Yesterday Rich and I were driving to the Path station and I glanced across to the signs on the front of a neighborhood supermarket. It's a big store, not very appealing, ragged in the way that older urban supermarkets can be. I've never been inside, I imagine that it's kinda grubby and a bit smelly, not where I want to shop. I admit it, I am squeamish and fussy when it comes to my grocery stores. But this time as I was scanning critically across the drab facade, I noticed the signs on the building. In addition to the large name sign for the store - for the life of me I can't remember what it's called - I noticed some other words, mounted on the building in large permanent letters: Fresh Seafood & Steamed Crabs. Remember I am a signage guy, I notice the signs. At that moment, what struck me as very odd were the words themselves. Why would a large, presumably full service supermarket, choose to feature these two particular items in permanent letters on the facade, Fresh Fish - Steamed Crabs. The fish is a general category, but crabs, why crabs, that's so specific. Were they so desirable and hard to find in 70's or 80's Jersey City when the sign might have gone up. It seems inconceivable that a supermarket in 2011 would permanently mount these particular words on the building.
That momentary flash on Sip Avenue set my mind to thinking about food and changing eating patterns. For context, I am in the depths of a six week Detox/Weigh Loss program. I've lost ten pounds (damn, yesterday it was eleven.) It has caused me to examine and reflect on all of my food choices and eating patterns. For now it's no caffeine, alcohol, processed sugars, gluten, dairy, or starchy vegetables (i.e. rice or potatoes), and for two more days, no solid breakfast or dinner. This food shock therapy is designed to cleanse my body and also interrupt all of my previous food routines so I can lose weight and feel better. Thus far I have achieved both in spades. At the moment I am following a detailed roadmap that lays out what I can and cannot eat. This makes the regime easier, if I stick to the path I will achieve the results I am seeking. The harder part is contemplating the road ahead beyond the six week program. What will be my new normal, what will I want to eat, and what will I allow myself to eat. My eating patterns before the program were constructed from a lifetime of experience. I grew up on great food, abundantly provided in a beautiful setting. Mother was a renowned cook and she knew how to present food to make eating a compelling and delicious experience. Long before that Fresh Fish & Steamed Crabs sign went I up, learned to eat three solid meals a day. Like mom, I am a great cook and I too can put on a damn good meal.
So what's the problem, where did I go wrong. I think the key word is abundance. I love the meal, I love the food, I love making it. I've rarely restrained myself - have another bagel with a bit more butter, have a second or third helping of roast chicken, more mashed, a little pie and a little more pie. I've been blessed, all my life the meals have been good. The patterns started way back and they have just rolled on and on over the years. I've been eating like it's 1975 - when I was twenty-five. But I'm sixty now and that can't continue.
So Rick and Steven have set me on a new path of moderate and conscious eating, Martha and Rosemary and Rich and all the others are my cheerleaders. So I'll now adopt the first of David's New Rules of Eating
1. Don't eat so much.
And I'm making some other changes too. On that account Fresh Fish & Steamed Crabs might be just the thing for me. But I don't think that I'll buy them at that grungy store we passed yesterday. The reason will be the basis of Rule #2 but I'll tell you about that later.
