Memories

TODAY'S MOTIVATION

In the new year, we've got a few family trips planned with Maya. When we look back at pictures of us as a family, creating memories for our child, I don't want to be thinking "Jeez, I wish I looked / felt better then".  I don't want things like that spoiling my memories.  Instead, I just want to be thinking about the good times.

RANT OR RAVE

The other day I talked about buying this book. Well, I am done reading it. I read every night before bed. Even though I should be trying to get to sleep as early as possible (to prepare for Maya waking up 2-3 times a night), I can't help but cuddle up and have some "me" time. 

The basic message in this book is to eat a diet of non-processed foods with little or no meat, eating mostly plants. It also stresses the need to reconnect with the pleasure of food, eating socially, and thinking outside of the traditional beliefs we have about food. He also explains how processed foods came to be, which is interesting, and cautions that foods fortified with vitamins are not as good as whole foods. 

Anyhow, this book has really left me feeling much more confident about eating and much more overwhelmed about eating at the same time. There are a lot of things in the book that I agree with whole heartedly. There are some things that I still wonder about. Some of it validates the beliefs I already have about food, some of it makes it more complicated. Mostly more complicated because if I were to embrace the concept of this book a hundred percent, I would have to make some changes which I feel is very difficult to do when you are competing with how our culture has changed regarding food. 

You see, it talks about getting back to basics, cutting out processed food, enjoying eating again, having more sensible portions (not the usual portions of the Western diet), getting back to having a relationship with the makers of your food, knowing where it comes from, etc. These are not new concepts but the thing is, when you go to a kids' birthday party and they are serving macaroni and cheese or you go to a friend's house who is serving white rice and ready made appetizers, how do you politely decline what they are serving? Do you bring your own food and look like a snooty "I'm too good for your food" kind of guest? Do you eat before you go and just not have anything at the party and in turn be the only one at the table watching everyone else eat? I tell myself that eating what someone serves you once in a while is not going to hurt you but when you are invited to things more than once a week how do you cope? When I was reading this book I had a new appreciation for someone who is, say, a vegetarian or a vegan. 

This book was not suggesting that you follow a strict eating guideline, but in a way it did. The good thing is it did make eating seem a lot simpler. It gave the dieter a green light to stop dieting and just eat healthy. It gave good reasons why you should spend more money on your food (which helped me make peace with yesterdays' rant). It helped you understand that you don't need to eat food fortified with vitamins and nutrients if you just eat the good foods themselves. The biggest message I took from this book is that you have to look at food as a whole, as a culture, and we need to stop processing everything and promoting all of this factory farming that goes on. Overall I agree with the general premise of this book, but like anything, I feel you need to take some of it with a grain of salt and remember that the author is trying to make traditional "nutritionism" look very evil in order to get the reader to see his point of view.  So it would be interesting to see a more balanced argument about such issues, but nonetheless, he makes some very good points. 

See for yourself and give it a read. 

RANDOMS

A while back I talked about taking on some hobbies to keep myself busy like sewing. I think I'm gonna make some home made Christmas stockings to spice things up this year. I'll let you know how it turns out. 

Both of these are going to inspire my project:

www.polkadotchristmas.com

www.breakfastfordinnerblog.blogspot.com