Sometimes you just have to do (eat) certain things. Even on a cheat day, I try not to eat fast food. Partly because I really love to cook and a fast food meal is one less chance for me to cook something fun and naughty. Another part of the reason is that fast food truly makes me feel like garbage. Every time I indulge in food directly from a drive through window it is as if I am submitting my digestive system to a sadistic scientific experiment. When I have a cheat day I like to eat things that I do not eat on a daily basis, because their calorie content is too high. But, the food I eat is not necessarily bad for you, meaning it is not chuck full of preservatives, sodium, and synthetic fats. I am generally interested in minimally processed whole foods that are rich and of high quality. Examples of things I would normally eat on a cheat day, but not “day to day”, include: peanut butter, really good (high quality) chocolate, a good cut of beef (NY or Tenderloin), bacon, real butter, cream, artisan breads, tortillas (corn), potatoes, artisan baked goods of which I purchase from local shops or create myself, olive oil, and all varieties of cheese. I want to say pasta, but I don’t think I have taken even one bite of spaghetti since January 2nd. If I have, I cannot recall. Maybe, on my birthday, I will have a large bowl of pasta smothered in a cream and fat based sauce. I really love pasta, but it just blows me right up. I believe sometimes that if I even “think” about pasta too much I may gain weight! “Pizza”, exact same scenario as pasta!
So, on days that Ben and I have a cheat day and he says, “I’m hungry, do you care if I stop at Jack in the Box?” I usually say, “No, but I probably will not have anything.” I will wait until later when I can slather melted brie and roasted garlic on freshly a baked sliced baguette or smother some roasted asparagus in fresh creamy homemade hollandaise. But today the stars lined up when I had a taste of Ben’s Oreo milkshake. I made him turn right back around and go through the drive through again. Only this time my eyes were wide open. I detected the holy grail of breakfast sandwiches. Jack in the box has a new breakfast sandwich made with maple syrup studded waffles. Much like the
McGriddle but crunchier. With my very own Oreo shake, waffle breakfast sandwich, and piece of chocolate cake (for good measure,) I was one happy camper headed for a fast food coma, and a land of digestive disarray.
Fast food never tastes as good as you think it will, but this stuff was not too bad, especially the Oreo shake (because Jack in the Box uses “real” milk, right). And the experience of eating fast food is undenyingly mentally comforting. The feeling is highly addictive! But then the experiment commences in my stomach and I am reminded of why I do not do this every day “now”. I say “now” because I actually used to eat Taco Bell almost every day only a few years ago. I would go through the drive through, and eat it in my car on the way home from school. Then I would get home and eat dinner like an hour later. It was yet another food habit, I came to possess and then finally ditch, in a long string of negative food behaviors throughout my life.
I’d like to believe that I am really beginning to get a grip on a healthy relationship with food. It is probably good to have fast food every once in a while just to remind myself of what I “think” I am missing out on. Making myself sick on that type of food makes going back to broccoli, apples, and oats seem like an inviting, relaxing vacation for my stomach and mind.
Compelling Calorie Clue:
~ 100 calories worth of regular sour cream (it’s just a little over 3 Tbsp. worth). I could easily pile double this amount on a hot Idaho baker. Sour cream is one of those foods that I will eat only if it is fully loaded. I do not like the lite or fat free versions of sour cream, so if I can’t afford the calories, I just will not eat it. Consequently I usually only eat sour cream on cheat days.
Related
