Just Checking In
Cravings, Bad Food, Doctor Visits, Preachers, Substack, Enneagram
It’s been ten days since I amazed you with poetry from my repertoire - a post with 152 views (which is very exciting to me), one share (yay!) and 4 ‘likes’. I understand that, though the dopamine hit I was looking for left me empty-headed.
I’ve been reading Matt Schatzker’s The End of Craving: Recovering the Lost Wisdom of Eating Well. There’s a chapter on dopamine and how it relates to our eating. As far as I can tell Matt is not a scientist nor a physician, but a writer who thinks about eating as much as I do. Only he is trying to solve the riddles of how the content of our mass-produced foods affects us. His other two books are called The Dorito Effect and Steak. According to his website, he is a writer in residence at the Modern Diet and Physiology Research Center, which is affiliated with Yale University.
The list of books I’m currently reading is a little scattered. I guess with the turning of the year I opened up a dozen books or so and have been trying to read a little in each of them each day. I’m not succeeding! Some of them are yearly devotional books, so I don’t expect to finish the anytime soon. I was hoping the End of Craving book would help me end my cravings. He has some great studies about how the ingredients in our foods are affecting our desires for even more - especially artificial and chemical additives. It all sounds informative and true, but I’m afraid we’re even more addicted to convenience than we are to the chemicals we’re ingesting. I know a lot of people are already on board with rejecting processed foods and I admire them.
In the meantime, I made a great chicken enchilada soup this week. It’s a lot like Pioneer Woman Rea Drummond's recipe except nothing was fresh and it wasn’t as pretty. It mostly involved opening up three cans, a carton of chicken broth, two packets of seasoning mix, and a bag of already-cooked-frozen-pulled-chicken (thanks Tyson). It looks and tastes great if you don’t mind some inflammation and who knows what else. Local kitchen master Shannon Smith has all the right ideas, the skill, and the heart to prepare food from scratch and offer it for sale to people who do not have the time or talent to do this. If you live in North Monroe, check out Honey’s Kitchen - Egret Landing on Facebook.
Speaking of health, I spent Friday morning at the doctor’s office. A growing sinus drainage and accompanying symptoms was something I needed to address. (What was the ingredient list on that seasoning mix?) At my age, all the doctors I see are young and brilliant. There was no pressure to get a COVID test, but there was an offer. I decided that since I would be around a lot of people in a few days, I would accept the offer. It was negative, thankfully. After the shot I received, I felt better and better through the afternoon.
Fridays are pressure days for preachers. Sunday is coming - and in a hurry. Today I recorded Sunday’s sermon for those who cannot be present (and for those who might be finding out more about Forsythe Church of Christ by watching a sermon online). We are early in our study of Matthew’s Gospel and my plan is to teach from the account of the temptation of Jesus in the wilderness that came just after his baptism. If interested, you can catch it on our YouTube channel Sunday morning (or anytime thereafter). Or you can subscribe to the Sermons from Forsythe substack to receive the notes. Sometimes the Sunday preparations run over into Saturday, but this week I am ready and can rest tomorrow.
Navigating Substack has been fun it has also presented dilemmas. Unlike other social media (is Substack social media or anti-social-media?), following large numbers of people is not wise. On my Twitter account, I follow 4,569 people (interestingly only 3,188 follow me back, which is a poor choice on their part). On Facebook, I have 1.7k friends. As we all know, with algorithms in place, you seldom see most of those (and no, you can’t copy and paste anything to ‘fix’ that. I am constantly amazed that people…. never mind). So why follow them if you don’t see them? We might be getting back to that dopamine discussion from earlier. Anyway, I’ve got to unsubscribe from some Substack accounts. I just can’t read them all. My hesitancy is that I know they get an email saying I’ve ditched them. Ugh. As an Enneagram 9, I don’t like to do that whatsoever.
I’ll do a post on the Enneagram and how it’s helped me at some point. There are a lot of nay-sayers, but I can only address how it has helped me to understand myself - and see some areas in which I need to grow. Are you an Enneagram disciple? What are your favorite resources?
Well, this post is an all-over-the-place mess, but that’s what I get for taking too long to check in with you. Thank you for reading this, if you read this far. I hope you have a great weekend. It feels like winter again in North Louisiana - for a few days anyway. If you have any thoughts on the above cornucopia of topics, I would enjoy reading them. At least that is my assumption at this point.
Reminded of the Enneagram; had to look that up! Love psychology and personality books. Like to talk to and understand others point of view. I used to really lean into the persuading part but finding it more helpful to see where they are at. You seem to bring that capacity as well. A fun post!
I appreciate the kind words about Honey’s Kitchen, John. I do read a lot about cooking with fresh ingredients and how eating fresh fruits and vegetables can make a huge impact on improving ones health and wellbeing, but it’s still a struggle in my life. I love food as much as I hate to admit that. I just try to make sure the indulgence I am making is worth the calories. I used to be worried about hurting the cook’s feelings if I didn’t eat what they prepared-you know being taught to have those Southern manners and all growing up. Thankfully, I married a man who is adamant about eating healthy or I wouldn’t have been so aware of its importance, although I have not always been so willing to comply. I get better as I get older😉