Gone Bananas

I wasn’t sure if I should laugh or cry when I saw the enormous crate of bananas on our front porch. 

This was not an April Fool’s Day joke. 

Let me back up…. 

Having 6 kids means we go through A LOT of food. I despise putting away the Costco size food packages, but we need the volume so it becomes a necessary evil. 

Going to Costco ranks up there with the DMV so I always order through instacart. 

In my ordering haste, I hit “add to cart” on the bananas as if I was shopping our local store through instacart. My usual order of  10 bananas did not equal 10 individual bananas, it meant 10 BUNCHES of nine bananas or NINETY BANANAS. 

Yep, I opened the door to find 90 freaking bananas staring me in the face. Maybe the delivery guy thought we had a monkey? Maybe a beach banana party? Maybe a banana bread making business? Either way, I was stuck with my banana crate. 

My kids really thought this was hilarious and one of them promptly peeled and ate a banana saying, “Well, only 89 more

bananas to go!”

This got me thinking about all the times I’ve been at the grocery store behind people with their carts full of diet foods. The lady proselytizing the virtues of celery juice to the cashier with her 10 stalks of celery in tow. The lady with her 8 big bunches of kale. The mounds of grapefruits. The boxes of stevia. In the 80’s it was Snackwell packages. The list goes on and on…..

Chances are, if you’re hoarding any kind of food in bulk or making the same exact thing every day, diet culture is to blame. Check your cart and your cabinets and your dinner plate. Is there some variety? Are you buying foods you love that taste good to you? Are you giving yourself options outside of what society (or you) deem to be “healthy”? 

This week, give yourself permission to let go of diet rules, to loosen your grip on a food or food group you think might save your soul and to make choices based on your body’s own intuition. 

As for me and my bananas…smoothies, banana bread, and banana splits here I come.  Add to Costco cart with care, my friends