A recent incident with the kids, made me think back to my old eating habits and experiences. I used to be a foodie, and there was a time that I actually was able to eat three meals a day. Three, uninterrupted meals without my food getting cold! I wanted to share my evolution of eating…

As a teenager, I hated sharing my food. (I may or may not still hide chocolate on occasion). I had one friend that would constantly spear the crunchy, fried chicken from my salad, until one day, I stabbed her with my fork. (You know who you are and what you did! To everyone else, there was no blood drawn!)

Along the way, a boyfriend or two may have admired what I was eating and asked to try some of my cuisine. To which, I would push some of my food towards the edge of the plate so they could use their forks and sample the goodness.

Once I found love, and was enjoying a delicious dish, I would/will exclaim, “Babe, you have to try this!” And will even allow him to eat off my utensil. That’s love folks.

Sigh….the beginning of the end was becoming a parent…

First came the little hands trying to grab whatever part of my meal they could. I nipped that in the bud the best I could. Sometimes, I was so tired I didn’t even care.

Then came, “can I try some of yours?” To which, I would reply, “Bronson, you have EXACTLY what I have on my plate, just cut smaller.” “But, can I try yours?!” “Yes, of course.”

This was followed by Marcus wanting to sit on my lap and eat off my plate with my fork. Another habit I had to squash, although both kids do occasionally spear a nibble here or there.

That brings us to THE incident. The realization of my downfall, and hitting rock-bottom.

The kids were eating dinner and since they were quiet, I was attempting to clean up, forgoing eating. If you have children, especially those that are young, you know that sometimes you just simply forgot to eat. It sounds stupid, but when the kids are occupied, there are other things that can be done. I can’t even count how many times I’ve forgotten to eat. (We as parents, really need to do our best to take care of ourselves!) so this particular day, I must’ve skipped dinner. I was cleaning up Marcus’s plate and saw a particularly tasty looking morsel of chicken. I grabbed it and popped it into my mouth expecting a crunch, followed by a taste of juicy chicken. I realized quickly that this piece of chicken was tried and found wanting by Marcus. That’s right, he had chewed it and spit it out, back onto his plate. As I stood there, in this moment of clarity, with the soggy, pre-chewed chicken in my mouth, my only thought was “Ah, f it.” That’s correct. I ate that recently discarded by my toddler, nugget of chicken and DID NOT CARE. Following THE incident, I have on occasion, done this again when handed pre-chewed, unwanted bites when I didn’t see a garbage. Just popped those undesirables in my mouth and gave no cares whatsoever. In that moment I realized that I have a new line of what I consider gross. I will not eat what appears to be chocolate for fear it is NOT chocolate. Yeah, my new line is that I will not consume anything that has resemblance to poop. TO POOP.

That’s how I went from foodie to trash compactor.