I took a little hiatus from this blog because I needed to examine some of my attitudes.  I also hit a bit of a weight loss plateau and that took a bit of a toll on my resolve.  I felt like I was working as hard as I ever had and I wasn’t getting the desired results.  Suddenly this whole weight loss thing was becoming deadly serious again.  I needed to take some time away to examine my attitudes and figure out how to get my head back in the right space.

One of the things I realized, while I was examining my attitudes, was one simple and pretty shocking, at least for me, fact:  food isn’t fun any more.

I’ve always had kind of a love affair with food.  I enjoy cooking and am pretty good at it.  I could anticipate a great dining out experience for days, contemplating what I’d have, anticipating how marvelous it would be.  I loved the tastes and textures of food and the how voluptuous and sensual a meal could be.  I loved the simple warmth of a bowl of beef stew and the cheesy goodness of an omelet.  I love the diner breakfast and the gourmet restaurant dinner and everything in between.  Food had a lot of roles in my life, and one of them was to be fun.

Gradually, however, as health and weight issues have occurred, food stopped being fun and became work.  First I had to worry if I was eating too much.  Then I had to count calories.  Then I had to worry about sodium and fiber and sugar.  Everything became about counting and measuring and obsessing and planning.  Eating wasn’t an enjoyable experience anymore, it had become more like an algebra equation or a chemistry experiment.  There were days when I almost wished I could have some sort of science fiction food pill that would fill me up without me having to eat anything at all.

In my past weight loss attempts, right about now is when I would say the hell with it and give up.  I don’t want to measure and weigh and obsess.  I don’t want my meals to be about everything but flavor and pleasure.  I do want to be healthy and I do want to be thin, but I also want to believe that I can be both those things while having nutritional  food I enjoy.  Those goals just can’t be mutually exclusive.

Since I control my attitude, and my progress toward my goals, I’ve decided it is up to me to make food fun again.  One of the ways I’m going to do that is with this blog.  I’m starting a series here called Fun Food Friday.  Every Friday I’ll discuss some aspect of how to make food fun.  Maybe it will be a recipe.  I might discuss setting up a food theme party.  Maybe I’ll talk about table decorations, or my favorite food from when I was a kid.  The idea is to take food out of the drudgery category and make it a joyous part of my life again.

I hope you’ll join me for Fun Food Friday.  After all part of the fun of food is sharing it with others.