Food Issues

My husband is not on a diet. He is dealing with food issues sensibly by following a plan set up by a nutritionist. This involves weighing and measuring ridiculously small amounts of food for a full-size man.

On the plus, or maybe I should say minus, side, I’m eating less myself. While I’m not measuring and tracking units of protein vs. carbs, this program discourages fixing fancy combinations of food. They’re too hard to measure. And plain food tends to be less tempting (except for ice cream).

I have food issues in my books, too.

In real life, people socialize over food. Heroes and heroines, too, go out to dinner, cook together, celebrate holidays (such as Thanksgiving), take lunch breaks from work, etc. It’s all too easy as a writer to have them constantly fussing about with coffee cups, bites of omelet, or whatever, during their conversations.

Usually by chapter five or so, my ongoing outline gets studded with reminders to AVOID FOOD.

You’d be surprised how difficult this is. Almost as hard as avoiding food in real life.

I doubt Congress worries about this. Please don’t tell them. They might start fining authors of characters who overeat.

Or – worst case scenario – take away my ice cream.