I enjoy eating the bland healthy foods often. For instance, I really enjoy wild rice and barley with some kefir or low fat yogurt (As in the stuff that is plain and has the fat removed, as opposed to the flavored crap with chemicals that is no better for us and doesn’t have enough calories lopped off to make it worth eating anyway.). I could live off of just rice if it were absolutely necessary. As a kid, and generally nowadays, I couldn’t stand a lot of things that had too much sugar in them, unless they were sour. I went for the fruit instead. I currently love to annoy a friend of mine who insists she can’t cook by talking about bread from scratch and “health-nut food.”

Recently I went on a super bland diet in order to get down to what my BMI supposedly is supposed to be. I got to the right weight and, amazingly enough, everyone wondered what was wrong with me, and I felt so bony it was hard to sit down. This was only after losing a few pounds. So I ate more and threw in a bit of fat and other things that weren’t supposed to be in good diets. Now I’m at a comfortable weight, and fairly often I have to figure out ways to pack the calories in so that I’m not starving myself.

Of course we should all endeavor to eat healthily, but healthy is not what healthy diets are labelled as. For instance, in meditterenean diets, they eat a lot of olive oil. A lot. There are so many delicious greek things fried in olive oil. Mmm…olive oil. The diet looks unhealthy to those of us who think that we shouldn’t be eating this because it’s fattening. But! People on that diet are a whole lot healthier, usually, than on something we might usually come across. For one thing, because olive oil is supposed to be good for you. You’re supposed to eat it. Probably not straight out of the bottle, but seriously…it is good and healthy.

And then people say that nuts are full of fat, and fruit is full of sugar. Mustard (The yellow american kind) has no fat or sugar, or anything else bad, and no calories or funky chemicals. What a miracle food! But it has no nutrients either, and it will do horrible things to the digestive system. We can’t just look at calories. We have to look at everything in the food and decide how to get everything we need for the day into our food without overeating. A few more calories is a lesser issue than having a few too nutrients.

Oh, and another note – I used to follow an easy diet. I would eat very healthy and strictly limited food for awhile. Then one day a week, I’d eat whatever I wanted. It worked great for weight maintenance. Now I take the level of testosterone typical for an adult male, and I have to eat more in order to keep from losing too much weight, so I end up eating a lot more junk. (I try to fill up on potatoes and things like that, as opposed to processed foods.) In my case, weight loss isn’t so much a product of dieting as it is a product of metabolism and how the body functions.

My last thoughts: Exercise, eat reasonably and live well – These will not make you skinny, because humans aren’t supposed to be as skinny as what we see on TV now. But they will probably lead you to be healthy. And, surprise, surprise, a lot of people people who are harassed at for being overweight do these things already!

Anyway, I guess I should mention that much as I love the idea of fat acceptance, I am nowhere near there for myself. I should probably also mention that I’m not fat. And that I have an eating disorder (I’m EDNOS, if you know what that means – I won’t bore you.) BUT I have been thinking lately about trying to recover. You know, giving up The Thin Fantasy, as you wrote in one of your other posts. I’ve been this way for years, and it just hurts. I starve mostly, but I also binge and occasionally purge, and I’ve flirted with overexercising. I’m such a wonderful jack of all trades when it comes to punishing myself…

Anyway. I am in France right now, on a solo trip for six weeks. I have been basically starving myself while I’m here. My disorder hasn’t been this active in a long time. And I have been thinking when I get home, I might seriously want to think about getting a little closer to the kind of mentality that this post/blog supports. I totally avoid juice because of the calories. I avoid a lot of things, until I don’t and eat too much. I want to be able to eat normally. I want to choose the foods I want, eat dessert if I want it or skip it because I know I can have it tomorrow. I want that. I think you guys are great. I can’t wait to read more.

Love from,
.C.

Oh, and if anybody wants to be email/posting buddies on this blog, let me know. I like internet friends that think about the same issues I do.

Ok, right now, I am not eating certain things, but the diet I’m on (Fat Smash Diet) adds it back in after a few weeks. I’ve gotten a better appreciation for healthier foods, smaller portions, and gotten rid of some unhealthy cravings.

BUT if it doesn’t taste good, I *don’t* eat it. Why bother?

And food police, and people who “mean well”….GAH.

So glad I found your blog!

I’ve been vegan for over a year and it has been the greatest thing ever because I EAT WHATEVER I WANT, it’s all healthy and delicious, I cook like a champ, I eat tons of fruits and veggies and tons of NUTS (omg FAT!) olive and flax oil, you name it. The bulk of my diet comes from whole foods and veggies, and so I never worry about “carbs” bullshit or OJ calories (it helps you absorb the iron from whatever you eat it with! MMMMMM.) I’m not eating only balance bars and Lean Cuisines and processed stuff. I don’t count anything except I watch my sodium intake.

So basically, by eating healthily and pleasurably, I love food, I think of food as my friend, and something exciting and fun.
Pasta loaded with garlicky pesto I invented? Sure. Baked potato with Earth Balance? Hell yeah. I made a veganized Alfredo and a vegan scalloped potatoes that are identical to the dairy-full ones. Fat free? Nope! Yummy? Yes! Cruelty-hormone-cardiovascular compromising? Nope!

In eating this way I broke tons of weird bad habits I had as an eater: thinking of eating something fattening as being “BAD” or whatever bullshit. Some chick at work saw me eating avocado on an everything bagel and went off on how fattening avocado is. Give me a break, it is totally good for you and, dare I say, Nature’s own mayonnaise. And now i am craving a black bean burrito with guac. All totally fucking good for you.

And funnily enough, just as I’ve stopped eating animals because I find them to be subjects to be left alone, not objects to be consumed, I started treating my own body/self as more of a subject, to decide what I want to eat, to enjoy what I want to eat, to take creative pleasure and agency in how I feed myself and my partner, and stopped thinking of my body as an object at the mercy of “good” and “bad” foods, and think about how delicious and yummy the food is that I do eat.

And salt contains iodide, a necessary nutrient.

Ramblingly,

Lillet

It’s not a big deal to me, but for some people it must be. I have been at ladies’ meetings, such as a bible study, or church group, etc. with a dessert or snack table full of goodies. There I am, with a plate with half a piece of rich dessert sitting with a small group of women, and the conversation would start something like this:

Person 1: {addressing me} Is that all you’re eating?
Person 2: You’re not on a diet, are you?
Person 3: Are you sick?
Person 2: You don’t need to be on a diet, you’re so skinny!
Person 1: Oh, people like you make me sick! Now, me– {with an enormous pile of snacks and large pieces of dessert on her plate} I gain weight just LOOKING at food!
{general laughter}
Person 2: Yeah, you’re too skinny. I can’t eat ANYTHING! {also with big pile of food on plate.}

Note: none of those women were actually fat. And even if they were, how did it hurt them that I only ate half a piece of dessert? What was wrong with them?! I think somehow they were fighting internal wars with the food police, and it came out all screwy.

I have friends who weigh a lot more than I do, whom I don’t think of as fat. Technically, yes, they are “fat.” But they’re just who they are, and that’s how they’re built, and who really even thinks of it? I mean, I’m not going around labeling my friends with things like “blond,” “short,” “tall,” “square-jawed.”
I believe some people would probably benefit from losing some weight. But when are we going to accept the fact that some people are just “built like tanks,” as my husband says (as in, big, heavy, and nothing gets in your way). There are all kinds of body weights and shapes, and I think it makes the world interesting.

Just a thought, too, about broccoli and butter. I never consciously thought about it, but what crazy logic to say that fat “cancels out” the nutrition. The nutrition is still all there! You just added some fat to it!

And whoever said if you’re going to give kids juice you might as well give them soda–! (bang head, pull out hair…. )