Living with flair means to savor. You take the smallest thing (a punctuation mark, a turtle, a hand in the wind), and like some judge on Iron Chef, you test its quality. Then you announce its worth. Announcing the worth of small things has changed my life this month. I anticipate the greatness of common moments.
Today's "flair moment" came in the form of a meat cake. They do exist. http://www.blackwidowbakery.com/demo/meatcake/. A friend celebrated her 28th birthday party at my home last night, and someone honored her with a meat cake. The frosting was mashed potatoes whipped as lovely as buttercream. The rosettes were perfectly formed swirls of bacon. It was food art at its best.
I tried a little--just enough to savor the taste. Appreciating its artistry provided more pleasure than the actual eating (although it was good). I love to consider the art in food. Give me sushi or lemon meringue pies, and I'll enjoy the composition and admire the chef. I tend to not overeat when the food itself is lovely.
And food is lovely. Why don't I notice it? Eating is common; I do it usually 3-5 times a day, every single day of my life (sometimes more--sometimes a lot more). I tended to not notice my food, though, until this year.
I've lost 35 pounds, and it has something to do with living with flair--with savoring things. Stopping to enjoy the beauty of my food has helped me not shove it so quickly, and in such large amounts, into my mouth. Can eating be an act of thanksgiving, of worship, of . . . flair? I want to savor flavors, textures, colors, and smells. I want to take small bites and be completely satisfied with the greatness of small portions. I really don't need more.
Living with flair means savoring. And, as a result, being satisfied with much less than I thought I'd need (in my stomach and in my life).
I want to make a meat cake today. I hear there are also vegetarian alternatives :)
ReplyDeleteThat's really good! I hope you don't mind if I pass this entry along to a couple of other friends.
ReplyDeleteYou have to know, I am not starving. I eat just about everything I want. I even had CHEESECAKE during the Storymaker’s conference. But I am aware of what I am eating, how much it takes to fill me up, and where I can avoid sugars altogether. Take that cheesecake, for instance. Did you know that the sugar is mostly in the graham cracker crust? Easy fix—I scraped off the crust. Earlier in the day, I avoided the sandwich roll, which also carries sugar so that I had a few extra grams for the dessert I knew would be coming.Next step, add that hour of exercise. I broke out the Richard Simmons DVDs, so I’ll be Sweatin’ with the Oldies, and once the crazy weather decides to actually STOP snowing, I’ll be walking in the fresh air and sunshine. I’m hoping these activities will keep me on track to lose nearly a pound a day.Even if I don’t, I’m making progress and feeling good. I’ve set my final weight goal, but I am celebrating every pound and every inch left behind along the way.Thanks to all of you who noticed the change. It gives me the motivation I need to keep going.
ReplyDeleteI weighed in at lunch today and found I was 3.6 lbs lighter than last week (down to 158). Now mind you last week I had a pretty small loss, and it was due to the crazy running I did on the weekend and the fact that my muscles like to hold onto water afterwards. Somehow this didn't happen this past weekend (I really focused on drinking enough water after each race, and some elecytrolytes as well). I am officially back in the "normal" range of BMI. I'm also 2 lbs away from my lowest achieved weight since starting my journey in June 2007. I'm excited, and maybe just a little bit freaked out. I'll be going into unknown territory soon. Sure, I've weighed less in the past, but I've *never* been this healthy or athletic. I wonder what my muscles will look like as I continue to lose weight. I guess I'll just have to wait and see, but I'm definitely pleased with the downward pattern I've been following lately.
ReplyDeleteI just wanted to let you know that if I suddenly vanish from here for a while, I haven't gone off the rails and quit. Nothing untoward has happened to me, either. (I hope...lol) My computer is having pretty massive problems and I am not a 'puter expert so if it dies on me, it might be a bit before I can get a new one and be back.Right now it is running very slow and my screen is so dim I can barely see it. I am hoping that I can get this thing repaired or replaced as quickly as possible. But things being as they are... Who knows.I am going to try to do a hard shutdown in a bit, drop the battery and fire it back up and see if that brings my monitor back to a normal brightness for a while. I am hoping that I can get my photos off onto a hosting site. I think I have the bulk of them saved to disk (I burned two, just to be on the safe side) but I would like to host them as a back up, too. I don't think I dare try to burn more disks, the way this thing is behaving.Geeze, this sucks.
ReplyDeleteAs I was surfing the web one night I came upon a popular forum. I was presented with this video, which is interesting, because this video I have come across before and thought it was another one of those weight loss hypes.I decided this time to watch it and was amazed at all the information that I learned! Just watching the video opened my eyes to all the important points of why we as a society are over weight and why we cannot lose weight! The video is about 25 minutes, so give yourself time to watch it and don’t get caught up in the sales pitch... Just watch the video!
ReplyDeleteYou should have no problem doing this from the space where you write new posts. Just click on the photo icon above the space where you write your posts, and upload your photo and continue write whatever you want before and after the photo.Also, I have been meaning to ask you - I am going to be doing a series on my blog called "Superstars of the Band" ("SOB Stories") -- featuring bandsters who have reached their goal weight and/or 100 or more pounds. Would you be willing to answer the questions I have compiled? If so, I can email you the questions. I would really appreciate it! We all have so much to learn from you! Watch for the first SOB Story post, hopefully later today...
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