Living (and eating) in the States is a schizophrenic experience. On the one hand, you have the "Excess" culture type of foods where the notion of "best value for your buck" plays the key role. Excess culture food is taking a simple dish like lasagna and putting it through an excessively long and unnecessary production process where it is baked, broiled, fried, tossed, mixed with four kinds of cheese and finally drowned in some mysterious red sauce. Oh, boy. On the other hand, you have the "Whole Foods" culture type of foods where every olive is sold separately, after being picked at some exotic far away land (organically, of course) and costs about the same as a vacation to that exotic far away land. What I'm trying to say is that it was very difficult to find balance, a place somewhere in the middle between all this craziness.
When we first arrived in the States, our sense of proportion was out of sync and needed calibration. This became evident whenever we ordered outside. When asked "What size would you like?", our standard reply was "Large, please". But after a few times of ordering "Large" and realizing we could feed a small country with what was left over, we downsized to "Medium". This move only slightly bettered the outcome until finally we settled on "Small". In some cases, we even opted out of toppings, sides, and extras (usually cheese, which, as we quickly found out, can be added to anything...well, almost anything).
My eating habits in the States were not terrible. We shopped at Trader Joe's and were partial to buying unprocessed, organic foods. I never had much of a sweet tooth, so all the sugary foods were never a problem. We mostly cooked at home and only went out occasionally. I did develop a fetish for beer, lol...buying a DIY kit and brewing my own at home. Beer was also very cheap at Trader Joe's and the selection they offered from micro-breweries around the country was too good to pass.
The irony was that as an MIT graduate student, I had a free (!) membership to the Z center which offered an Olympic pool, a two-floor, fully equipped gym, basketball courts and much more. Sadly, I was too preoccupied with studying that my weekly exercise routine included one (at best) visit to the pool or the gym. When I think back at the resources I had at my disposal to become more healthy and fit...resources I squandered away...I feel like such an idiot. But I guess everyone's smarter in hindsight...
When we first arrived in the States, our sense of proportion was out of sync and needed calibration. This became evident whenever we ordered outside. When asked "What size would you like?", our standard reply was "Large, please". But after a few times of ordering "Large" and realizing we could feed a small country with what was left over, we downsized to "Medium". This move only slightly bettered the outcome until finally we settled on "Small". In some cases, we even opted out of toppings, sides, and extras (usually cheese, which, as we quickly found out, can be added to anything...well, almost anything).
My eating habits in the States were not terrible. We shopped at Trader Joe's and were partial to buying unprocessed, organic foods. I never had much of a sweet tooth, so all the sugary foods were never a problem. We mostly cooked at home and only went out occasionally. I did develop a fetish for beer, lol...buying a DIY kit and brewing my own at home. Beer was also very cheap at Trader Joe's and the selection they offered from micro-breweries around the country was too good to pass.
The irony was that as an MIT graduate student, I had a free (!) membership to the Z center which offered an Olympic pool, a two-floor, fully equipped gym, basketball courts and much more. Sadly, I was too preoccupied with studying that my weekly exercise routine included one (at best) visit to the pool or the gym. When I think back at the resources I had at my disposal to become more healthy and fit...resources I squandered away...I feel like such an idiot. But I guess everyone's smarter in hindsight...
the funny thing is that we truly believed we eat healthy food. and I still think we ate healthier than most american or foreign students. I think the problem was with the dishes' proportions and the fact that there is just too much from everything in the US (not to say that we didn't like it when we ordered stuff from Amazon.com).
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