On A Permanent Diet

Sometimes people notice that I hardly ever drink soda, and so ask me if I am on a diet. I say "No." And by "no," I mean "yes." Sort of.

It's not just with soda. I generally try to avoid donuts and fast food, among other things. In addition to savings little bits and pieces of my health, it's also cheaper to eat food that Harmony has lovingly prepared.

So are we on a diet? Yes, in the fact that we do have foods that we try to eat regularly, and we do have foods that we try to avoid regularly. It's "diet" in the sense of Dictionary.com's fifth entry, "food or feed habitually eaten or provided." But it's not a temporary 2 month diet (which I would think hardly has any permanent effect on one's health) like most people seem to do, like South Beach, Atkins, or whatever the current fad is. If you had to label our diet, perhaps you should call it the "Whatever's on Sale" or "Whatever We Need to Use Up" Diet.

Ah the wisdom of Ecclesiastes comes into play here. Specifically 7:18:
"It is good that you should take hold of this, and from that withhold not your hand, for the one who fears God shall come out from both of them."
This verse is more well-known in the NIV translation, where it says that a wise man avoids all extremes. So while we do not yet have our own cow or grow our own chickens, neither do we ALWAYS avoid unhealthy food. Every now and then we cheat. We take great pleasure in our conviction that cheating is a vital part of every diet ;) Every few months we have American-style Chinese food. When weddings come around, we usually have cake at the reception. Who knows? One day, some celebrated scientist might come out with findings that there is some vital nutrient present in cake frosting, take-out Chinese food, or Krispy Kreme donuts (which are still totally off-limits to us). I, for one, greatly await this saintly deliverer and his hallowed discovery.

Back to the diet thing. Eating relatively healthy has become a habit for us. It first took breaking the habit of eating unhealthy food, then forming the habit of eating healthy. Personally, I found it much easier to form the habit of eating healthy than to break the unhealthy habit. It was all part of the upward spiral. Once the healthy eating habit started forming, it gained momentum quickly. So take heart! You too can start eating healthy, and it might be a lot easier than stopping the constant flow of Krispy Kremes!