Don't You Miss Eating?

I heard this question today when I picked up my lunch.

Nearly every day, I pop into the little breakroom on the 4th floor, grab a raw veggie cup, two hard boiled eggs and a container of skim milk. Depending on the selection, I might substitute a string cheese for the milk or eggs. Or add an apple or orange if I'm hungry. But generally, it's pretty much the same thing every day.

Today, the lady that rings me up looked at me and very honestly asked, "Don't you miss eating? Does it get easier or is it hard every day? Don't you miss it?"

"But I DO eat," I replied. "I eat. I eat a lot." But she really made me think on the way back to my desk.

Do I miss eating? Do I really feel deprived and MISS it? Is it hard to eat what I'm eating?

And, honestly, the answer is no. I don't miss eating like I used to eat. In fact, I LIKE the veggies and the fruit and I don't miss the meat nearly as much as I would have predicted.

I do miss some things, though.

I miss the "ease" of eating whatever I wanted, whenever I wanted it. I miss the ease of not having to plan the day or the week out to make sure I get enough fish or don't get too many carbs in one sitting. I miss the ease of fast fix meals from a box when I'm running behind.

Because, let's face it. I'm lazy.

But I don't miss eating. Because I do eat.

I LOVE cheese. I eat cheese. Just not a lot and not every day.

I LOVE cheeseburgers. I eat cheeseburgers. But now I probably have one a month made from beef. And maybe one a month made from ground turkey.

I LOVE crusty, chewy french baguettes or bagels or sourdough. With cheese. And I don't eat any of them much at all. But when I do, I sit down and make it an event.

I LOVE pork tenderloin and pulled pork and pork tacos. I eat pork. But when I do, it's not more than a couple of times a month and I skip the potatoes and bread and other things that go with it.

I LOVE ice cream. I eat ice cream. Cones. One at a time from Dairy Queen or McD's where it's ice milk, not Culver's custard. And instead of buying a gallon from the grocery store, Jim and I only stop for a treat every once in a while.

I LOVE potato chips. I eat potato chips. Yeah, sometimes they're baked (which are really awful, IMHO), but there's also a bag of reduced fat Kettle cooked chips in the pantry right now. They were opened in October, I think. And still crunchy. I just haven't "needed" to eat them. I can usually find a better choice.

So, I don't really miss eating.

And I certainly don't miss the 84 pounds that have disappeared, either.