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If you’ve been reading my last few blogs, you know that I’ve been traveling so much I’ve had zero time to cook for myself, and if I do, I just cook a gigantic pot and eat the leftovers for days (I did make some really awesome tacos with ground turkey, refried beans, and black beans that lasted me for a few delicious days). You’ve also probably seen what I’m about to say coming: Despite all my talk about what are good, healthy decisions to make, I don’t always make them.

One of the reasons I write this blog is to write about food like a normal person. I’m not a restaurant critic. I’m not a chef. There are some things I really hate eating. I try to eat healthy, but sometimes I’d rather not eat healthy. This is one of those times.

That’s right, kids, I haven’t been eating right at all. Well, I’ve been mostly eating right, but in a few ways I’ve also been eating very, very wrong. Translation? Dessert. Sugar. And way too much of it. There’s a reason I don’t buy these things for myself—I’m unable to resist. Since Valentine’s Day, I’ve been eating some kind of chocolate and/or dessert almost every day. My roommate brought home coffee cake and made a double-layer chocolate cake. It’s only a pinch each day—one chocolate, a piece of cake—but that adds up. Because I work out pretty frequently, I make lots of excuses. As in, it’s ok because I went to the gym today. Or it’s ok because I’ve had a really hard work week. That would be fine, if it really were every now and then. But when it’s every day, soon I’ll be struggling to button my pants, and I’m not paid well enough to buy more pants.

As you know, I’m not really someone who weighs herself or who obsesses about the number on the scale. But, like any American self-absorbed woman, I’m aware of how my clothes fit, and things are a little tighter than is sexy. I know what you’re thinking—Jill, you can’t possibly not be sexy. And that may be true, but it’s time to get my eating back on track. Don’t worry, this isn’t going to be another diet blog. I still hate diets, and you likely hate reading about them. But it’s time to stop eating like a hoss and stop making excuses for it.

My friend showed me a video by Alton Brown of the Food Network in which he talks about his eating habits, and which he’s careful to say isn’t a diet Here’s what he eats:

Daily:
Fruits
Whole grains
Leafy Greens
Nuts
Carrots
Green Tea

3x weekly:
Oily fish
Yogurt
Broccoli
Sweet potato
Avocado

1x weekly:
Red meat
Pasta
Dessert
Alcohol

Never:
Fast food
Soda
Processed meals
Canned soups (sodium)
“Diet” anything

It’s not a whole lot different from the way I eat (except for the dessert part, lately, and the fact that there’s no way I’m eating carrots every day). Here are the things I need to eat more of: vegetables (I still hate most of them, but I’m determined to find delicious ways of cooking them that don’t involve lots of butter), nuts, and fish. That’s not the hard part—eating things is always less difficult than not eating them. The main challenge will be saying no when someone wants to order another round, or to that last piece of cake in the break room. BUT I WILL PREVAIL.