Mmmm, pizza sounds good right now...

So, I daydream about food. All the time. I spend my free moments during the day thinking about food. And when I say thinking, I don't just mean a passing thought like "oh yeah, they're serving tacos for lunch." What I'm talking about it a full-on interactive picture in my mind, one where I can zoom in and linger on details like the Feta Cheese on top of the omelet, the chocolate sauce dripping off the ice cream as it melts, the fizzy feeling of an ice-cold Coke Zero as it slides down my esophagus. You get the picture, right? It's probably not as detailed and interactive as my picture, but close enough.

Here's the thing. I realized a while back that for whatever reason, be it genetics, environment, or just 31 years of bad habits, I am always going to think about food. That is just how I am wired, or how I have chosen to wire myself. Food plays a central role in my life. Each day is made up of several acts starring A-listers Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner and Snacks. All the time in between--working, talking with friends, pursuing hobbies, building meaningful relationships, flirting with cute guys (like the one I sometimes see at the gym)--becomes a second-rate filler until it's time for the next Star to perform. As soon as I finish eating something, I think about when I will get to eat next, what I'm having for an afternoon snack, and dinner, and breakfast tomorrow morning...etc.

So, the question becomes, what do I do about this? Do I blame it all on my parents? The media? Society? Fast Food Chains? Do I throw my hands in the air, claim that I was "born this way," that there's "nothing I can do to change," and that it's not "worth the effort?" Well, sure. I can do that. If I want to die young. If I want to continue to be inactive and overweight. If I want food to be the Star of my life.

Or, I can change. I can accept the fact that I think about food all the time, and channel my energy into using those thoughts to be productive. I can formulate a plan. I mean, literally, I can use my foodmindedness to start planning, meal-planning, that is. I can think about food in a productive way, one that will help me be healthy. Right now, I can tell you that for breakfast tomorrow morning, I'm going to have a protein shake with 8 oz of skim milk and 1/2 banana. Then, for my morning snack I am going to have about 1C of strawberries that I bought at Walmart the other night, and a light Yoplait Yogurt (it's always either Banana Cream Pie or Boston Cream Pie Flavored). For lunch, I will have either homemade turkey chili and broccoli, or a turkey sandwich, and my choice will depend on my mood in the morning when I am fixing my lunch and snacks for the day. My afternoon snack will probably be celery and cucumber and 4oz of homemade hummus. Dinner, I'm not sure of yet. I've been debating between a turkey burger or a tuna steak. Right now, I'm not sure which one to fix, but don't you worry. I have plenty of time between now and then to mentally go through my cupboards and inventory my ingredients, and then play around with different recipe ideas (do I go Greek with the turkey burger and use hummus and Kalamata olives, or do I go for the lemon-pepper rub on the tuna steak). There are so many possibilities, and I haven't even started looking online for recipes...

And so that is how I am taking one of my greatest flaws and making it work for me. I spend my days productively planning out my meals, making mental grocery lists, looking up recipes online to get ideas, changing my mind, re-planning my meals, re-doing my shopping lists, and repeating this cycle over and over again. Now, when I think about food, I don't feel bad, because I am thinking about it productively. I am planning awesome culinary adventures, and as a result, I eat out FAR less than I used too. I would rather make it at home, where I can measure exact amounts of ingredients, calculate the calories, make healthy substitutions, add my favorite things, and let my creative juices flow!

And all of my in-between-meals time has become much more meaningful. In fact, Flirting-With-Cute-Guy-At-The-Gym is definitely a Rising Star, and has out-shined former A-Listers Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner, and even, Snacks. Life is starting to take over, and food is moving to the background, where it belongs.

So, although pizza does sound good right now, if you'll excuse me, I have figure out what I'm having for dinner tomorrow night.