So, when the confinement began, I tallied up our food and realized that my desire to limit my carbs didn’t match up with my available food. The highly successful diet got me five pounds away from my goal weight, but it was just too inconvenient, and frankly, I was ready for a break. I took a break at Christmas, gained seven pounds and lost seven pounds in three weeks.
So, like Christmas, I committed to eating carbs - not late at night, not solid sugar, just things like popcorn and pasta and bread. That was last month. This month I became determined to pack in all the foods I missed at Christmas, sugary or not. I had Oreos and Pepperidge Farm cookies. Pancakes for breakfast. Ice cream. Stress makes your metabolism go up ten percent, right?
The sugary foods I’m eating bring me no satisfaction. I eat sugar and it does not fill a need.
But then, last Monday, I ate the thing I have been missing. The food to end all foods. The thing that completes me.
Hush Puppies.
We had just finished getting Gary’s tests, and I had been craving hush puppies for the first time in what seems like twenty years, and I sinned, I sinned. I went through a drive-through, open no doubt because it was the first day Missouri was back to work. I did wrap a Lysol wipe around the cash I handed the guy. I washed my hands after; I hope he washed his hands. And then I got home and ate a hush puppy. It was crispy and tender and creamy and I was made whole.
I bought 12 days worth of hush puppies. I won’t need any sugar.
It is *fascinating* what foods we crave, and how eating things that are not-that-food sometimes satiate the craving and sometimes just... don't.
(for me: spinach. Give me all the spinach. Except don't, because my digestive system stopped tolerating spinach a decade ago and I MISS IT.)
Posted by: KC | May 08, 2020 at 11:18 AM
Thank goodness for low carb diets. Only way I've ever been able to lose weight. But, now I want comfort food--pasta, bread, potatoes, pie and ice cream. It would be interesting to know how much collective weight Americans will gain during our stay-at-home time.
KC I love spinach too. Has been shown to prevent the progression of age-related Macular degeneration. (Which I had been diagnosed with--so I did research.) Bausch and Lomb studies show ed that their expensive Preservision product helped limit the progression to blindness. Same study showed that eating lots of foods like spinach and kale worked even better. B&L does not advertise that fact.
Posted by: Arlene | May 08, 2020 at 05:17 PM
KC - I like raw spinach. Cooked spinach is slime.
Arlene - me too. I’ve compromised so that I avoid sugar and potatoes, but allow breads. Interesting about the MD.
Posted by: TheQueen | May 08, 2020 at 08:04 PM
I am a weirdo; I like it raw, I like it steamed, I like it sauteed, I like it in soups. I even like canned spinach. (I do not like raw, slimy spinach, however; it needs to not be well on the road to decomposition.
Arlene: That is fascinating re: macular degeneration and totally unsurprising as to the research editing. I hope your supplies of kale and spinach and co. are holding strong! :-)
Posted by: KC | May 08, 2020 at 09:06 PM
I actually had to google to see what hush puppies are. I seem to be missing a major part of my diet here. Going to look into making them at home because I have no idea where to get such little pieces of (I assume) heaven!
Posted by: Lynn | May 26, 2020 at 10:11 AM
KC - I like raw baby spinach. Don’t like canned or creamed.
Lynn - to make them at home most recipes say you need self-rising cornmeal, which I do not have and don’t even know where to get. I think this is the only recipe that uses regular cornmeal:
https://therecipecritic.com/homemade-hush-puppies/
I don’t know if it’s even edible, though.
Posted by: TheQueen | May 27, 2020 at 05:43 PM