— Gillian Ice

When we make a change to a recipe or, you know, the way we cook more generally, such as omitting oil, added oil, let's say, uh, please expect a different result. Sometimes we can get something close, but it probably isn't gonna be the same, even when it's close. And sometimes it can be pretty darn tasty, but it'll be really different from the original. And, uh, it's important that we give ourselves an opportunity to make the adjustment to enjoy the new version of the food, right? The dish, or our overarching diet. And as I like to say, these sort of changes are 90% mental, you know, making the change or doing the work is really pretty easy once we get past the barriers that we create. And of course, you know, aside from allergies or some of these acute issues that might be associated with an ingredient change, most of it is, is really just a mental hurdle that we need to get past. And, um, you know, in the case of making a, a change that, uh, is to be a more healthful change, right? In our diet, and we start to move away from pork, right, or cheese, or red palm oil, it is reasonable to expect that we might never taste foods that are really close to those flavors ever again, if that's the path that we're gonna go down. So, um, also understand that there are so many delicious replacements for each of those ingredients in all of those preparations that are made from those ingredients. But we have to allow ourselves, um, the opportunity to find the enjoyment. And, and part of that is to also understand that when we make a change, right? We, we omit something or we swap it up for something else, um, very often what we do is we think about what's not there. And if we think about what we don't have, we will forever be disappointed, okay? Because that reality won't change if that's what we fo focus on. On the other hand, if we focus on what we do have, we focus on what is presented to us in this new preparation, we can find the joy, uh, and, uh, all of the benefits, right? That come along with that new preparation. It can take some time, you know, sometimes more time, you know, for some people. But, um, but we can all make that change. All right?