Pizza? On a Diet?Yeah, you read that right. I ate pizza. However, the more I think about it the more I dislike the word "diet". It makes me think of celeb diets, fad diets, yoyo diets...it makes me think of crazy diets that are unsustainable and promising results that are unattainable.
On a more personal level, the word "diet" makes me think of some of the first "diets" I did when I was a teenager. They involved stopping eating entirely for a week to fit into a dress which would only be worn once, only to be congratulated by everyone for what I had supposedly achieved. If only I could go back and tell my younger self that not only is that a decidedly stupid diet but that I also wasn't even fat back then. Hindsight is a great thing.
I'm actually slightly ashamed that it has taken me until my thirties were in sight to finally find the wisdom and maturity within myself to realise all these "diets" I put myself through were so very wrong. That's why I'm determined not to diet ever again. Although I may be counting calories through fat secret, my real aim is to try to change my thinking and habits around food in order to change my lifestyle as a whole. These changes are so I can be who I want to be and live my life the way I want to live it, without restiction.
Oddly enough, I do actually have a dress for a special occasion coming up in a couple of weeks. When my mother found out I was changing my eating habits she immediately said "ah, yes. So you can look better in your dress. Well done you!" Eh...no. This has nothing to do with looking good. It kinda annoys me that so many people assume skinnier = prettier. Can't I look good in my dress already? A beautiful person will be beautiful no matter what their size, and that's the truth. Plus my dress looks awesome:
<a href="http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v180/Sheona/Food%20and%20FS/?action=view&current=2011-04-01165435-1.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v180/Sheona/Food%20and%20FS/2011-04-01165435-1.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket" width=300></a>
So no, I'm not doing it for the dress. In fact, losing weight to "fit into a dress" never even crossed my mind until my mother mentioned it. I'm doing this so I can feel good physically and live my life to its fullest. That's why this is
not a diet. And that's why I can eat pizza. I don't see why I should have to follow unrealistic rules and deny myself pleasurable eating experiences. I should be able to eat out with friends if I want to and I should be able to eat anything I like! I just need to be smarter about my portion sizes and think about what's in my food.
Instead of ordering in a pizza or even buying a pizza to stick in the oven at home, I decided to make my own pizza. I felt kinda guiltly about claiming the collaboratively-made pasta from the weekend counted towards my "cook something proper" goal so I feel like the pizza helped to make up for it. Plus making it myself gave me the option to skip the cheese. That's two goals tackled in one day!
1. One day a week, eat no cheese whatsoever
2. Take the time to cook something “proper” once a weekI'm so happy about my pizza I had to share some photos, too! The tomato sauce was also home-made and the toppings were just what I had in the fridge today: button mushrooms, tenderstem broccoli and baby spinach. Here is the raw pizza before it went in the oven:
<a href="http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v180/Sheona/Food%20and%20FS/?action=view&current=2011-04-12171112.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v180/Sheona/Food%20and%20FS/2011-04-12171112.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket" width=500></a>
I actually only ate half, so the other half has been boxed up to finish tomorrow. Normally, I would have just kept on going and finished the whole thing, but after half I didn't feel hungry anymore and my desire to have pizza tomorrow outweighed my desire to eat lots of pizza today. It just looks so darn delicious:
<a href="http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v180/Sheona/Food%20and%20FS/?action=view&current=2011-04-12173907.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v180/Sheona/Food%20and%20FS/2011-04-12173907.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket" width=500></a>
Here's to the non-diet diet! Highly recommended by me ;)