What’s In That Lunch Bag?

Today, for the first time, I was pulled aside at TSA while going through airport security at LAX.  

I’d done something quite silly and forgotten that I had a little bottle of water in one of my carry on bags, which obviously triggered a red flag while it went through the scan.

Not a big deal, but what happened next was rather interesting.

The woman who was assigned to search my bags donned a pair of latex gloves and told me she needed to look in my lunch tote.  She quickly tore into it and found, much to her dismay (by her own admission) nothing more than a container full of steamed mixed green veggies, a piece of leftover chicken, half an avocado an apple and an ice pack,

She smiled and told me that since I had ‘nothing good in there like cupcakes or soda’ that I could proceed with all of the contents of my lunch tote in tow.   She wrinkled her nose and said, “that’s all health food in there. I don’t want any of that!”.

Wow.

Not that I was too surprised.  It’s quite obvious that more people than not have a similar viewpoint on thinking that vegetables are not very tasty and in fact, even seen as  a punitive food to eat, while things like cake and soft drinks are far easier on the palate.

If this describes you, I encourage you to try to be a bit more open minded.  Yes, it is easy to prepare veggies in a very bland fashion, as well as to actually make them rather unappetizing, however, it’s equally as simple to turn them into a delicious creation, just by playing around with cook times, herbs, spices, rubs and mixing and matching with different fats and proteins.

Start with something you know and like, eat it more often, and then add something new each week.  In a very short period of time you could go from hardly ever eating anything green to eating twenty different greens each week!

And, your body will thank you.