Sin #5 - Availability - I Never Met a Biscotti I Didn't Like!

I'm not a cookie monster by default but if you place a tray of biscotti's on the counter and just leave it there, the innate grazer in me will Mangia Mangia alllll daaay lonnng! ...until that plate is empty. Given the opportunity I/we will eat - it's a fact! 80% of eating is visible desire - in other words if food out for us to see, we WILL want it! Even if we don't need it or even if we are not hungry. Purely because it is there!

If you haven't figured it out already, I love food and therefore I have a kitchen that reflects that love. Meaning there are bowls AND bowls of fruit on the counter, canisters with cookies, coffee/cappuccino machine at the ready, freshly made soup and goodies on the stove etc. Food everywhere, cooking smells all around and I gravitate to me kitchen every chance I get because not only do I adore food, I especially enjoy cooking it because it also relaxes me.

If I am working from home or if I am at my dad's I am still too close to a kitchen for comfort and as for dietary survival, I have had to renegotiate my stance of 'food availability' and 'food visibility'. I cannot hide all things food! It's a kitchen for gods sake and besides if I am cooking to relax or feed my family I need to surround myself with ingredients - I do not have the strength to not eat while prepping food and I don't like chewing GUM either! I have had to devise another plan, I decided to work with my weaknesses and believe in my strengths! I keep lots of visible fruit as options for when I want to grab a snack, I can cut up an apple in less than 30 seconds, squirt some tangy mustard on it and I am good-to-go. While cooking I can cut up celery, carrots, yogurt dip, wholegrain crackers etc. to have during the couple of hours that I am prancing around in the kitchen to prevent me from licking every spoon or gobbling every piece of pie or rasher of bacon that happens to break free while I am cooking.

We can also talk about social gatherings too, house parties are a free-for-all when it comes to available food! It's everywhere you turn and opportunity is knocking itself out of the park with calorie rich treats; Aunt Lucy's decadent brownies or bowls of kettle corn, OH and 7-layer dips on every other table. It's so hard, because we are visual eaters. I am a visual cook for example. I probably own a hundred cookbooks and NOT ONE is without big colourful pictures. I'm sold on the photography of the food before I've even read the title of the recipe~so I get it! The old adage, Your Eyes Are Bigger Than Your Stomach! Yep! That now makes me a cartoon freak with eyes the size of dinner plates but you get the point.

In moments like social pot-lucks and large get togethers where food and drink are bountiful, I personally try to eat something heavy in protein and fibre before I go. I do not want to be hungry upon arrival and attack everything in sight. I want to enjoy the goodies by being choosy and not mindlessly eating for the sake it. If I am going to 'blow the budget' or have what I call a 'food-plan furlough' then I am going to make damn sure that I am going to enjoy the things I wouldn't normally make myself or could just go buy any old time at the store. NO, I am going to sit down, savour it and not hide in the corner of a room, hoping I won't be seen. I am going to be Present, In the Room, In Charge, Making My Decisions about what I want to eat and Enjoy every morsel. That is what eating mindfully and enjoying food is all about. So, Go On - Enjoy the Biscotti!