I wonder about processed foods.

At my highest weight was 323 pounds.  I did not get that heavy by eating healthy.  No, I ate lots and lots of highly processed foods.

Even the “healthy” foods I bought were highly processed.  I really miss Ritz crackers and Laughing Cow Cheese – which I use to consider healthy.

Just typing that gave me a physical reaction.  I am not exaggerating at all here.  I typed “Ritz crackers and Laughing Cow Cheese” and a wave of blissfulness passed through my consciousness and my stomach clenched. 

Now before you all get the wrong impression I am still not a healthy eater.  I am still obese, 280.0 pounds this morning.  I still eat too much sugar.  I can make some mean chocolate candies.  My granola bars are to die for and filled with honey and brown sugar. 

However, all of the food I eat now is made from simple ingredients. Peanut butter is peanuts and less than 1% salt.  The honey is honey.  The brown sugar is brown sugar.  The rolled oats is oats.  Etc.  One ingredient foods.  I know what is in my food.

Laughing cow cheese I don’t have a clue.  Ritz crackers not a clue either. 

Plus, how can now a year later these foods have such a powerful hold over me?  I am willing to get sick and be miserable for days after I eat them.  The voice inside my head is so very good at justifying why it will be okay to eat them.  It seems like a perfectly sane thing to do at the time.

One more thing I wonder about is what is in the “Added Vitamins and Minerals” in cereals.  Case in point; I use to buy Gluten Free Rice Krispies.  The ingredients were brown rice and rice bran.  Then they changed their formula.  They started adding vitamins and minerals and BHT for freshness.  The new formula makes my family sick.  Granted when I call the company they guarantee there is no soy, gluten, dairy, or egg in them. This isn’t the first food that I have called a company on.  I get reassurances that there are no allergens that aren’t listed but the food still makes my family sick.

I am thinking about buying a pressure cooker and making my own puffed rice.

But I work here people.  I have a 45+ hour a week job.  I have 2 boys that need attention and help with homework.  I try my best to fit a physical family activity in every day.  Plus, I haven’t even started on housework.

Now I have to make my own puffed rice. 

This falls right up there with the mental struggle I had about cooking beans. No, I am still not over the fact that I have to cook my beans from scratch.  Soak them.  Drain them. Soak them.  Cook them.  Cooking beans is a 4-6 hour process depending on the bean. 

Puffed rice looks to be the same. Cook the rice.  Dry the rice.  Pressure cook the rice.  Yep, 3 hour job at least.

……….Time passes and I come back to this post……….

Why am I clinging to granola bars so hard?  Why do I feel the need to still make granola bars?  It is because this is the one “processed” feeling food we still eat regularly.  It is just so comforting.  Oatmeal with fruit or Polenta (that I grind ) with sausage (homemade) is a perfectly good breakfast. 

I guess I am still clinging hard to the old way I use to eat and feed my family.

But I did just order some Erewhon Crisp Brown Rice Cereal, No Salt Added.  If we can’t eat this then we will say goodbye to granola bars.