I’ve made a discovery. I had to choose a path to travel when I approached a fork in the road. Ironic that it’s called a FORK when my diet is what drastically changed. Over the last couple of decades, I made junk food my go-to when I felt stressed, bored, afraid, or whatever other emotion I was dealing with. I was alone a lot in my first marriage and fell to food as a coping mechanism.
You’ve heard this tale before by many others BUT mine hit me square in the face tonight. With hubby number two off at a meeting, I was bored and hungry. Instead of choosing the low carbohydrate foods in my pantry, I turned backward and drove to a taco stand. It sounded so tasty, and it HAD been a month since I’d changed my diet. I deserved one meal I craved, right?
I crushed the tacos in a bowl and added salsa. I sat down to watch a sit-com – anticipating the first bite of an old delicious friend, a taco with an actual crunchy shell on it.
Boom! There was the taste. Only it wasn’t what I remembered. It had a stale, kind of burned taste, and the texture of the meat was odd. It was packed together tightly but get this . . . there was almost no taste at all. It WASN’T delicious. It was greasy and bland and not even close to what my mind remembered.
I finished the tacos anyway, secretly hoping each bite would find me enchanted again with my old habit. Nope. So, I ate until I was too full (like I once did) and felt like crap! Within fifteen minutes, I had a headache. I kid you not. MSG? I knew there was no “going back.”
I had taken a path of clean eating over the last month, and it prevailed. I was both encouraged and disappointed. I didn’t have the old habit I once counted on as my Band-Aid.
Yet, I faced a new path . . . one with a healthier destination.
I now walk in the light of health and won’t have the old unhealthful habits. I guess that’s one way to quit a habit you hate. It becomes something you detest after a while.
My bare feet take me to a happier and tastier place, and I do enjoy the journey much more than I used to. Soon, there will be no fat, headaches, mood-changing sugars, or any other detriment that I once held so closely.
I wonder what else 2018 has in store.
Happy February, dear ones ~