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Not Eating Changes Your Perception of Reality
What are you supposed to do all day?
It’s Yom Kippur and I am fasting. Every time this holiday comes around I am reminded how much food dominates my thinking and structures my day.
I spend a lot of time planning meals. I collect recipes. I make my lunch to eat at work the night before. I also plan my breakfast. The last thing I do before I go up to my bedroom for the night is set up the coffee maker so that I only have to push the button to make coffee when I get up. I might also soak some almonds and sunflower seeds so I can have my favourite breakfast: a mixture of almonds, sunflower seeds, grated apple, and cinnamon. It’s a variation of a German dish called mandelade.
Lunch at work is usually a fresh salad with protein. I plan this as well. At some point during the work day, I will call my husband and we will decide what to have for dinner. Maybe I will pick up some ingredients on the way home. Maybe he will go to Costco to stock up on healthy staples.
I come home from work, take a nap, and start cooking dinner. And getting ready for the next day’s eating.
It’s kind of like having a part-time job on top of my full-time job as a teacher.
I didn’t always occupy myself so much with food, but I am in my late fifties, and poor food choices…
