From Monday to Friday, I eat three meals a day: breakfast between 9:30 and 10:00 in the morning, lunch between 1:00 and 3:00 in the afternoon and dinner sometime before 11:00 in the evening. I eat breakfast at work, so poor planning resulting in not bringing milk to work sometimes has me grabbing a muffin or breakfast sandwich from a coffee shop instead of my usual bowl of cereal. Lunch is purchased 98% of the time and is either Thai food, pizza, Chinese food or soup/chili with a biscuit from a coffee shop. Dinner can be everything from an omelet to popcorn (or an omelet and popcorn) to a stir fry or my beloved white rice or couscous with broccoli and chicken or pork if I’m cooking (recognizing, of course that making popcorn is not exactly cooking!). Otherwise dinner can be “heat and serve” dishes or take out. I try not to eat take out for dinner too often because it’s hard to justify ingesting that many extra calories in one day but I have to admit I don’t say no to a dinner invite; in fact I relish them. On the topic of doing harm, I also eat candy every day. If it was only a small handful of skittles, gummie treats or the like, I wouldn’t bother mentioning it, but my candy consumption is e-x-c-e-s-s-i-v-e.

On Saturday and Sunday, I eat two meals each day: one around 1pm (on a good day) and the other a late dinner, often heavily supplemented by snacks (popcorn especially).

My eating habits could use some help, but not the “I have no idea what to eat, please help me figure it out” help since I am a well-informed Canadian, after all. I know which food groups I should be sinking my teeth into half a dozen times a day and which foods should get the permanent cold shoulder. When my colleagues break out the celery, carrots, and edamame, I want to bring out a bag of skittles. When they’re digging into their yogurt I actually want to dig into my yogurt too, but I’ve usually forgotten it at home where it will go uneaten and expire, so I must get into the habit of bringing my yogurt and milk for cereal in together. Whole grains are of course in the “healthy foods” side of things. I have switched to wholewheat pasta, but the noodles I use in my stirfries are not whole wheat. I am foreverstill a devotee of white rice; I can’t imagine brown rice ever tasting as good, especially when paired with a Nigerian stew, but I have to try it first before making that conclusion. I was replacing my rice with couscous, but I read recently that couscous wasn’t that much healthier than white rice (bulghur is supposed to be better).

I’ve been thinking more and more about having children (an impending 32nd birthday will do that to me, given that I have the age of 35 in my head as the “let’s panic about the fate of my ovaries” age) and something tells me these habits will not fly when I am in the “trying” stage of conception. What’s the point of taking prenatal vitamins if I’m eating so many things that will not nourish my yet-unconceived child, and perhaps even cancel out the effects of the vitamins in the first place? And financially my almost $9 daily lunch budget five days a week will surely be diverted to diapers unless I want to be covered in poop on a regular basis.

This isn’t a complaint or a plea for help; it’s more of a recognition that things have to change, whether I become a mom in the future or am single. Even though these eating habits aren’t affecting my health yet, it really is only a matter of time. I don’t need someone to motivate me, but I may consider seeking professional help. If only personal chefs weren’t so costly!

Filed under: Health by jummy