New addiction

It's really not been as hard as I expected, giving up cheese. I still eat it in wee amounts (to avoid illness brought on by guilt), like a sprinkling of feta on my leftover lentil soup I ate this evening, or the not-as-cheesy-as-usual nachoes I made in a pinch for dinner a few days ago because we were starved and hadn't planned a real dinner. Even still, my habit of coming home for a cheese and crackers snack was surprisingly easy to move past.

Because I found something new to fixate upon. Last week I was grocery shopping, in the cereal aisle to find some generic shredded wheat for Tim, and came across the toasted oooooats. Ah, generic Cheerios! It was kind of a splurge, because the generic isn't that much cheaper than name brand, but still, I wanted some.

And now I've eaten them every day for the past week. They're a good substitute for pre-dinner, "I have low blood sugar" snacking, and with frozen blueberries, just about the most perfect dessert I can think of lately (seriously!), as well as a good "I can't go to bed hungry" snack. I look forward to my daily bowl in a way I haven't ever done before (well, except for cheese, but that wasn't so much a treat as an entitlement).

Though a doctor once told me Cheerios spike your insulin more than some breakfast cereals (I think he was advocating Special K or something), I still feel like it's pretty healthy, and with blueberries and fat-free milk, my body wins like three times over. Good deal.