Food!

It's everywhere: supermarkets, restaurants, fast-food joints, parties, the office, bars, our homes. You can't avoid it. Every six seconds on TV we see a commercial about the next readily-available delicacy that either costs a dollar or can be delivered to you from your phone or lap top within the half-hour. It sickens me and saves me at the same time. I do order food from my laptop and phone- I do eat from a dollar menu. Some of my favorite shows have the words Kitchen and Cooking in the title. I also love to cook. I'm not talented at cooking or anything, but I do have my regular repertoire of dishes that are crowd pleasers. Just last night I made the classic steak house dinner: NY Strip, mashed potatoes, garlic spinach, and green beans. I was in heaven. Today I made Gorgonzola bread like my favorite steak house has on its menu. I love bread more than freedom. To put it simply: I'm screwed.

I know exactly what I SHOULD eat to be a healthier person. I should restrict my intake of sugars- from breads, baked goods, fruit, drinks, everywhere sugar can be found. I should increase my intake of lean proteins: chicken, fish, turkey, eggs, nuts, etc. I should also season my food with something other than the chef's standby: salt and pepper. While I love pepper, I can't use it alone. And while I don't think I add an enormous amount of salt to my food, something tells me there's so much in our food already, I shouldn't add any.

I love water- and I pretty much only drink water. My other beverages include my daily morning coffee, an occasional diet coke and an occasional diet iced tea. I also drink hot tea with honey when I'm in the mood.

Sweets. Um, yeah. I am a cookie junkie. The comedian Brian Regan gets it about cookies. He says he can't believe the serving size for Fig Newton's is two cookies, because he eats them by the sleeve like he's a wood-chipper. Yep. He gets it. My mom used to eat a sleeve of Chips Ahoy watching TV. The serving size for the box as my family interprets it? Two. Share it with someone you love.

Cake and coffee. I get it when people say that sweets are not their downfall, because they love real food. Yeah, I do too. But, I'm not talking about a love for NowandLaters or Twizzlers- I'm talking about cake. Cake qualifies as real food, doesn't it?

Anyway, when I do examine my food intake and people ask me if like vegetables, I have to say Yes. My two favorite vegetable dishes are artichoke and spinach dip and carrot cake. Kidding- I love a nice salad, love steamed broccoli, and I'm a huge fan of the green bean. So where does that leave me?

Moderation is the answer, I know. It just doesn't taste as good as "seconds."