I’m on day five of my Mayo Clinic weight management program, a three-month exercise in building a new relationship with food. I don’t think of it as a diet; I think of it as a radical change in how I shop and eat.

Each morning, I check out the day’s meal plan (they also offer a grocery list), and today I decided to go with their suggestion.

A simple meal I never would have thought of. Maria and I loved it; it was so easy to make and good to eat. And yes, healthy.

The suggestion (I don’t have to take it) was a rice salad with snow peas and feta cheese with some fruit.

We chop the vegetables into small chunks; they mix with the rice to create a new and pleasant flavor.

We cooked the rice this morning and then just chopped up the peas. The lunch had a french, flavorful, and crispy kind of fee to it.

The mean took about five minutes to prepare.

I expected this to be a hard, a sacrifice; I was ready to complain.

Maria and I are having a blast shopping, planning meals, preparing them, and eating them. This morning I had a smoothie – yogurt, oat milk, a banana, an apple, blackberries, and blueberries mixed up in a blender.

I wasn’t hungry all morning.

The recipes sync perfectly with the meal recommendations.

The Mayo Clinic couldn’t make it easier all around. It feels like psychologists, nutritionists, and doctors all had a hand in this program, and it is radically changing the way I eat food and think about it.