Habit vs Desire

RECIPE: Bhaba Ghanoush

One of the benefits of doing the cleanse is learning more about what foods your body thrives on, and what foods your body isn’t so thrilled about. Information is power - and yet making use of that information can be challenging.

Humans are creatures of habit, so if you find yourself returning to your familiar food habits after the cleanse - despite the info your body so kindly provided you with - you are far from alone.

One way to think about making food choice changes is to consider habit vs desire. I’ll give an example from my own experience. At some point, through some trial and error, I realized that my body no longer appreciated the ratio of carbs that had been a working baseline for years.

With this information, I examined each serving of carb that I ate and asked the question: “Am I eating this because I want it, or simply out of habit?”

Some of the answers surprised me. Regarding pasta - I realized I didn’t really care about the pasta; it was simply a convenient vehicle for a yummy sauce. Which led me to the great discovery that pasta sauces taste great on veggies! (This was long before spiraled veggie noodles became popular.)

Same with cheese and crackers: for the most part, I was not so interested in the cracker (with some exceptions). Mostly crackers were a convenient way to get the cheese into my mouth. Turns out thinly sliced apple and zucchini (cut on the bias to make is nice size “cracker) are great cheese vehicles.

Toast was a little different. I LOVE toast. Toast is in the “desire” category. But I found I could easily change my habit of daily toast to an every-so-often habit - and enjoy it even more. I didn’t really need or want toast every single day - that was the habit.

My discoveries of ways to easily lower my carb intake meant I felt better in my body without creating a sense of deprivation.

Your discoveries will be different, based on what your body tells you, and what your habits and desires are.

And of course, there will be cases of your body’s needs and your desires clashing. That calls for a different strategy.

For now, focus on the easy changes: let go of the stuff that you eat out of habit, and always thoroughly enjoy whatever you eat.

Let me know what food habits you discover you can change up or let go of without suffering.

Create mindful new habits.

1 ½ lb of eggplant

1 tsp salt

2 tsp minced garlic

1/2 cup tahini (or more if you wish)

3 Tb lemon juice (or more to taste)

2 Tb olive oil

1 tsp toasted sesame oil (optional)

Bake the whole eggplant on a baking sheet at 400 until the flesh is soft (a fork pierces it easily). Let it cool. Halve it and scoop out the flesh from the skin.

Mix salt, garlic, and tahini together in a large bowl, then combine with the eggplant. Add the lemon juice and mix well. Mash with a potato masher until smooth.

Alternatively, put all the ingredients and a food process and pulse until smooth.

Put the Baba Ghanoush in a serving dish. Drizzle the olive oil and optional sesame oil over the top.

Serve with sliced veggies for a delicious end-of-summer appetizer.