Food or fuel? Fuel or food?

I have never been a person that diets. Like every woman out there, I have my days where I feel flabby, or look in the mirror and think I see dimples, the beginning of cellulite, or a double chin. But, in my mid-twenties, I have to remind myself that I'm not supposed to have the body of a young teenager anymore. It's sad, but true.

Back in high school, my lunches and snacks consisted of chocolate chip cookies, Devil Dogs, chips and salsa, and cheetos. As I've gotten older, and the country has entered some sort of a health-food revolution, I've learned that those junk foods have nasty ingredients and chemicals that are not good for me. Lots of people, athletes especially, have cut out all the fake, over-processed stuff, and eat only clean, whole foods. But, even armed with knowledge, I can't seem to make myself adopt a super healthy diet.

Of course, I don't eat cookies and chips alone for meals anymore. My thought is that, as long as I get in all the essential nutrients, and don't eat only junk, where's the harm? I mean, I wouldn't eat fast food every day, or eat a tub of Crisco or anything like that. I have enough self-control to avoid trans fats (since they have essentially been eliminated from almost all foods anyway, thankfully). I figure as long as I eat my fruits and veggies, my "healthy fats" (which I just recently learned to call mono-unsaturated fatty acids, or MUFAs), lean protein, and take my vitamins, I'm probably faring relatively well.

Even when I want to, I just can't seem to restrict myself. Lately my appetite has been raging, which I'd like to blame on the increase in exercise. At first, I was a little bit concerned about just how hungry I was. I am talking stomach-gnawing hunger pains and light-headedness. I tried ignoring it, which I guess could be considered a form of restriction. But it would not be ignored! I'm probably eating a few hundred calories a day more than I was on average a year ago. And that's where the whole "food vs. fuel" argument comes in.

Some people need to remind themselves that food fuels the body in order to rationalize eating enough. Others just love to eat. Me? I'm a combination of the two schools of thought. I love, love, love to eat, and that works out, because I need that food to give me energy for exercising. As far as I am concerned, if the fire runs hot enough, it will burn anything. A small amount a high fructose corn syrup? Eh, big deal. Throw it on the furnace. Partially hydrogenated oils? I've recently heard that ingredient adds trace amounts of trans fats, but until it's been banned, I'm OK with it.

I give serious props to all the people out there who have embraced and stuck to a certain eating style. Seriously. I'm impressed when someone can radically change their diet and stick to it. Hopefully someday, if I stop exercising for some reason, I'll be able to treat my body well enough to keep it healthy. And, hopefully I won't have to regret my habits and eat my words (pun intended) someday.

For now, I'm just going to eat whatever I feel like eating. Let's take today for example. Breakfast was oatmeal, a banana, OJ, and coffee. Lunch was a granola bar, yogurt, almonds, and a big pear. Snacks included a fun-sized Snickers bar, some candy corn, and a lollipop. Dinner was salmon, brown rice, and broccoli. And in a few minutes, I'll have a bowl of brownie m&m ice cream. I took a Vitamin D supplement, a calcium supplement, and a multi-vitamin. So, uh, that's balanced, right??

We won't talk about the big pan of macaroni and cheese with cut-up hot dogs I wolfed down after my long run on Saturday. There is such a thing as being too gluttonous, after all...