The food blogger’s guilt

I found myself last night hovering over a bowl of neon yellow, cake batter flavored ice cream. It was delicious, in an artificially sweetened, bizarrely colored, stale cake bit-infused goop kind of way.

This contrasted with my diet-approved dinner of spinach greens, tuna, an orange, and chicken breast.

I had wondered, back in the spring, what food blogging would mean combined with my type A sensibilities and brief aspirations of pageantry. As it turns out, nothing much really. The only thing that really changes is the conversations around my food and not so much the food itself (perhaps boding poorly for my chances). I just end up talking about my need to diet rather than dieting. I’ve never been one to deny myself anything. A little bit of cake can’t hurt! Sure, go for that extra bowl of soup!

And if you put something in front of me that I’ve never tried before, well, just hand me a bowl and spoon.

I had a great conversation over tea yesterday afternoon with Alison Cronin, the reigning Miss Massachusetts USA 2009 who is, contrary to any ditzy stereotypes about beauty queens, very friendly in an accessible, normal kind of way. She posssesed a wry, self-aware sense of humor and gave me a few great tips: speedwalking, wearing nude or clear shoes during the swimsuit competition, and figuring out my strong points.

As for her own diet and exercise regime before Miss USA, she describes it as a lot of light protein and veggies. “I ate a lot of sushi,” she said. “Sashimi.” And two hours of elliptical and speedwalking a day.

Well, I can try.