Food is l.o.v.e.

So I, along with millions of other Americans, made the New Year's resolution to eat less, work out more and lose weight.  Will I keep it?  I hope so.  It won't be the first time I've successfully dieted...although I've had a few unsuccessful diets as well.  I'm not trying to lose anything major, just get back to my weight pre-medical school.  When a dress you wore in college doesn't fit anymore, it's time to hit the gym!

I've been using My Fitness Pal to track my calories.  I told it I would like to lose a pound a week (for sustainability, no crash diets here).  It advised me to eat 1380 calories a day to do so and, if I work out, I can eat even more.  It not only tracks calories, but other things such as saturated fat, sodium, vitamins, etc.  Calorie-wise, I've been doing fine, but sugar and sodium wise, I've already had a few daily limit violations.  I'm a Southern girl, what can I say?

I've decided food is like love.  You need it to survive.  However, food can be bad you as well...

Obesity in America
light blue=less than 10%.  burgandy=greater than 30%

I see diabetics in clinic who, despite having a dead, rotten foot two seconds away from amputation, continue to eat, eat, eat.  So, I see food as kind of like being in relationship with domestic violence. You hurt me, but I stay with you, for unclear reasons...it's actually a really terrible analogy, but you get the idea.

Yet, food is so critical to so many traditions.  Christmas.  Thanksgiving.  Your grandmother's home cooking, seasoned with, well, seasoning salt, but also-love.  Yup.  When you try to cook for your boyfriend and undercook the meat?  Mixed in the e. coli, there's some love there too.

So, as I prepare to be a wife, I want my food to speak as well.  Everytime Aaron cooks me breakfast I feel so special, I can even be lazy and sit on the couch and he'll bring me everything I need...that's just not laziness, but love too. :)

There are two meals outside of major holidays that have a special importance to me.  The first is daily dinners at the family table.  It's a time to slow down and recap your day together.  I didn't realize it at the time, but I was very lucky to grow up in a household where my mom cooked dinner every night and we all ate as a family  It was just normal to me.  And it will be the new normal for Aaron and I.  The other important meal?  Sunday brunch.  Mornings where Aaron and I are go to church and then follow it up with brunch out are just so special to me.  A time where we can recap what we learned in church and enjoy the slowness of the weekend.  My favorite part is probably the "after church" part and Aaron's favorite part is likely the "at Cracker Barrel" part, but its still pretty awesome.  I'd like both of these traditions to continue when we have kids, when they go off to school, when they have their own kids and send them back to us in the summertime.

So, back to New Year's resolutions...ironically, I resolved to eat less and cook more at the same time.  Oh, well.  What do I plan to cook this year?

Cinnamon Pumpkin Spice Pancakes 

Tomato Pie

Lemony Snap Peas

Brown Sugar & Balsamic Glazed Pork Loin

Gingerbread Soufflés

:)