and a glass of water), had the rest of the time till their return for study; in which I made the greater progress from that greater clearness of head and quicker apprehension which generally attend temperance in eating and drinking. (emphasis mine)
It’s amazing how many people want to tell you what to eat, when to eat, but not how to think about food. How quickly we forget how much energy it takes to process food.
I’m amazed at how much more energy I have when I’m temperate with my eating. It can be difficult, though. Our lifestyles, being unnatural, encourage unnaturalness in other things, like how we eat.
Again, awareness is the first step.
Also, it’s worth considering the food Ben Franklin ate was likely of superior quality to the stuff that we now label food. I do most of my shopping at Outpost, a local co-op. In short, I don’t buy crappy food, it just doesn’t support my body as well.