Food is necessary for life, no one can argue that, but if you ask people what are some of the food memories they have they would probably tell you a story about grandmothers cooking or a holiday tradition of some kind or even a favorite restaurant. I don't relate to food that way, of course that’s not to say I don’t have fond memories of grandmothers house or some of the awesome meals my father cooks. I relate to food out of necessity. I relate to food as a tool, energy. I eat on average twice a day and of those two times only one is usually a full meal. Even though my eating is out of necessity it is most certainly not a well planned diet. It’s more of a haphazard balancing act between my current activities, known future activities and how I feel at the moment.
My current activities recently involve tasks of a college student. While most people think of college as a party the reality (at least for me) is late nights, early mornings and no energy so coffee is just the thing that solves my energy problems. A medium roast coffee bean brewed fresh with a pinch of sugar and I’m on my way. Coffee only goes so far though and then comes the shakes which are easily fixed with a lunch of some sort. I say of some sort because yesterday I ate chicken salad, nothing else, just chicken salad. That’s usually how it has been lately for a lunch, something quick and then I’m onto other things. Dinner that night was a real meal, a classic, steak and potatoes with cheesy vegetables. That’s an example of my current eating habits but it hasn’t always been this disorganized.
For example, while in high school I ran cross country. Our team had a tradition that promoted camaraderie and winning. That tradition was spaghetti nights. We would all gather at the designated teammate’s house and enjoy friendships over big heaping plates of spaghetti. The reason we ate spaghetti and not pizza or burritos was the carbohydrates. These carbohydrates or more specifically complex carbohydrates are the building blocks of energy which was going to be necessary for the next day’s race. So big plates of complex “carbs” at spaghetti night was when I first started equating food as a tool for energy.
My time spent in the Army was where this mentality was completely solidified. More specifically this idea of food as a tool was ingrained while at basic training in Ft. Benning, Georgia. The non-stop pace of training at Ft. Benning required me (like I had a choice) to eat two square meals a day and an MRE. Breakfast and dinner were full plates of food served in the mess hall (cafeteria) and lunch was an MRE. A MRE or Meal, Ready to Eat is a “completely self-contained meal that provides all the nutrition a solider-on-the-go needs to sustain himself.” About 1200 calories is what the typical MRE provides and even though the food itself might not look good it is definitely needed to continue the fight. Being physically fit was necessary to accomplishing the mission so while I was in the Army I spent considerable amounts of time in the gym. That is when I honed my ability to control my diet to accomplish my energy needs. I learned the ins and outs of a healthy low fat high protein diet, how to balance vitamins and supplements and to eat properly proportioned meals.
Like everybody else I have memories of the family getting together for holiday meals and I have memories of my father’s dinners but what really stands out in my mind when I’m asked about my food memories is the techniques I use food to accomplish whatever it is I may be trying to accomplish. Whether it’s coffee to stay awake or a high carbohydrate meal for pure energy or a low fat high protein meal to really promote muscle growth food is the best tool for the job.
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