Never thought I would say this, but I have to re-train myself to like vegetables. When I stopped eating meat almost 3 years ago, the transition was easy as pie. Not because I ate pie to compensate for the lack of meat — I seem to remember 2004-2005 also being the year I didn’t eat dessert, ever — but because I already ate plenty of vegetables and not a whole lot of meat. It was a healthy time, albeit dangerously low in chocolatey deliciousness.

Seems all I eat these days is grilled cheese sandwiches, pancakes, fruit, and tofu, which aren’t particularly non-nutritious food choices but don’t add up to a balanced diet. The idea is that maybe if I eat more veggies I will sleep better, have more energy, and generally be a happier person. Like this happy broccoli here. Sounds magical, but it’s just science.

[Note I did not say "a better person" because although I used to think that way--healthy consumption correlates to moral rectitude and worthiness of respect as a human being--it's absolutely the wrong mindset to have. (Thanks, Mom and Dad, for disdaining fat people in my youthful presence and screwing up how I thought about food.) I've often heard the argument that healthy choices indicate strength of character, but that's a question of priorities, awareness, and apathy, not strength vs. weakness or right vs. wrong. In any case, it's not a compassionate argument, it's bias disguised as logic.]

So now I need to eat more vegetables. I’m like a little kid who thinks green things are icky. Maybe I should invest in Jessica Seinfeld’s book, or perhaps side with Missy Chase Lapine in the Devious Cookbook Battle of 2007.