Real Food

First of all, I don’t want anyone to think I am knocking a method that works for them. I’m just trying to present something that made a lot of sense to me when I saw it. This was years ago and I was watching an old Food Network show, whose title I can’t remember and that no longer exists, but it was about a chef who used to be morbidly obese and then she lost a ton of weight because she learned to make delicious low-calorie foods. So, this chef was visiting the home of a woman who was a chronic “dieter.” When they opened the woman’s fridge and freezer, all you could see were weight loss shakes and boxes of diet meals. There was nothing fresh to be seen. By contrast, the chef loaded the woman’s kitchen table with low-calorie fresh foods she’d made with relatively simple ingredients. The chef’s comment was, “You can’t eat out of a box or can forever. You’re going to have to eat real food if you want to be healthy for the rest of your life, so you might as well get comfortable with it.”

I had actually never been tempted by shakes or frozen diet meals, I’d never even tried them (Stouffer’s French Bread Pizzas clearly don’t count, but damn I loved those), but I realized that it’s something that a lot of people try or even rely on in their lives. Lean Cuisine, SlimFast, NutriSystem, Jenny Craig (side bar: if when you encounter me drunk, I do an awesome Jenny Craig impression, just ask Annie). Again, I’m not saying these things are bad, but it made so much sense to me that “real” food, not prepackaged meals and supplements, would always be my go-to. I’m also not one to opt for non-fat (low-fat is fine), but that’s another story.

There are a few real food items that are staples on my shopping list, including tomatoes, whole wheat pita, plain low-fat yogurt, baby carrots, eggs, lettuce, apples, 2% milk. What are your go-to food items in your house?