OMG do you ALWAYS think about food????

Um yes.

That was a question asked of me the other day. I guess it wasn't until that exact moment that I realized everyone doesn't.

I've been reading articles about what restaurants do to lure us in. Food manufacturers too. It's the layer of 3 rule. Sugar, fat, salt. Put those three things in a product and it'll sell. It'll keep butts in the seat of your restaurant. What do they mean? Oh, I've got a few examples.

Buffalo wings. Oh God I love them. What are they? The fattiest part of the chicken, deep fried, smothered in a sauce that has tons of sugar, fat, and salt. Start with fat (chicken wing) fry it in fat, smother it in fat, sugar, and salt. Heaven on a plate.

Chili cheese fries. Start with a relatively harmless potato. Comfort food at the max. Deep fry it at the manufacturing plant and ship it off to the restaurant. First layer of fat. Restaurant gets it, fries it again. Second layer of fat. Loads it up with ooey and gooey cheese and chili. Sugar, fat, salt. Could I have a side of sour cream with mine please?

Things like this just set off a part of my brain. A very pleasurable part. That's what the restaurants and manufacturers are counting on. Should the restaurants and food people be blamed for giving us what we want? What we crave? It's hard for me to say this, but nah, they're just out to make a buck. They shouldn't have to quit making things I like, or want to make it easier for me. Is it bad for us? Heck yes. Would it be bad in moderation? Not so much.

This is what Weight Watchers is trying to teach me with the 35 flex points and the activity points they give me each week. Hey, you, fat girl! Here's some extra points so when you want something, you can have a small amount of it so you don't crave it so much you binge. Ya, you know who you are! Key word here? SMALL amount. I need to learn to be satisfied with 1 ounce of potato chips and not the whole super size bag. Oh don't think I'm kidding. I could demolish a whole bag of potato chips and then have lunch. A pound of bacon? Not a problem in the world. I could easily eat two. A super sized bag of cheese Dorito's with a bar of cream cheese to run the chips through? Burrrppp and there won't be any left either. I just need to get my stopping mechanism to work correctly all the time.

So, back to thinking about food. I wake up thinking about food. I think about food all day long. When I work, God help me, I work in a restaurant that makes really, really, really, good food. I come home from work and think about what I'm going to eat. I go to bed wondering what I'll eat the next day.

How has Weight Watchers helped me with this 'problem'? Well, now I use my thoughts to plan my food for the day when I wake up. I plan how I'm going to get in my 5 fruit and veg. I plan how I'm going to get in 2 servings of healthy oil. I plan how I'm going to get 3 milks a day in. I plan how I'm going to get adequate protein in for all the exercise I'm doing. I write about food in my blog. I read other peoples blogs about food. Yep, I think about food all the time!

I plan a 'treat' or two every day. It's usually my FAF. I love it. It's creamy, sweet, tastes rich and fattening, but it's not. It's high protein. It's got a fruit. It's love in a bowl. It's 2 points also which helps a lot.

I plan ways to have food I love in a different way. For example. I love fried food. I bet you didn't know that about me! So I've learned to pound my meat thin, dredge it in a bit of flour and fry it in 1 teaspoon of olive oil. Holy moly it's good. I feel like I'm having country fried chicken or pork or whatever.

I love pasta and sauce. I've come up with a pasta sauce recipe that I just love. I use Ronzoni smart pasta. It tastes like the not good for me white pasta, but it's not. Total point damage for a big size serving? Four. Not too bad at all. Leaves lots of room for other things to be added to the meal.

I have a very dear friend that follows the Weight Watcher program and planning, thinking, tracking, weighing and measuring, isn't her bag. It makes her crazy. We're polar opposites in that regard. If I don't plan, track, and think about what I'm going to eat, I just mindlessly eat. She rocked the Core program when WW had Core. Man I just couldn't do that at all. It was a free pass for me to eat all I wanted of some things. I can understand how she has problems with the 'new' WW program.

I'm off to plan my food for the day. Then I'm off to work..hmmmmm I wonder what I'll have for my break? Then I'll be home to eat dinner. Oh oh oh gotta get a snack in there somewhere!!!

:-)