I’ve been thinking about sometimes foods. As I move into kicking my ice cream addiction – that came into full swing after I let go of chocolate for 12 months (I’m 6 months in), I wondered what I wanted my ice cream journey to look like.
Sometimes food.
Ice cream is now a sometimes food for me.
Sometimes foods are those foods that you eat perhaps when you’re having dessert, which I don’t do often, or when it’s a hot day or when you’re out to dinner or when you’re on holidays.
Now I’m thinking about ice cream, but of course this could be a cheese platter, or a glass of champagne, a hot dog or sausage roll etc.
Effectively it could be anything that’s not a whole food e.g. fruit and veg, seeds, nuts and meat.
I don’t eat a lot of dairy (ice cream aside) so for me that includes cheese, yoghurt, sour cream, milk etc.
The idea of ‘sometimes foods’ feels good to me, because it’s aligned with how I eat anyway – with a 90/10 approach – 90% of foods that really fuel my body and 10% of foods that fuel my body but perhaps aren’t the best for my body…like ice cream when eaten regularly.
Check out podcast episode 40 – What’s your Ratio? with me for more information on my 90/10 approach.
My sister had commented on a FB post today, the question was ‘what food reminds you of your Dad?’ She replied ‘Rocky Road’ – Darrell-Lea Rocky Road is my Dad’s preferred, just in case you ever wanted to gift it to him, you can get it from your local supermarket.
When I told Dad the question, and that his daughter had replied, he thought she’d say ‘steak’. But when I said ‘no, she said Rocky Road’, he said:
That’s not food.
Which made me laugh.
It also got me thinking, if my Dad doesn’t think Rocky Road is food, what else do people not consider food? Feel free to comment below with your ‘no food options’, I’m keen to know 🙂
For me Rocky Road is a sometimes food, it’s not something you have every day but something you have occasionally.
Dad always receives Rocky Road for Easter, Fathers Day, his birthday and Christmas. Given Fathers Day and Dad’s birthday are about a week apart, he usually gets a good stash and Rocky Road is on the ‘approved’ list for breakfast – funnily enough.
I don’t like ‘rules’ around food and trust me, when my clients start talking about their rules we work together to understand why they exist and whether the rules apply any more, but I do like the idea of sometimes foods, because it means you’re not cutting foods out, you’re just choosing to have them sometimes and that then allows you flexibility to create your best eating protocol – the one that works for you.
On 1 July I started my journey with sometimes ice cream, and this means if we go to Black Bear for their Beaver Tails, I’ll be eating the ice cream, or if I choose to have a vanilla thick shake, it will be with ice cream, I just won’t be sitting on the couch a few nights a week testing out the variety of Ben and Jerry’s – whilst I’ve given it a good shake, it’s now time to let go of my ice cream stories and learn to sit with the uncomfortableness of whatever emotion I’m eating.
Cheers to sometimes ice cream.
