Wednesday, March 2, 2011

"tame our ways if we start to devise something more"

the song: "The Man of Metropolis Steals Our Hearts" Sufjan Stevens *

Seems like Wednesday is as good a day as any to get personal. 

I've told you before about the two sides of Emily. First, there is the "I-care-about-food" "I-plan-ahead" "every-meal-must-include-more-than-one-vegetable" Emily. She writes this blog 95% of the time. She also writes the weekly meal plan on a dry erase board on the refrigerator. 


The other side of me wins free rounds for my girlfriends by correctly identifying mystery beer presented by an overconfident bartender, debates a life well lived in the rain at 2 am, karaokes in random bars in Longview, and dances as often and as late into the night as possible. In her wildest moments, she throws caution to the wind and eats a bowl of cereal for dinner.

I'm going to take a minute and let you think about which Emily you like better. Whose blog would you rather read? Honestly, the verdict is still out for me.

Lately, I've been (too?) easily convinced to abandon our meal plan for the above mentioned bowl of cereal or extended happy hour snacks with friends. Deep down, I know that's ok. Life is a series of ebbs and flows and just because right now I'm not cooking as much doesn't mean it will never come back. Right now, I enjoy our full and busy life. But I can't help but feel guilty when I have to send the husband to work without leftovers from last night's dinner.

As traditional as it sounds, it is my job to manage our house** and what to eat requires the majority of the planning. So this month, I'm trying a new approach. Rather than a meal plan, I stocked the house with easily prepared, healthy staples during this week's grocery trip. It's not the easiest switch. Last night I found myself scrambling and worrying that our meal would not be substantial enough. But I need to get into this habit, because things aren't going to change anytime soon. SXSW is only 2 weeks away.***

Part of having a healthy relationship with food is being able to roll with the punches. When we get too attached to a certain way of thinking...whether that's rigid meal planning, or a huge list of 'I won't eat this' or 'I only like that'...it takes the fun out of eating. I doubt my food challenges are over for the month (um- we're only one dinner in), but I do hope it will allow me to fit more home cooked meals into our life. As always, you can keep track of our progress here. And just maybe over one of those dinners, the two Emily's can come to an agreement.

~eeg

* Sufjan, this album still makes me swoon like the first day I heard it.
** Because I only work part-time and because I love food. Not because I'm the girl.
*** The music part of my South By starts at this party with some of my favorite people ever. Won't you join me?

1 comment:

  1. Hi Emily!

    Reading this post makes me realize that I would LOVE to see a grocery shopping list blog post from you sometime. Because that is my biggest challenge, honestly: Where to go after I've hit up the produce section. So when you buy healthy staples, what are those, exactly? Because I'm at a loss after I've rounded up my greens, tomatoes, and bell peppers. My poor husband eats more salad and stir fry than he probably ever intended.

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