It’s Not Too Hot to Eat

So many naturally skinny people I know say things to me like, “Don’t you love summer? It’s just too hot to eat.” Somehow I don’t think we grew up on the same planet.

I can remember back in the dark ages of my childhood, the time before ubiquitous air conditioning, when it was so hot in the summer that the Pool Moms would say things like, “It’s too hot to cook.” Now that made sense. No one liked turning on the oven to add suffering to an already insufferable room. But the lack of desire to cook did absolutely nothing to my desire to eat. When it was too hot to cook it just meant we were having gazpacho and icy pops for dinner.

I actually find the summer to be my worst eating time of the year. First there are the longer hours of sunshine that makes my brain say, “Hey it’s still light out and you last ate four hours ago. Isn’t time for another meal?” Second, there is the vacation eating where we start talking about what we are going to do for dinner at breakfast setting me up for thinking about food all day long. Third, I dream of the ice cream truck coming down the street, bells-a-ringing, and I have a silver half dollar from my Dad in my hand.

Well, yes fifty cents would not get me much these days, but back in 1966 when the Good Humor man drove down Crystal Street in New Canaan I could buy anything on the truck with that one coin. Staying away from cool treats is easier for me in winter. Somehow in summer I am right back to being five years old. I think the heat brings out the child in me.

For some people who are over concerned with how they look in a bathing suit the summer is the best thing to happen to them. Not me. Isn’t that what the cover-up was invented for? Sure I write a diet comedy blog, but that does not mean I really care what I look like. I do this for my health, and the jokes.

Maybe in the olden day the heat meant food spoiled faster and there was nothing more unappetizing than ptomaine poisoning from eating potato salad with mayonnaise in it that had been left on the kitchen counter too long. Sure, if I had been sick all night from eating something bad then I might equate hot summer time with not wanting to eat. With today’s refrigeration technology at an all time high I am yet to make myself sick with food.

So it is hot out. It was over 100 degrees multiple times today, but it has had little effect on my appetite. In fact, I think I hear some bells ringing down the street. Hold me back, I’ve got a silver dollar.