I typically don’t do food/fitness posts, because I am *not* an expert on either. I am, however, an expert on me, so here you go!
I wanted pizza – I made this instead.
Last week my tastebuds were having a revolt and nothing I seemed to do made them happy – or quiet. (Even the special once-a-year jelly beans from Cooperstown didn’t silence them!) They were shouting at me to satisfy them and their desires.
I gave in and had the aforementioned jelly beans, and then some chocolate. Dark chocolate, the kind that’s healthy for you. They wanted milk chocolate smothering caramel (a 100,000 bar to be exact. Sigh, I love those things.) I spent a couple of days waffling about trying all sorts of things to meet their demands, both healthy and less-than-optimally-healthy. And they still chattered away, popping images into my head of varying deliciousness.
Then they asked for pizza… Gah! Traitors!
You see, I’m (slowly) switching to a gluten-free/grain-free diet. Why? Because I’ve been testing it out and I simply feel better when I have less of that stuff in my system. Am I 100%? No. Not yet. Maybe never (um..hello? Pizza!) But I know I feel better when I’m closer to 100%, so I’m doing my best to hover in that area.
This is why the pizza was such an issue. Chocolate has no grains in it, so when the desire for chocolate arose it was more about meeting my tastebuds’ request while choosing smarter and meeting my own larger needs. Pizza on the other hand – well, grains are unavoidable, even if it’s gluten-free. So what did I do?
I made a salad. A great big salad with lovely tasty things in it that feed my body…
…and I asked my tastebuds to enjoy it. (< see what I did there?)
The thing is, I had an opportunity to make a choice. I could choose my tastebuds or I could choose my entire body. In that moment, my body won. I’m not saying I won’t have pizza again (I’m from NYC, my goodness – what a thought!). Nor am I saying that I did something amazing (it was a salad). What I am saying, as I’ve said before, is that
life is a series of choices. Each choice in each moment is all there is, and your results are the cumulative outcome of those choices.
Whether it’s pizza, salad, or something else – the power to choose (and direct your life) is yours.
So…happy choosing! 🙂 xo
P.S. It was a REALLY good salad! Avocado, tuna, lettuce and red wine vinaigrette. Simple. Delicious.