Week 3 :: Dessert (The Burden of Choice)

One of my most loved tasks is grocery shopping. There's nothing more beautiful than artfully arranged heaps of fresh produce, brightly labelled tins and packages gleaming from their neat rows, and stoic meats and cheeses resting in their refrigerated nests. But I seem to find myself in a state of panicked frenzy whenever I am in a grocery store; faced with the prospect of so many things to eat, I often suddenly feel as though I'd like to rip open packages and just cram my mouth full of chips, candy, grains, meats, cheeses, soups, and so on. That excitement soon turns to panic as I look at nutritional information, agonize over the morality of eating too much saturated fat, and wonder if it's really best for me to blow my food budget on something that I will likely end up throwing away later. Since I live alone, I often have the fleeting thought that perhaps it would simply be easier to subsist on oatmeal, apples, and diet sodas, instead of having to face the burden of choice in the supermarket. It's a slow process to learn to make choices, and to feel confident in having made them. Making the choice to nourish my body as well as I can; that's perhaps the hardest choice that I've had to make thus far. I don't know when I came to the conclusion that it would be better--albeit not easier--for me to make healthy decisions regarding food. Progress, progress...