Greek Yogurt and Why we Eat

I want to take a minute to give a shout out to Greek Yogurt. Particularly, the Greek Gods brand plain Greek yogurt. I love it. Love might actually be an appropriate word. I enjoy it every time I put it in my mouth. I put it on top of beans and cheese, in sandwiches, and, mostly, dip my fruit in it. My cat also loves it and more than once I have turned my head away from my bowl only to look back moments later and find his head, or his paw in the yogurt.. He says "I licked it, it's mine now." Haha, silly cat. I ate the yogurt anyway (and probably have a cat disease now, but that's beside the point).

I've noticed that a lot of people have an issue with the thickness, and the flavor. I'm not sure what that issue is since I've loved Greek yogurt from the first time I tried it. But then, I've lived abroad and tasted a lot of things that most people here in America would find pretty unpalatable, so that may have skewed my perception of flavors (for the better, I say). Also, as I've mentioned before, I'm off sweeteners, so it may be that even the slightest bit of sweetness is detectable to me. To me Greek Gods plain (fatted, no 0% fat) Greek yogurt tastes like cream. Really, who wouldn't want that? It's also really low in sugar and high in protein (I noticed right away when I first started eating Greek yogurt that it kept me full for a long time), and it has healthy fats and bacterias that aid in the digestion and the processing of nutrients. I would suggest it to anyone. I would suggest it to you. You should try it. Chop up an apple and dip it in the yogurt. It's awesome.

While I'm on the topic of awesome food, I wanted to talk a little about the purpose of eating and why we eat.

I feel like food, and food perception is really skewed in this country. I don't think many people would disagree with me.

I feel as though food as become the great comfort, or the great enemy. You either consume as much of it as you can, using it like a blanket to ward off the difficulties of life, or you treat it as a necessary evil, consuming as little as possible in order to be sociallymorally <-this is a new word, I made it, dibs) good.

There is a pastor at my church (yes, this is related), who I have lovingly dubbed "the crying pastor," because he's a guy with emotions, and he's not afraid to show them. Honestly, sometimes I tune him out when he gets really emotional, but that's one of my issues, not his, and I try to listen, and something he said did get through. Let that be a lesson to all the pastors who think none one is listening, even the ones who aren't, are.

He kept saying that we should use food for the reasons that God gave us; for our joy and our nourishment  For our joy and our nourishment. Our joy, and our nourishment  Not just nutrition, not comfort at all, not as a balm, not just because. He's said it many times (or it felt to me that he has). I ignored it the first time, thought about it the second, and then by the third time it started to sink into me. I heard another pastor say the same thing, and started to wonder if there was something I was missing. How often would I eat lovely foods, but not for joy? When was the last time I enjoyed my food; just took joy in my food? Was I eating for nutrition, to feed my body, to nourish it? Or, when I ate, was it with the goal of "making up" for the "sin" of the bad food, or with the goal of "thinness" rather than health? I knew the answer to that, and I didn't like it.

Around this time I was also thinking heavily about body perception, fat shaming, and body acceptance. I'd started reading books like Fat? So what? I thought 'I should start enjoying my food.' So I did. I tried to stop eating ice cream with guilt. If I was going to eat it, I should love it. I stopped eating with guilt. I put on some weight. I made every effort to love my body. And then I started to think about eating for my nourishment. What did I think that looked like? (What could I afford?) Lent began. I gave up sweeteners.

I still do my best to enjoy my food, to let it bring me joy. It's a fight, to see food at something to nourish my body and bring me joy, but I'm trying, just like I'm trying to love my body, no matter what size it is. Greek yogurt is one of those foods that brings me joy.

So, eat food for nourishment, eat it for joy. And, if you're feeling adventurous
. Try some yogurt.