Saturday, March 23, 2019

Pizza Protocol

During my heart problems a few years ago, I was ordered on a permanent low fat diet. After the subtle shrug that firmly shuts down (if I catch it early) my mind's eager inclination to make things A Whole Drama, I set myself to thinking about how I'd handle my pizza situation.

I resorted to a tactic I like to call "reality". It's the alternative to self-indulgently spinning up ditzy drama (e.g. pouting about how life as I know it will never be the same whenever something changes). And I cooked up the following ground rules:
  • I'd eliminate all bad pizza.
  • I'd eliminate all so-so pizza.
  • Really good pizza is permissable, but only one slice.
  • If really necessary, I could occasionally enjoy two slices.
  • Since I already cooked healthy at home, I'd cook at home a bit more to offset the errant slices.
This policy eliminates 90% of my normal fat-ingestion-via-pizza, while removing only 10% of my enjoyment:
  • I never liked the bad or so-so pizza anyway (and I'd simply work harder when hungry with nothing else easily within range).
  • The first slice is the best slice, anyway. And the third slice is pleasureless gluttony.
  • There's not a single hard denial here of anything really meaningful to me.

Along similar lines, see "The Best, Easiest, and Most Sustainable Diet Tip"

1 comment:

Display Name said...

I like this post Jim. My SO and I once took my parents to the fabled DeLorenzo's on Hamilton Ave in Trenton for a pie. We had talked it up a bit. I never had good pizza til I moved to Trenton. My dad eagerly took a coupla bites of his slice and exclaimed in confusion, "it's tasteless!" We had to patiently and kindly explain to my dad that he had to let the pizza cool a bit. A woman I read and admire on a food group claims that she always burns the roof of her mouth on too hot pizza. When she has pizza there is always quite a bit of alcohol involved so I don't give her any advice.

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