The Chatty Gourmet

Are you healthy if….

you’re skinny?

you don’t eat after 6:00pm?

you only eat salad?

you consume mostly low calorie frozen meals?

you are always on a diet?

Skinny doesn’t equal healthy. You can live on soda, candy and pizza; have an amazing metabolism and remain skinny. Check out your cholesterol and sodium levels and get back to me. You're lucky, not healthy.

Let’s say you have coffee for breakfast and a snack for lunch around 11:30. You get stuck in a meeting until 5 and you don’t get home until 6. Oops, dinner won’t happen because you don’t eat after 6. So now your body will fast until that next cup of coffee at 7 the next morning. Not healthy.

Cool you eat salad, that is great! I am a fan of salad. Salads however, can go one of two ways…fill your plate with colorful vegetables and seeds, with a low fat dressing or even just a squeeze of lemon juice and a little olive oil; that is the salad you should be eating. But let’s face it, you get to that big bar full of additional side salads, already made up salads, pasta salads, hardboiled eggs, crunchy fried things, olives, croutons and 17 containers of dressings, one being low fat, and you can’t help but load up! Don’t put low fat dressing on that mound of “salad”. There is no point; that’s like ordering a diet coke with your super-sized meal. You know what I’m talkin’ about! Just because it’s salad doesn’t mean that it’s healthy.

I never understood how people can eat the tiny frozen meals that you heat up in the microwave. They are again, tiny, so you’re most likely going to eat something else besides the frozen meal to make up for what it was lacking. They are full of sodium and preservatives. So they may be 120 calories, which is really low, but they are full of stuff your body doesn’t need- not healthy.

It seems like everyone is on some type of a diet at all times. This too can mean several different things. Whether a diet consists of drinking 2 shakes a day and eating 1 meal, eating 2 bowls of cereal a day and drinking tons of water, making a vat of hot sauce and cabbage soup and only eating that or limiting yourself to just meat, doesn’t mean it’s a healthy diet. Sure, you’re losing weight, but that’s because you’re starving yourself! The word “diet” doesn’t equal healthy.

In my family if you ate all of the food on your plate you were healthy. Meals in my house always included something green, some type of protein and a starch. My mom always says; “everything in moderation”, and I, for the most part try to live by that. She also said "if you’re full, stop eating". This is hard for me because food is so wonderful and I can’t always make my stomach, mouth and brain get on the same page- but I try. If I am getting enough sleep, exercising at some point during the week and eating only when I am hungry, I consider myself healthy. I rarely get sick, I don’t smoke, and I only drink on occasion. I am happy and I feel good. Does all of this mean I am healthy? I think so!

It’s really up to you, and well, your doctor, to decide if you’re healthy or not. Just don’t fool yourself into thinking that the above reasons equal healthy. Try the “everything in moderation” theory, it is most realistic.

After becoming a Mom this past May, my life has flashed before me numerous times. I keep counting the years in my head thinking "Ok when Jax is 30, I will be 65. When he is 15, I will be 50.  Am I treating my body right? Am I eating right? Am I taking care of my mental and emotional health so as to not be a stress ball and cause an early heart attack?" Not to mention I am wondering how I can run a Business, be a good Mom, keep up with family and friends and get in another baby by 40!  

So.....How many of you older first time Moms have thought about this race against time as well? I know I eat right (Yes, I actually do eat my Susan's Healthy Gourmet). I also have some personal ways I relieve the emotional stress and I sleep great! I play with my baby and kitties every morning so I start my day happy not stressed about what's to come. My hubby and I pick our battles and discuss the issues that come up for new parents instead of holding in resentments or constantly rebringing up the same issues creating an unhealthy pattern of blame. I drive the speed limit, lock my doors at night, don't go into dangerous situations, have even cut back on caffeine (which I swore I would never do. I LOVE my coffee!).... so why do I still feel so vulnerable?  

I didn't even expect all this. We weren't even sure we could have babies! We tried for awhile and had started the infertility tests when we got preggers. Everyone tells you your life will change but no one can reach in your heart and place that feeling of unconditional love that will be put there when they are born. The lioness in me has come out and I will do everything and anything to protect my child, even if meant sacrificing myself. THAT'S how much you love your children. And THAT'S why I feel so vulnerable. 

Someone once said, fear fits in two categories; what you may never get and what you could lose.  

Now I have another life to think of. I have another gentle soul who needs me there for the next 30-50 years to help him through life and to listen to him share with me his joys and sorrows.  I want to be there to suspect there might be a first crush, to ship him off to college, to comfort him when he hurts or to tell him "No way can you do that!" and "Mommy knows best so don't you forget it!".

Of course, how can I do those things if I don't give myself the best possible chance of being around and of being a good example of healthy living for my son?

My entire life all I have had to take care of was a couple of overweight fuzzy kitties and my little ole self. I can't even skip dinner anymore! The days of living for myself are long gone and now every decison I make I get to think of two others; my husband and my boy.

A pain?...maybe. An adjustment?...sure. A blessing and miracle?...absolutely!