56. Things I don't miss

1. Cheese!!!!!
I was walking past the fancy cheese section of the grocery store the other night and there was a special on some fancy looking Camembert that was tugging on heart strings (or my stomach strings). I didn't get it, but couldn't stop thinking about putting some on my dinner apple or getting some nice stinky blue cheese for the salad snack. That was really the first time I've missed cheese the whole project, which is odd because I love cheese, or did love cheese. I love cheese so much just thinking about it brings me joy, but before this I was consuming a lot of cheese that wasn't bringing me joy. It didn't have an amazing taste, it didn't really add anything to whatever I was eating, all it did was add some mental fillingness. Cheese on tacos, cheese grated liberally on pasta, cheese on sandwiches, quesadillas, even alot of the cheese on pizza -- tasteless and unnecessary.

I never thought I could live without cheese on almost everything, but I totally can.

2. Nuts
Nuts, natures snack food, right? High in protein and fiber, high in fat and calories too but at least it's good fat, right? Hungry between meals? Have a handfull of nuts! Bored at work and feeling snacky? Have some nuts. Nuts are the healthy snack, way better than chips or candy. I have a feeling that most people would agree with those statements. I was one of them. Nuts were another of my everyday foods. I always had a container of nuts to combat hunger attacks in my desk (in fact I still have some sliced almonds in there, they don't tempt me at all). I don't miss the nuts or their diet busting calory richness or face puffing saltyness.

3. Crappy chocolates and sweets
Yesterday some people at work came around passing out bags of chocolate "from the leadership team to say thankyou". Nice enough I guess, but geez guys you're trying to say thanks for all you do, and you're passing out bags of Wonka chocolate? Why not give us something nice and indulgent like Lindt or Valhronna or omg why not support a local business and buy some stuff from the chocolate shop that I work at. Why not give a few nice pieces as opposed to a bag of the crappy stuff (oh that's right, the crazed junkaholics that I work with would complain about how little/small it was). So they gave us this chocolate. Mine was dark, so I figured I might try a piece just to be nice and then give the rest away. Well I put it in my mouth, started to chew, and first of all it wasn't good and second it was so sweet it made my teeth hurt (and this was the dark kind) so I spit it out and put the rest of the bag by the printer and it was gone within hours. Then later someone sent out an email that there was cake leftover after a meeting and it was like an f-ing stampeed as people went to go get that cake. Gross.

There will still be a place in my life for homemade dark chocolate brownies or cookies and baklava from the Palestinian sweet shop down the street, but forget about that crappy cheap stuff, it's gone.

4. Midmorning or midafternoon hunger attacks
Breakfast is a wonderful thing. Now that I'm eating a hearty filling meal at the beginning of the day and have my morning fruit and a great lunch, I'm not plagued by hunger attacks anymore. Hooray!