On... healthy eating

The world is absolutely obsessed with body image, weight, and eating. Some of the fad diets out there are completely insane. I remember reading that Demi Moore is on a raw diet (aka nothing cooked over 100F). Gwyneth Paltrow eats like a grapefruit for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Ridiculous I say! No wonder celebrities need an entourage to carry their things and escort them around.

I don't diet, and I eat whatever I want. I just sounded like a whiny brat... What I mean is everything in moderation, especially when it comes to eating. I believe that our bodies are designed for a happy medium, and it is abnormal to be on either end. I'm actually a very picky eater. Being Asian, I grew up with Asian cooking, so this is what I know and am comfortable with. My motto is "try everything, at least once", so I do. I've often ventured out of my eating comfort zone with great successes and disappointments, but over time, I've learned that you can learn to love foods you didn't think you would. This lies the secret to healthy eating. You must love healthy food, and you can train your palate to prefer vegetables (even brussel sprouts, one of my faves). Case in point: Growing up in an Asian house, I've never had beets before. If you were to offer me beets as a kid, I would have probably screamed. I was slowly introduced to it. First diced in salad, then marinaded in a slaw. Gradually, I've learned to love beets. Today, I just boil it until it's soft and eat it whole, on a fork, like a cave woman, with the red juice down my face (not really on the last part but pretty close). It's glorious.

But seriously, eating healthy has become easier since I've taken on cooking and baking as my hobbies. It first started out of necessity, since a girl's gotta eat. It's quickly evolved into a fun study break, and now it's a exciting challenge to push myself to create advance dishes that take taste and cooking technique to a whole new level. This has actually been quite a bonding experience for my husband and me. Cooking together is a hobby that we don't have to actively seek out or take time out of our busy lives to do.

Cooking has allowed me to control exactly what goes into my stomach. There are substitutions to cut down fat, sugar, salt... that can be made without changing the taste at all. It's amazing, really! I wish I had this much control in the other aspects of my life. Now, I use olive oil instead of butter for everything except baking. Even when I bake, I use the olive oil/butter blend, and my cakes and breads still turn out moist and fluffy. The new project in my house is making ice cream. We just made a Bailey's latte ice cream the other day that tasted great, and it had much less sugar than store bought ice creams.

The best part is that after eating healthy for a while, you don't crave greasy foods anymore. Just give me a beet on a fork, and I'm a happy camper.