Nature versus nurture I come from a place where we don't eat so well. I weighed a lot more when I lived there, and it took quite a while to change my eating habits and lifestyle after I moved away.

Nonetheless, when I go back, all of a sudden I am craving Mt Dew and cheesy foods. Now, I do drink a soda every now and then here, but it is seriously every month or two. During my visit in June to Wisconsin, I was drinking them daily. Oh, and on the Sunday before I left, I think I had, um, three desserts. This is why I have stopped weighing myself after a vacation until I have been home for a week or so. Same with when Kamille & the girls visited. No weighing myself.

Anyway, so Chris and I will get on these conversations about whether being overweight should be blamed upon genetics or not. We had one of these yesterday, when I realized I had just come across some old photos a few days ago. I said, "Chris, hold that thought," and went to get the stack out of the closet.

I handed this one over:



"This is me back when I ate like shit. I was, like, 22."

As you can imagine, Chris had a good laugh. I took the picture back and did too. Jesus!

Then I handed him this picture. "Case in point."



"Please note me. And the pizza box. And the bottle of Mt. Dew. And hey, I'm sitting in front of the TV." I drank soda all the time, and ate pizza -- and other cheesy, bad-for-me foods -- all the time.

So anyway, we talked about it some more, and I understood his point of view. It turns out he knows a lot of very thin people that eat lots of fast food and should basically be overweight.

I guess my viewpoint is that if you are overweight and do eat unhealthily, there's a pretty easily identified cause-and-effect relationship there that can easily be remedied and that does not involve genetics. The fact that other people can get away with eating like that and stay thin does not pardon that style of eating. Especially because it's not all about being thin; even the thin folks that are eating horribly are unhealthy, even if it doesn't show on the outside.

I was a little proud, because a while after we talked about this, Chris brought it back up, laughing. "I can't believe you ate like that -- pizza and soda all the time." "How come?" I asked. "Because you're so into nutrition now." It's funny he thinks about it like that, because I still see all of my shortcomings - I mean, I am definitely someone who likes to indulge and enjoy my food. During the week, I eat very well, but during the weekend.. yeah, I let it go a little. Sometimes a lot. It's nice to have someone who is with me so often think of me as someone who is into nutrition, even as I think of myself as someone who indulges a lot. I guess there are many things you could do worse to yourself than banana pancakes on the weekend. :)

FOOD: As for the eating, I haven't been writing it down, but I have been doing the same good stuff! Breakfast smoothie, every day. Salad for lunch, every day, although I try to mix the kind up. Always with some fruit. Last week, we had cake at work one day, and I did have a minuscule slice - the first I had strayed from my all-salad-and-fruit eating in a month! Also, they gave me a piece of bread with my salad at Einstein's on Friday and I ate half. Every other day, though, I even brought my OWN salad. I'm not even having to run out to buy anything. It's great! A small, healthy snack when I get home. Dinner as usual.

Okay, time for bed!  ¶ 11:55 PM