I definitely don't want to belittle my post yesterday about the most amazing restaurant in St. Louis (if you read it, good. If not, what are you waiting for?) but last night brought about an obsurd phenominon that I, like many people I bet, have dealt with their whole lives. A craving for McDonald's.
You see, my wife was home sick yesterday and it became apparent to me around midday that my services were not going to be needed in the kitchen for dinner last night due to said illness. Enter: the craving. Ever so often I get a craving for certain foods much like we all do. Usually it is for something that is as far from "good for me" as possible. Afterall, that is why they call them cravings right? We CRAVE something that we usually don't allow ourselves. The question is: why? Is it something that they put into the food? I doubt the FDA would allow anything like that. Is is it the convenience? Perhaps. Or maybe it is just the fact that we have convinced ourselves that these things we deprive ourselves are so bad that they should never be touched thus rendering them forbidden. And we all know what we do when something is forbidden right? We want it more! Probably not a good thing but really not all that bad when you think about it.
Sure eating a McDonald's Big Mac everyday is going to make you fat and cause some serious health problems. I'd go as far as to say that one a week will do the same thing although much more slowly. We've learned nothing if not that from movies like Super Size Me and The Nutty Professor. But having one ever so often couldn't hurt right? And that is why the cravings are good things. If we crave something, it just shows that we are heading down the right path I think. When I crave a Big Mac, my body is saying, "hey we don't usually have this and I know you've had a long day so why don't you treat yourself big guy?" Is that so wrong?
The answer is no. I think we've become too fixated on the things that are bad for us to realize that sometimes the things that we think are bad for us, are good for us. They're good for our soul. Does that mean that you should go out and eat a double quarter pounder every time that your boss yells at you? Well that's up to you and your belt, heart and blood pressure but I am guessing that's a big NO too. It just means that it is okay to treat yourself to the things that you like or love or crave from time to time. And tell your boss to suck it! Yelling at someone never did any good anyway.
I've always said (even in a recent post about my "diet") that life is way too short to torture yourself with dietting and obsessing about what you eat. It is too short to not enjoy the things you enjoy. If you like a scoop of ice cream, or a ribeye steak, or God forbit a greasy cheeseburger; go ahead. Just don't do it all the time and make the times you do treat yourself count and make sure they're worth it. I think you'll be much happier at the end of the day if you do.
Okay, so this is more of a post about treating yourself good than a post about McDonalds. But seriously though, what is up with those fries? They must put nicotine in them or something...
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