The act of reclaiming your food is often an act of reclaiming yourself. As acquiring our food has gotten further from the creation and production of it, so often is our food relationships, heritage, rationale shrouded from understanding and critical questioning.
Why do I eat that?
Why do I cook that?
Why don't I cook this, instead?
Why are we buying x, instead of y?
And more so,
How does it make me feel?
The last question is loaded. Typically, in this age of self-reflection and pop cultural psychoanalysis, the last question often gets a response about parenting, comfort eating, stress eating. There's another question there though.
How does food make me feel?
This is the question I ask now. What food does my system appreciate? What does it reject? Why does rice make me feel horrible, while potatoes go down very well? Why does the body reject certain foods? And if it does, why do I continue to feed it? What's in it that causes distress, and how do I get rid of it? What things should I eat, what things settle well, what doesn't, and what foods provide me the most bang for my (energy, health, enjoyment) buck?
How do I eat with quality that my body needs and enjoys, and control the industry, the emotion, or other baggage that surrounds this simple act?
Answer: control the acquisition. Go further upstream in the process, and own that point in time.
This year, I decided to have my beef picked, slaughtered, and delivered to me in a way that I could consume it, that is in line with my newfound dietary needs, that works with the pace of our life, at a price that aligns with our budget. I joined a CSA, and will have my vegetables delivered bi-weekly from local farms, in the amounts and cost that will be sustainable. And a friend will supply fresh eggs, from new chickens.
It's a start.
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