Last week…actually two weeks ago, we talked about healthy food items that are staples in our lives now. But what about our old eating habits? I had a lot of really bad ones, and besides choosing unhealthy things to eat, I also had some issues with portion control. To illustrate, I once ate an entire “Tall Cake”, which is a dessert at Ruby Tuesday. It’s basically a generous piece of a three layer chocolate cake with chocolate frosting topped with a multi-scoop hot fudge sundae. It’s intended for, like, 6 people, but I ate it by myself, even after downing an 8 oz burger, a plate full of fries, and a soda.
I have many stories of binge-eating, but the most “extreme” night I can remember, the one night that really makes me stop an wonder why I never needed any sort of bypass surgery, was back at the beginning of September, 2004. Fair season was approaching, and the previous year I had discovered a stand serving deep-fried oreos. They’re pretty much what they sound like: about 6 or so oreo cookies dipped in batter then put in a basket fryer for like 3 minutes, and tossed into a styrofoam bowl. The man at the stand had asked if I wanted them topped with whipped cream, which I of course gave him the go-ahead on. The cream filling vanishes; the hot oil totally vaporizes it. The cookies themselves turn into a blackish-brown goo inside the ball of grease-soaked dough. They’re actually pretty good.
My sister, Katie, and then-boyfriend Jim, lived in an apartment in Biddeford, and I spent many weekends there. My visits typically centered around playing Playstation 2, watching DVDs, and eating something new. With fair season approaching, I got to reminiscing about the deep-fried oreos, and Katie wondered if maybe she could find a recipe, you know, to warm up our gall bladders for the fair. Over the following week, she managed to find one, and get tips on the existence of several other deep-fried delicacies. We were so excited, that on the next Friday night we decided I should spend the night there and we should make and try them ALL.
So, our Friday night cuisine started with the deep-fried oreos. In hindsight, I can’t imagine there’s much of a recipe to it…maybe for the batter, I guess. We followed that with deep-fried twinkies, which are prepared the same way as the oreos (we certainly didn’t waste any batter that night), with the added touch of being skewered on the end of a wooden stick. As with the oreos, the cream filling vanishes, and oddly enough the yellow-sponge cake grows and expands to fill in the holes; you’d never know that it had ever been stuffed with whipped sugar.
Not to end our special celebration of peanut oil early, Jim graciously brought home a big wad of pizza dough from the italian restaurant he worked at at the time, which we promply fried. For the record, pizza dough makes excellent fried dough.
But wait, there was more! For “dessert” (yes, this abomination of fried sugar was our dinner that night) we brought out three Snickers bars and gave them the twinkie treatment! Those Snickers got awful soft after being drenched into 400 degree oil for 3-5 minutes, but luckily the batter held them together! As I recall, Katie was getting full and I ate a good portion of her’s, as well as mine.
And I believe that’s it. We fell into an uneasy sleep, and the next day woke up and went to Funtown and tried not to hurl on the rides! What an exciting life I once led!
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Unfortunately (for you), the tales of my extreme eating are somewhat less thrilling than that of my husband.
When I gained the majority of my weight and passed the line from overweight to obese, I was living with my best friend Stacey and deep into college life. And by college life, I mean. . . busy and broke. After the first year of college where I lived on campus, we got an apartment and job(s) to make some money to keep our apartment. Unfortunately, when you’re 19, any job you get isn’t going to make you much money. So after rent and bills? There wasn’t much left for groceries. If you’ve got $10 to spend for a week of groceries, you’ll end up on my extreme eating diet. . . macaroni and cheese! Now, I didn’t just have a serving (which is over 400 calories in and of itself), oh no folks, I would eat the whole box in one sitting. Sometimes this would mean eating two boxes of macaroni and cheese in one day. 2,400 (ish) hundred calories, not counting breakfast or drinks. To put that in perspective, I currently stick pretty closely to a 1,200 calorie per day diet, (with the exception of when we were triathlon training and I upped my calories to 1,800 due to the extreme exercise).
When Stacey and I reached a “comfortable” level of living, having gotten better paying jobs- (freshly out of the share a package of ramen noodles phase) we took to ordering out meals. This was a period of definite gluttony. No other word for it. I would order a full pound of buffalo wings, onion rings, fries, and sometimes a buffalo chicken wrap. For dinner. I can’t begin to imagine the calories of that particular meal, but it wouldn’t surprise to me if it was upwards of 5,000. Insanity when I look back on it now. Not to mention the sodium.
In the last few years, I found I have stage 2 chronic kidney disease (taking after my Mom in a not-so-great-way!). I can’t imagine the sodium I added to my diet was any help to the development of this. I wish I could take so much of that time period back. But we are what we are, and I’ve certainly learned from my mistakes.
So, I urge anyone trying to lose weight that is reading this. . . just consider your meals, consider what you put into your mouth. Is it really worth it? Full fat, high calories meals . . .they may taste better, but the fact it – your body just doesn’t need it. You never know what the path will hold for you health wise, and I now believe it is best to prepare fully by living as healthy as you can.
Have a great weekend – and watch what you eat 😉
