Social Workout

i saw someone's nuts.

A few days ago, I was getting changed in the Crunch locker room and as I turned around to put something on the bench behind me, I noticed that someone had very neatly laid out a handful of almonds on their towel. Somehow, I instinctively knew that there were 14 almonds...and the moment the realization of that hit me, I of course double-checked and it turned out that, yes indeed, there were 14 almonds on the towel. I kind of chuckled to myself at how incredibly ridiculous it was that I guessed the number of nuts. I mean, the reality is that it wasn't really a guess. It was simply that I know what a serving size of almonds is. After chuckling, the second emotion was actually a bit of sadness. Why is it that I have to have this useless knowledge in my head? Why is it that I've been so obsessed with my food in the past that I instinctively know how much of it a person "should" have in one sitting. Why is it that this girl feels that she has to count out the exact number of almonds she eats. It's so absurd.

One of the biggest pros to my new paleo way of eating, has been the fact that I feel tremendously liberated. I don't think about servings, I don't think about how much I should or shouldn't have - as long as I eat paleo foods, I eat as much or as little of it as I want and I know that it's all good for me. While I knew to a certain extent how much of my time has been spent preoccupied with food, and I've definitely experienced some kind of burn-out from that at time, I never realized how much anxiety was involved in my day-to-day food choices. Now, that's simply not the case. In a sense, my eating has become more natural and intuitive than it's ever been before, and I'm truly grateful that I've been able to make this change so effortlessly. Funny how that ridiculous NY Times article made such a difference...