Living to Eat

Today, I was talking with a co-worker about the inconvenient timing of our Zumba class. At 7:15 p.m. I'm left with two full hours between getting off work and starting my exercise routine. I generally hate that waiting feeling anyway, but this time is even worse because it means I either eat a wimpy dinner (that can withstand the jumping, swirling and sloshing of Zumba) or eat dinner after 8 - neither of which, in my opinion, are good options.

She said that after work she has no real desire to eat; she doesn't really think of food after 5:00 and on the weekends she's rarely driven to eat big meals. After I regained my composure and closed my slackened jaw, I asked her, "Do you enjoy food or do you merely eat to live?" And she said that for the most part she only feels the need to eat for sustenance and rarely for pleasure.

I realized then, that I live to eat.

This is not to say I sleep with Oreos under my pillow and double-stuff my mouth the second I wake up. But rather, that I thoroughly enjoy eating and choose my food accordingly. Yes, I do try to take health and finances into account - I do not enjoy eating out frequently, nor can I afford it. Yet I make choices about what fills my lunchbox, office snack cabinet, and home refrigerator based on more than the biology of hunger and the mathematics of calories:energy ratios.

Here is a sample of my weekday meal plan:

• Breakfast: 1 cup of a low-calorie, multi-grain cereal with 1/4 cup light vanilla soy milk; I add sliced fruit when I can

• Lunch: 6 slices of turkey/chicken lunchmeat, 1 slice of cheese and a low-calorie wrap; one salty side (Cheez-its, Special K crackers etc.) and one sweet snack (fruit, yogurt or a 100-calorie pack)

• Afternoon snack (between 2 - 4:30 p.m.): a small snack like a cheese stick or spoonful of peanut butter

• Dinner: This varies wildly - but generally falls into a pattern of a lean protein (usually poultry) and two+ vegetables and some grain-product

• Evening snack: Either a mini bag of popcorn or ramekin of ice cream - sometimes a little of both, I'm a sucker for that salty/sweet mashup, obviously.

None of this is particularly exciting and during the week, I rarely vary from my daytime routine; but everything I eat is good and I savor my choices. Despite the fact that I LOATHE packing my lunch and there's only so many bowls of cereal you can eat at your desk before you lose your mind, I can't say my sole motivator is hunger.

And on the weekends, we make precise plans about our meals (except that blah Sunday lunchtime) and more times than not, we weave food into our free time together. I get to play housewife and practice mastering the art of French cooking or we get to go out on dates to fancy restaurants like Curate (and our favorite local joints) or hit up events like the fair (funnel cake!!) or farmer's market.

As I've said before, to our generation food is a worthwhile and stable experience that is worth spending (some) money on. And so, why shouldn't living revolve around the growing, purchasing, cooking and/or savoring of food? We probably spend as much time in the grocery store or at the kitchen table as we do at the movie theater and I can guarantee I talk more about food than politics, so why not make it a fun spectacle? Why not try out the Asian market downtown or dance together as you wait for the pasta water to boil?

The stock market is risky, so invest in eating and enjoy the blessing of an endlessly delicious life.