A Saturday with The Big Carrot

On Saturday I took a field trip with my friend Nicki to The Big Carrot natural food market (348 Danforth Ave.  in Toronto). It’s like any other regular grocery store–but better! It was a fresh food wonderland filled with organic produce and so many vegan and vegetarian options for a diet rehabber like me! 

We had a fantastic time–I picked up some fresh produce and tried two items from their vegetarian deli (salad rolls and a sesame and rice patty).  

The only thing I didn’t like about The Big Carrot was that I found many of the Carrot customers a little…on the pushy side.  It seems like every aisle we turned down, fellow shoppers came crashing into us and we did not get an apology! This got me thinking: when people (like me) spend a lot of their time thinking about their diet rehab, their food choices, reading labels and nutritional information, do they become a little self…involved?

I’m beginning to wonder if I have been a little too focussed on myself lately.  I feel really excited about the rehab–I feel good about the changes I’ve made and I feel really accomplished when I try a new recipe and discover how good it tastes.   It’s not that I want to show off (at least I don’t think it is), but I think my relationship with food is changing.

I used to try and avoid cooking with fat where possible. I always bought low-calorie or low-fat versions of my favorite foods.  Sometimes I ate indiscriminately, only to feel guilty and remorseful afterwards. At other times, I tried to stick to a ridiculously limited diet in an effort to make up for the dietary mistakes I had made previously.  

Now that I’m buying most of what I eat and preparing it myself, I am much more aware of what I’m putting into my body and this makes me feel like I have more control. It occurred to me that concentrating on a balanced diet–figuring out how to get protein and carbohydrates into every meal–makes me forget about counting calories and fat grams. I look forward to eating and I enjoy my food.  I still get tempted to veer off course now and then, but I no longer feel quite so scared to be around ‘forbidden’ foods.

My relationship with food is slowly improving. I hope I don’t damage any of my personal relationships along the way.