Day 146: Food as Energy, Not as Entertainment

So, as you all know, I am on my special "diet" for the next few weeks.  This diet may be deemed by some as "extreme," and they would probably not be wrong.  I am eating a lot of protein folks, and unfortunately, I have had to supplement two of my meals with protein powder.  Although I have grown used to protein powder, I really do not like it.  It looks synthetic, it tastes synthetic, and I just can't believe that it is really that great for you.  I would much rather eat a piece of chicken or fish or something.

Anyway, as I was drinking my chocolate protein powder with spinach (actually, it isn't a gross as it sounds), I was thinking about how great it was if I stopped viewing food as a form of entertainment and started viewing it as a form of energy.  All of us know some health nut that eats solely as an energy source (which arguably, is all food really is).  I remember my mother going to a personal trainer once who said that as a "treat," once a week she would add a teaspoon of peanut butter to her protein shake.  Do you know what a teaspoon of peanut butter does to a protein shake?  Nothing.  It does absolutely nothing.  Frankly, does so little, it isn't worth the calories you expend scooping it out of the jar or the calories you take in consuming it. 

These "food-is-only-energy" people simply have no need for things like dessert, or croissants, or fish and chips.  Why?  Because they were obviously born with a birth defect denying them the pleasure of taste.  That is right, they simply do not have any taste buds or sense of smell to help them differentiate what tastes good and what does not taste good.  For these people, food is like getting gas for your car.  It really does not matter if you get it at Chevron or Exxon or BP (okay, okay, spare me the environmental-disaster politics and brand loyalties--at least I didn't mention 7-Eleven, which, by the way, puts dirt in its gas), because your car is probably going to run fine on almost any brand of gas. 

Unlike these fortunately people that do not have olfactory senses, I have an amazing sense of taste.  I, therefore, do not eat food for energy, I eat it for entertainment.  I like how it looks, I like how it tastes, and I like how it makes me feel.  This, of course, is my great downfall.
Anyway, I say all of this to let you know that for the next three weeks, I am going to train myself to view food as an energy source, not as entertainment.  That means, no dessert, no bad fat, no sugar.  Not because I am depriving myself, but because I don't need it.  Bad fats and sugar are not good energy sources, and I eat for energy now, not for entertainment. 

If you are like me, and you haven't already jumped on the food-is-only-energy bandwagon, I suggest you try.  I know what you are thinking:  why would I want to do that?  Food is meant to be enjoyed.  That may be true, but it doesn't build character.  Suffering, on the other hand, does build character.  And we are character-building people!  Plus, think about it this way:  Is food really meant to be enjoyed?  I mean, aren't we making a big assumption that food is actually supposed to be enjoyed?  When a vulture tears through the rotting flesh of road kill, does it really taste good?  Or when a wolf eats the bloodied innards of a deer it has just slaughtered?  Or when a blue whale eats 6 tons of krill in a single day (that is a lot of krill, by the way)?  Seriously folks, I am not sure food is actually supposed to taste good.  Maybe it really is there just to keep us going so we can enjoy other, far more important things in life. . . .