's motd Thursday Dec 9. 2010

[Guest guest]

FOOD THOUGHTS

Thursday, 09 December 2010

I thought a lot about food when I

was growing up. Really, I had no choice. That's

because my parents also thought about food a lot. You

see, every meal at the household back in New

Orleans was truly more like a banquet!

I've told you before how my father always prepared a

big breakfast for us every morning. (I guess he

thought they would would make my brother, Lenny and I

more intelligent. LOL.) On a typical morning, we'd

have waffles or pancakes, dripping with warm butter

and syrup. We'd also have scrambled eggs, bacon or

sausage, toast and fresh strawberry preserves. We'd

polish off our breakfast with an ice-cold glass of

milk or orange juice. But get this, while chowing

down on our breakfast fit for a king, my father would

announce what we'd be having for dinner that evening:

"Tonight, I'm making us fried

some chicken. On the side, we'll have potato salad

and cole slaw. I'll pick up some fresh French bread

at the bakery this afternoon then I'll stop by the

A & P for some fresh strawberries for the

strawberry shortcake we're having for dessert."

So there I'd sit, gobbling down my big-old

Southern-style breakfast, already dreaming about the

fried chicken dinner I had to look forward to that

evening. Oh, boy! But wait.

See, on my way to school, I walked

past three grocery stores. And I'd always stop at one

of them every morning to pick up one more snack for my

"long" walk to school. At school, around 11:00 each

morning, I was already thinking about what was waiting

for us at lunch time in the school cafeteria.

After all of that food, a big breakfast, a snack on my

walk to school and my school lunch, I still had to

have a treat going from my hand into my mouth, on my

walk back home from school. Burp!

And all the while, dreams of that fried chicken dinner

were dancing in my head! And yes, to this very day, I

still think about food...only not at much.

So were you raised like me? Did

your parents think and talk about food, a lot...like

my parents did? And today, do you find yourself

thinking about what you'll have for dinner even when

you're still eating breakfast or lunch? When you

drive to work, do you study the billboards from the

fast food places to see what new fattening foods they

might be offering? Do you think about food...too

much?

Oh, there are so many other things you should be

thinking about, like your hopes, goals and dreams.

Yes, food is important to you and, oh yes...it's

important to me, too. But if you spend less time

thinking about food, believe me, you'll be better able

to focus on losing the weight you need to lose.

When you become obsessed with

something, whatever has become the object of

your obsession only ends up dragging you down. Yes, I

want you to plan your meals everyday. But I don't

want you spending your entire day thinking about food.

Oh, my! Now look what's happened. Because

of this message, I'm thinking about biting down into a

hot fried chicken drumstick! LOL. But, not to worry,

I'll think about it...for only a moment. Hey, I've

got more important things to think about today!

Love,