The Journey to Liberation From Chicken Fingers

In 2010, I posted a list of 4 New Year's resolutions. The first two (learn to sew my own clothes and knit myself one garment) I didn't follow through on at all. I would still like to learn to sew and knit better, but it just isn't enough of a priority for me right now. The resolution about getting more exercise is not one I did well on last year. However, this year I am doing much better. Perhaps I will talk about that on here soon, but for now, onward to the one I was actually successful with last year.

My resolution to try new foods and blog about them is one that I feel like I did really well on. I wasn't consistent on the blogging end, but I believe the trying part was more important anyway. I had started the year by trying 2 new things a month. And while that was pretty good, I found that I was just picking and choosing till I found the "just right" thing to try. It did add a few new foods to my diet, but it wasn't really pushing me to step out of my comfort zone. I think what finally pushed me was being with D. He let me know from early on that my finicky eating was a problem for him. He is raising two young boys, and he wants to train them to eat what is in front of them. Me sitting down with them and turning my nose up at things was going to be an issue. Not to mention the fact that it is boring and limiting to hang out with a picky eater all the time. I knew he was right. After all, it was already something I knew was a problem and knew I had to work on. I decided to work harder.

It hasn't been an easy transformation at all, and I still have a long way to go. There are certainly still many things that I am too afraid to put in my mouth. Still, the improvements I have made have been freeing and even exciting. It is so much easier to eat at someone else's house now or go out to eat with people. It is fun to look at a menu and actually have to make choices because several things look good instead of 1 or 2. I know I am still a picky eater, but I am no longer the kind of picky eater who belongs on a TLC special. (Can't you picture it? "Extreme Picky Eating" premiering Sunday night at 8:00. Why isn't this a show? Or is it, and I just missed it?)

I eat hamburgers now. In fact, I love them. I eat peppers and peas and rice and Lima beans and black beans and cooked carrots and onion and even the occasional tomato chunk in something. I like guacamole and I actually enjoy eating some kinds of fish. I can eat at a Mexican restaurant and not just have the boring cheese quesadilla. I like burritos and enchiladas and tacos and taco salad.

I am finding that sometimes I just have to suck it up, open my mouth, stick in the food, and give it a fair shot. It is still hard sometimes, but when D or my mom or my sister looks at me and says, "good for you, Lauren!" or "I'm so proud of you!" it makes it a lot easier.



- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Tomato, Tomata...Let's Not Call the Whole Thing Off

Remember that New Year's Resolution I made to try new foods...one food a month? Well, I pretty much sucked at it all year. However, this month I've actually done pretty well. I'm a little proud of myself, so I figured I share. :D

Let's see, this month I've tried the following:

Cooked zucchini and peppers in a pasta dish. I can't say that I really enjoyed this, but I choked it down. The zucchini I hated. The peppers weren't horrible, but I don't love the texture of them cooked. I'm told I should try roasted zucchini and not let zucchini from a freezer pasta bag make this decision for me.

Sloppy Joes, or more specifically, Manwich. I did eat sloppy joes occasionally as a child, but I hadn't tried them in many years. They were decent...probably not something I'd make myself, but certainly something I could eat again if that was what was for dinner.

Black Bean Salsa. My sister made this, and it contained a bunch of scary new things! Cold black beans, TOMATOES (I have a horror of tomatoes, but I'm TRYING to get over it), cold corn (I LOVE corn, but I was wary about it not being warm), peppers, and I don't even know what else. I only had a bite of it because my sister was making it for later and I was just trying it out. I actually was pleasantly surprised on this one. I think I'd eat it again!

Tomatoes. I keep working on this one. The day my sister made the salsa, I tried a tiny bite of a tomato by itself. I discovered that it really isn't as gross as I imagined it would be. I can't say I'm converted yet though. I also tried another one today in a sandwich. Normally I'd get a sandwich and ask for no tomato, but I decided to suck it up and eat it the way it was meant to be. Again, not too bad. Still...pineapple would have been better. I'm not sure what my deal is with tomatoes. I have no issue with tomato products, but somehow the idea of actually biting into a tomato has always grossed me out. Tomatoes are everywhere though, and I feel like I need to get over this.

Crab Rangoon. If I'm being totally honest, I didn't really give this a fair chance. I should have taken a second bite, but the first one was hard enough. I don't think I really even tasted it so much as just downed it to get it over with. I really should give this another go...we'll see.

I don't want to be the pickiest person you know.  I don't want to turn down food when I'm a guest in someone's house.  I don't want to make it difficult for people to eat out with me.  In this area of life, I'd like to just be...normal.  I'm not sure if I'll ever truly get there, but I'm going to try to improve.  I'm going to try harder than I was before too.  I'm discovering that it's usually not really as bad as I expect it to be, and even when it is bad, it doesn't hurt me to try.   I have a long road ahead of me on this, but I'm determined to keep at it.

January Resolution Update

Well, it's the last day of January, so I figured I should update on those New Year's resolutions I made.  Here goes.

1.  Sewing

I haven't worked at this skill at all over the past month.  It's one of those things that I need to be able to set aside a substantial amount of time to work on, and I just haven't done that. 

2.  Knitting

I've learned this month about cables, knitting on double pointed needles, making bobbles or popcorn stitches, and working from a chart.  I have made wrist warmers and a Dalek wash cloth..germs must be exterminated! Still a lot to learn, but I feel like I've made some good progress in this area.

3.  New Foods

My absolutely fabulous and amazing friend, Jenn, told me I needed to try taziki.  I'm glad she did.  I love it! Soooooo good with carrots and celery.  It's pretty low calorie and it's been helping me eat my veggies a lot more often.  I also re-tried cottage cheese.  I used to eat it all the time until my sister and friend convinced me it was gross (considering how few foods I liked at the time, I think this was uncalled for on their parts!).  For the past decade or so I've been too grossed out to eat it, but I finally decided to give it another try.  Turns out, I still love it.  I needed another form of calcium in my diet, so I'm very happy to be eating cottage cheese again. 

4.  Exercise
I'll admit that I'm not doing so great here.  I have been playing Wii Sports Resort, and some of the games on it are a pretty decent workout.  However, I haven't been playing it or doing anything else consistently.  This is still an area I need to work on.

Happy New Year!

It's 2010 now.  Gonna take me awhile to get the hang of writing/typing that. I've messed up typing it several times already.

I don't always make a new year's resolution.  Sometimes I just can't think of one.  Sometimes I can think of things but figure, why bother...no one sticks to them anyway. But you know, one year I did stick to it.  One year I decided it was time to lose some weight, and I did it.  I lost about 80 lbs over the next year and a half after that.  If I could stick to that, why can't I stick to something else?  I CAN!  So here they are.  Maybe if I use my blog to keep myself accountable, it will be a little easier to not let them slide.

1. Learn to make my own clothing
Now, this is something I know a little about already.  I have made a few things over the years, but I'm not good at it and I can't do it without a lot of help.  My goal is to keep working on this skill over the next year and get myself to the point where I can make myself an outfit without stressing out my mother with all my pleas for help and temper tantrums.  

2. Knit myself at least one garment
This cannot be something like a scarf or hat.  I has to be something that requires me to learn new techniques.  It will be something along the lines of a sweater I think.  We'll see.

3.  Try at least 1 new food each month and blog about it.
I'm not talking about putting foods I already like together in a new way.  I'm talking about either a totally new food that I've never tried or a food that I've tried in the past but  didn't like and never tried again.  At first I was going to make it 1 a week, but I know myself well enough to know that this will be very hard for me.  I want something I can stick to.  If I try a minimum of 1 a month, that will be at least 12 foods I've tried by the end of the year.  This may not seem like a big deal to the average person, but for me it is.  If, by the end of a month, I haven't blogged about something new I've tried, get on my case about it! Please!

4. Get off my butt and get moving!
Exercise is such a cliche resolution, but I really do spend way too much time sitting around...computer, reading, sitting the floor with kids, knitting, crocheting.  I need to get up and move.  I'm hoping that some of the new Wii games I just ordered will help with this, but I also am going to be looking for some other activities to get me out and moving.  There is only so much I can take of working out in my room. 

So there they are.  Anyone else making any resolutions this year?