a post about food

I love to eat. One of the benefits of being an avid runner and breast feeding my daughter is that I get to eat more. I should clarify when I say that I love to eat that I don't love to eat everything. I'm not a picky eater, but if you put a dark leafy green fresh salad and a twinky in front of me, I'll choose the salad. I love whole, healthy, nutritious foods like fresh fruits and veggies, whole grains, lean proteins, and dairy. I also love chocolate. Add some peanut butter to that chocolate and I'm in heaven (food speaking that is.) Because of this appreciation for food, I live in a pretty cool situation. In my home in China I get to experience awesome Asian cuisine every day for dirt cheep. Our location has abundant and exotic fresh fruit and vegetables to try and to savor. On the flip side, it's always fun when I visit the USA to indulge in all those foods that I miss so much while living in China. Foods like cheeses of all shapes and varieties (including cottage), whole grains, dill pickles ( yes i love them and I drink the juice from the jar. don't judge.), black olives, cream cheese artichoke dip, dark chocolate covered blueberries, and Greaters Ice Cream. Am I making you hungry????My relationship with food, however, hasn't always been so friendly. Struggling with eating disorders in my teens and college years left me with a unhealthy love/hate relationship with food. But a lot of prayers, grace, healing from the Lord, and an incredible husband have helped me to truly recover from those demons. Now, I'm able to appreciate food for what it is, enjoy it, and then stop eating it when I'm full. Praise God for this certainly hasn't always been the case. All this rambling does have a point.....One of the biggest reverse culture shocks that I experience when coming back to America is how incredibly overweight and unhealthy so many people are. You don't realize it folks, but go to some other country for a while and come back, and you'll know exactly what I mean. It's really really sad. While in Kentucky we went to the Kentucky State Fair. The most popular food item this year was (drum roll please......) the Krispy Kreme Doughnut Hamburger. That's right folks, a giant greasy burger smacked between to Krispy Kreme Doughnuts. Wow. I mean wow. The thought of eating that makes me want to spew. This food item seemed to go well with the already popular fried twinkies, fried snickers bars, and pretty much fried everything....Not to be hypocritical, I did buy a funnel cake, but I also shared it with four other people. So maybe this is one of the reasons we're so fat??? Our good times, our fairs and celebrations are made special by food choices that are so outrageously unhealthy it's unbelievable. Just a few thoughts that I had while I was walking around sucking down my diet coke and chewing on Bailey's corn dog. (hehehe..... okay so maybe i'm a tad hypocritical, but this is my blog.)