TASK #28

July 8th--July 15th

You Are What You Don't Eat

I eat merely to put food out of my mind.   N. F. Simpson

I decided to list everything that I ate in a week. Every breakfast, lunch and dinner item. Every jelly donut, every bean and cheese burrito, every Frito, chocolate chip waffle, caprese panini and breaded pork chop. Everything.

At the end of the week I looked at the list and tried to make sense of it. It turns out that I like chicken. I eat it several times a week. I had fried chicken, b-b-qued and some Mc D's chicken nuggets. I even had chicken fried rice. What else did I have? A hamburger--with cheese, a salad, kernel corn, and pasta. Some pizza. And a meatball sandwich--which reminds me of this guy who puts French's yellow musturd on his meatball sandwiches. I wince when he does it but I can't turn away...but I digress.

At the end of the following week I thought about what I ate and I looked at my list--it was the same. Identical. I eat the same stuff every week. And that's okay, but hell, it's BORING. I had to get out of my self-imposed food prison--I had to diversify, culinarily!

TASK:

Make a list of everything that goes in your mouth during the week. Food, that is--not you fingernails or your girlfriend's tongue. Food.

At the end of the week post the list on the front of your refrigerator. Then, for the next week, DON'T EAT ANYTHING ON THAT LIST.

Try some Indian food or macrobiotics or veggie burgers or carrot cake or eel sushi (which I tried and now I'm hooked, pardon the pun).

Trust me, you'll find your eel as well.

Questions or comments? E-mail me at JoeDoebula@gmail.com