Whole Foods Junkie

...And yet another example of me, the urbanite trapped in suburbia.

It's a good thing that the closest Whole Foods (Wild Oats) store is 30 miles away. I am addicted. Simply walking in is a tantalizing festival for the senses.

There is a method to my visits to whole foods. I get a basket and do a once over- admiring everything in the store. I thrill at the tomatoes- so ripe you can smell the vines from feet away. Not like the tomatoes at my local grocer which have made me almost believe that tomatoes aren't red- more of a faded shade of orange. I delight over the walls of self serve nuts and dried fruits. From the produce to the olive bar to the freshly made hummus and salads. I then decide what in the entire store seems the most inviting and spend my precious money on it.

This new "being the healthiest me" thing has awakened something in me that has long slept. Food isn't just for eating, it's for celebrating. And healthy food is no exeption. When I was in college I used to get up every Saturday morning at dawn in the spring, summer and fall- just so that I could see the new produce at Liberty Heights Fresh (which if you live in Salt Lake I HIGHLY recommend, here's their link... http://www.libertyheightsfresh.com/ ). Going in to Whole Foods almost gives me that same exhilarating experience.

I recognize that there are people in this world that don't have a love affair with food. But in my mind, God gave us the chance to be thoroughly satisfied three times daily. To awake all of our senses and remind us that we're alive. It's places like this that make the experience of eating an experience, not a chore.



***Post Script: Today as I was suffering through the yearly torture that is visiting my CPA, I gazed out the window forlornly only to see a Whole Foods smiling at me in the distance. After Dean the taxman's verdict I practically broke land speed records dashing in. After purchasing some hummus, whole wheat rolls and cilantro rice for dinner, I bought Chipotle Tomato Soup and this fabulous salad called tabouleh. Try some next time you're there, and think of me!