Did you ever get stuck in a food rut?<\/p>\n
I\u2019m currently in the midst of a rut that\u00a0 involves Ak-Mak whole wheat sesame crackers (if you\u2019ve never tried them, go buy a box immediately) and crunchy salted peanut butter. With my two sons\u00a0 grown up and gone for the moment (one is currently on a safari in Tanzania , the other in college), crackers and crunchy peanut butter have become my go-to foods \u2014 easy on the prep and satisfying without a lot of carbs.<\/p>\n
This isn\u2019t my first rut \u2014 I\u2019ve had my flings with eggs and good bacon, tuna and rye bread, smoked salmon and Persian cucumbers. I have a theory about these times that connects them to the constant pressure of eating well with type 2 diabetes. Limiting your choices \u2014 long recognized as a demonstrated method to lose weight \u2014 can make life easier. If I don\u2019t bring home the Cherry Garcia ice cream, it won\u2019t go into my mouth. Eating the same menu day after day can be boring, but it is also \u2018safe\u2019.<\/p>\n
Several years ago, I attended a diabetes workshop on how to eat\u00a0 with type 2.\u00a0 I remember the educator telling us how you should question yourself closely every time before eating to see what you truly\u00a0 craved.\u00a0 She had us run through a list \u2014 crunchy, salty, sweet, soft, tangy, bitter, etc.\u00a0 Only when you had determined precisely what you wanted to put in your mouth, she said, should you actually start to chew.<\/p>\n
Everyone in the room \u2014 myself included \u2014 freaked out at her words. We knew exactly what we felt like eating and they were all things that we could not eat: Cocoa Rice Krispies, Snickers bars and Dunkin\u2019 Donuts. A pile of greasy fries. Egg creams. Milkshakes. Cinnamon buns. You get the idea. Wide eyed, she asked why we had ruled these foods out of our diet and the answer was easy \u2014 they made us fat and they made our sugars go haywire. But the lecturer\u00a0 stood her ground, saying that she bet if we ate a few M & M\u2019s now and again or even a bowl of Cocoa Rice Krispies, the damage would not be so great. And that furthermore, eating a small Snickers now and then or an Oreo or two might prevent us from binging out some night and eating ten small snickers or\u00a0 twenty-five Oreos.<\/p>\n
Thus, was born a new way of eating food. I still have my doubts about her approach, but having followed it for so many years, Oreos and Snickers have lost their hold on me. Once, I could down a pint of Ben and Jerry\u2019s in a sitting, but now, I don\u2019t really have the desire. A single cookie, a bite of chocolate satisfies my sweet tooth most of the time.<\/p>\n
But I digress; at the moment I\u2019m caught in a rut.\u00a0 I stand before my refrigerator. I ask myself what I want to eat. And up bubbles the answer \u2013 crunchy salted peanut butter and Ak-Mak crackers. I know I should mix it up, throw in some cheese or meat or carrots, but for the moment it\u2019s all I want. It\u2019s protein, it\u2019s carb and it\u2019s all that\u2019s in my mind. I trust that eventually \u2014 in a day or two, say\u00a0 \u2014 I\u2019ll\u00a0 return to eating other things. Already, I have my eye on a bowl of bright orange clementines perching on the kitchen table.<\/p>\n
But as for now, I\u2019m stuck.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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