“Di Montagna”… like “Mountains of Lasagna”
Like the kind my mom makes over 4 days at Christmas. The kind stuffed with herbed ricotta and slow simmered tomato sauce layered into perfect pre-ordered-a-week-ago pasta stacks and mounded with only the best New York mozzarella baked to the exact moment when the savory-sweet garlic oils percolate up through every scrumptious molecule to slip and slide back down over the slightly-crisped golden hills of cheesy majesty.
Those who know me are laughing at the irony.
Those who think “mountains of lasagna” and their gut grows a couple of painfully bloated belt-sizes at just the thought… are sulking over their sauce-less, steamed, low fodmap, AIP vegetables.
And for those that think, “Yeah, Baby, thirds please! I have a Christmas Day Football Game at the park in an hour!”… well, are hungry.
I know this lasagna oh-so-well. It’s the one that brings exes back from Texas around the holidays and has neighbors offering precious fridge space between Thanksgiving and the New Year, knowing their personal portion will satisfy three days of meals.
It’s the one that TOWERS on two heavy iron risers over my lovingly-made, delicious little bowl of Basil Zucchini Noodles.
Because that AMAZING masterpiece of love, labor and tradition passed down through the little hands of our Italian Mommas (credit given to the new generation of men, wherein my brother has begun training to carry on the legacy)… would D.E.S.T.R.O.Y. me for weeks.
We can try to enable it with pre-day fasting, enzymes, bitter herbs and aperitifs. We can try to walk it off, purge it out or waddle into bed and pray it away to make space for another day… of lasagna… because: DAYS of Lasagna. We can curse, plead, kick, scream and hurl (pun may or may not be intended) our Food Journals at ANOTHER gastroenterologist with a general “Irritable B.S.” billing code, pharmaceutical prescription and information sheet.
But some of us are just not the lasagna type. At least not THAT lasagna at THIS time…
As one of my favorite mentors in medical school would say when patients ask him, after months of fixing up their digestive issues, when they can have ice cream again because their brother can: “It’s just not for YOU.”
Our bodies need food: for every cell in form and function. YOUR body needs, however, the right food FOR YOU.
Think a moment:
What’s your favorite thing to do?
Favorite person to talk to?
Favorite place?
Favorite time of day?
Favorite animal?
You get no favorites without food. Because you won’t exist.
Being that you do, let’s talk about the quality of your existence.
ARE YOU THRIVING INSIDE, EXCITED AND FUELED FOR YOUR PURPOSE?
Or
DO YOU HAVE TO PREPARE TO EAT, &/OR FOR THE CONSEQUENCES?
DOES YOUR FOOD BURN, BLOAT, SICKEN OR STEAL YOUR ENERGY & BOG YOU DOWN?
“HANGRY” MUCH?
MISS RESTAURANTS?
Food is NOT your enemy. Your body is NOT your enemy.
You have options, dearest. DELICIOUS options.
I have seen amazing shifts in patient’s comfort and well-being with even a few dietary shifts.
HELP YOURSELF.
MANIFEST THE LIFE YOU ARE HERE TO SHARE.