dolari | A STARSHIP LEAVES SECTOR 412 GOING WEST AT WARP 3 AND ANOTHER LEAVES SECTOR 971.3 GOING EAST AT WARP

Not many people know this about me, but I have something along the lines of an eating disorder. It's something my dad and sister both have, but I don't htink it's psychological as much physiological. We never feel full when we eat. Ever. The only time we feel full is when we've eaten to the point of bursting. At first I thought it was just how everyone ate until I heard about some sort of gene thing they did with a mouse where it had the same effect. (Yes, when under EXTREME stress, I binge eat, but I consider that seperate from this issue).

So even when I'm not on a diet, if I eat a regular meal, I go around feeling hungry, and I drink a lot of water to try and kill that feeling but it really doesn't work. So I usually do my best to ignore it, but it's a hard feeling to ignore. When I'm ON a diet, it can be downright insistent. I've kind found a way to convince myself I've eaten, and that's to specifically plan out a diet/menu for the day (You can't eat anymore - you just had your planned lunch!), but the problem comes when I forget lunch, or worse, have no time to cook the mediocre food I CAN cook.

This came up with my last doctor's visit where I'd gained 15 pounds in one month. I'm very close to a benchmark weight I DON'T want to cross, so I tried to figure out where this extra weight is coming from. I'm actually ON a diet by Dr. Chase, which works when I follow it. And that's the problem, when I forget my lunch I go out and buy food to eat...and then the whole "limited dinner" is off, and I end up buying chips and crap and this and that until I've eaten too much. It's worse when, like this week, I didn't buy any groceries this weekend due to being...well...asleep all the damned time. And then on weekends, when I'm so deep into the comics that I don't have time for cooking, it happens again - I buy too much food, eat till I burst, and get back to comics.

So...how to keep from eating too much when I forget my lunch? Or on the weekends when I have no time to cook? Well, it'd need to be something on the order of fast food...but couldn't be unhealthy...couldn't really be frozen food because it wouldn't last a day at work, and if I forgot my lunch...well...I'd forget my lunch. And then while talking with one of my previously-military coworkers, she mentioned MREs.

The food is one meal, balanced, a little high in calories because they're meant for folks who are the living embodiment of Doom Marines :) but as long as I didn't eat 3 meals a day on them, they'd work as "replacement" dinners for when I forgot my lunch, or when I didn't want to cook while doing comics. I wouldn't even need to worry if I forgot my lunch, since I could keep a few in the truck (at 100 degrees, they last two years!).

I looked around to see what I could find on MREs and learned two lessons: DON'T GET THEM FROM ARMY SURPLUS STORES OR EBAY. The MREs can last up to 10 years in optimal conditions, but even the worst stored MREs only last two years. Who knows how old the cases on EBay and in Army Surplus stores are. Others sell MREs that aren't the military versions, which are simply Fatty Fast Food in a Pouch. That wouldn't help me much in the weight department.

Thankfully, I found a company that makes military MREs in a "civilian version" and a supplier that sells them fresh. You can only buy them in cases of 12 (at minimum) so I went ahead and bought one. We'll see if I buy anymore when I finish these (projected at 2008 :) ).

What's funny is there seems to be a group of MRE afficionados since I found some GREAT FAQs about them, based on nutritional value, similarity to military MREs (did you know those are illegal to sell?), and menu. :) And all the sites I found selling htem have three things in common: Bicyclers, Hikers and Right Wing Apocalyptic Survivalists. :)

Jenn Family Trivia: My dad (who served in Vietnam) has a soft spot for C-Rations. He can go on for hours about the cocoa powder they put in there. :D