One of the peculiar things that happens as you age is that one day you wake up and discover you’re an adult. This doesn’t happen when you’re 21, and for many of us, it doesn’t even happen when we’re 41. Still, one day, for many of us (except for my former boyfriends), it just appears, and you don’t even remember the transformation.
For example, I recently decided to start liking cauliflower. Now, in my past life, I would think, “Cauliflower is disgusting. I will avoid it at all costs. Not only does it taste funky, but it looks like human brains.That is cannibalism. I’m not taking up cannibalism at my age, it’s a younger person’s sport.”
But in my new, adult life, I think, “Cauliflower is a super food, fights cancer and extremely low in calories, so I’m going to try to learn to like it especially because it’s very trendy these days and everyone’s got it on their menus.”
See, I read an article recently that said if you eat a food you dislike every day for 21 days, you’ll start liking it. Clearly, the moral of that story is to stop reading.
But, regardless, I decided to try this. Yesterday was my first foray into cannibalism and I spent 3.7 hours trying to roast a cauliflower that didn’t taste like cat urine. Finally, I determined that if I poured low calorie teriyaki sauce on it after dumping a pound of curry powder on it and then roasting it, it covered up the nasty flavor and I could choke it down. (Actually, in retrospect, what I didn’t try was pouring Corona beer on it. Since Corona also tastes like cat urine — I’m a Pacifico girl all the way — then maybe pouring it on cauliflower would cancel out the effects of both.)
In any event, the cauliflower experiment seems to be succeeding — though you’ll never get me to eat Brussels sprouts. Talk about the joyful flavors of animal excrement. At a trendy restaurant, my friends are always like, “Ooh, yum, let’s order these delicious Brussels sprouts as an appetizer! See, Marla! They’re dipped in butter, injected with sour cream and then wrapped in bacon! The taste is completely obliterated! So you’ll like them!”
Um, no, I won’t. And far be it from me to point out that serving something dripping in butter and bacon fat means any health benefits that once accrued to it have been obliterated. Of course my friends all weigh 102 pounds and are professional joggers so they don’t even care. I was slightly horrified the other day to realize I have two close friends who could still fit in their wedding dresses after decades of marital bliss and children. There’s something wrong with that. But, I digress.
To me, one of the major marks of adulthood is the ability to eat when you don’t want to, whether it’s because you don’t like the food, or because you’re on a long trip and you know you won’t be near anything edible for hours to come.
Think about it. Ever try to convince a kid to eat now because his next meal won’t be until dinner? Good luck with that.
I figure that I eat all the time now when I’m not hungry, just from boredom. So at least I should try to eat things that don’t have 18 calories per chip.
At least, that’s what an adult would do.
Next week: How to be an adult and do one thing this week you’ve been procrastinating about.
[ad_2]
Source link