Please don't hate me, mock me, or think I'm making this up. I'm really not. How this happened is a combination of a lot of things, I think. They may seems random and a little discombobulated. But, I think they all contribute to my philosophy about food, which is a post that I'm working on, but I thought this confession should come first.
I was raised with a pretty healthy body-image. (This despite having scoliosis and being bow-legged.) My Daddy and Mommy always told me that I was beautiful. I didn't hear my mother gripe about her body shape/size all the time. Hollywood beauties were not idolized. (And neither were frumpy women. When I was going through a phase of almost believing that frumpiness was next to godliness, my mother would say things like, "You look pale, honey. Go put on some lipstick." This was always said in the most loving and never demeaning way. She encouraged my beauty; we'd get our hair done or buy pretty underwear together.) So, I always kind of accepted my body for what it was. I accepted it and did my best to make the most of what God gave me. (I do like to dress up and look nice. I don't want to hide behind the mom-wear.)
Because I never went through that adolescent phase of "I think I'm fat." I never wrecked my metabolism (which is what dieting does). I always gave my body plenty of calories to burn! That and we lived a pretty active lifestyle. No couch potatoes in our house.
I was raised eating real food. It wasn't perfect food (I don't know what perfect food is.) but it was good food. When we went grocery shopping it wasn't all boxes, cans, and frozen foods. It was produce, meat, rice, flour, etc--mostly the perimeter of the store and not all the aisles. We made food from scratch. We ate sitting down together at the table. Tablecloths. Cloth napkins. Please pass the potatoes. Dinner conversation and lots of laughter--which the Bible tells us does good like medicine!
I truly believe that all these things: a healthy body-image, not wrecking my metabolism, staying active and eating real food, is the reason that I have never been on a diet and don't feel the need to. True, I'm not the same size I was when I got married. I'm OK with that. I'm not my pre-Meg's-pregnancy size. I'm OK with that, too.
My philosophy is that we should be healthy--meaning well-nourished, active, joyful, and mindful. After those essentials body size and shape will vary greatly. Can we be OK with that?
My health essentials list is:
1. Eat real food every day (not edible food-like substances, as Michael Pollan says)
2. Be active every day. Walk, ride a bike, swim, play on the playground with your kids, run around with the kids, make love, hike, do a pilates video, wash your walls, hoe the garden or clean out the garage. Just be active!
3. Go outside. Weather permitting, get outside for some sunlight and fresh air. Even if you just sit in the sun and read for thirty minutes, do it! Your body craves sunshine.
4. Have a joyful heart. True happiness will make your food digest better, your calories to burn faster, your blood pressure to be lower, and more! The Bible has a lot to say about the effects of joy.
5. Never speak negatively about your body. Don't put down The Temple. Respect yourself and your Creator.
More on my food philosophy to come......
12 comments:
Such a GOOD topic... and I love your post! <3
Perhaps another health essential for your list, Daja, would be "Don't overeat". Come to think of it, maybe another one could be "Don't concentrate on food so much".
I've come to the fairly recent realization that most people think too much about their next meal... or about food in general. They stockpile it, grow it, plan it, look up recipes how to use it, season it, slave over making it for hours... the list is endless. I often wonder why? A big bowl of hummus & some naan... with a bunch of bananas too... what a nice meal to be shared around a table with family.
Miss Caboose is in a homeschooling Girl Scout troop & they can't even have a 90 minute meeting without there being a "snack time" involved... and the meeting starts at 1pm, which to me should mean that the kids just got done eating lunch. Every family takes a turn bringing "the snack"... which consists of a "wholesome" snack & drink for 33+ kids/moms. That boggles my mind, to be honest. I know the snack-bringing is a financial burden for some families but they just don't want to say it and "rock the boat". :(
I think maybe if we all knew what true hunger was, we'd concentrate less on food & more on simply stopping our stomachs from growling. It sure would leave a lot more time in the day for other things, instead of slaving away in a hot kitchen, either cooking or cleaning up. Yahoo!! :)
Love you~ Andrea
xoxoxoxo
I think we are probably very much on the same page, Andrea. I'm going to blog about my food philosophy later today....if I finish the dishes and laundry. :-)
Although I do love food.....enough to have a separate blog all about it! LOL! But, it is true that has become idolatrous in our culture. Look at our enormous grocery stores. I remember feeling completely overwhelmed when I came back from Mongolia and had to go grocery shopping at a supermarket. I was seriously all anxious and flustered and couldn't choose food. Just too much. It was culture shock. My sister laughed at me and totally had to help me get out of the store in one piece.
Oh, I know for sure we're on the same page, sweetpea. Probably pretty close to being on the same line too!! :-)
Love ya~ Andrea
P.S. Yes, I can so relate to the "mega grocery store" insanity, Daja. I'm old enough to remember a time when the grocery stores were little... tiny in comparison to today. A couple different brands of things and that was that. Even the co-op catalog has gotten crazy-thick too, with way too many products. *bleh*
I vividly remember my mom saying, the first time she went into a mega grocery store, "Annie, they certainly don't have us elderly people in mind, when they build these things, do they?" How true! She needed milk & bread and she had to walk sooooo far just to get to them both.
I just read my first comment & think that maybe I came across as "differing" from you, honey, and perhaps "harsh". I'm sorry. I surely didn't mean to, on either count. I agree with you on absolutely everything you said... and was just adding a thought or two, but still in total agreement.
I think perhaps I'm showing my age... ole & cranky. :-P Please forgive me (for my age AND my cranky demeanor!).
Love you so~ Andrea
xoxoxoxoxo
You were not cranky! I love you and understand you! *mwah*
Speaking of grocery stores, they built a Whole Foods near me. I went in when it was first open and felt so overwhelmed. I didn't go back in for about a year. Now I love it and shop there whenever I can afford it, the quality is so great. But, it did sort of scare me in the beginning.
What a great topic! I've never been on a diet, either. I have tried to incorporate more exercise into my life. But most of my activity is playing with the kids, gardening, major cleaning, etc. I wouldn't say my body is perfect, but I'm perfectly fine with it!
I appreciate you sharing your experiences with your mother. I grew up with just a dad. And he, obviously, never obsessed about looks. In fact I don't remember him ever making critical comments about other womens bodies, celebrity or otherwise. Not even a "she's attractive".
I totally agree that food can easily become an idol in our culture. Not just junk, but even to the point of legalism and idolatry with healthy stuff--all organic, raw, whatever.
I like food, I especially like growing it, but it's so satisfying to watch something grow from seed to fruit!
We've found ourselves departing from both our parents way of cooking. My dad was meat and canned vegetable, some junk, nearly everyday.
Dh's family was low-fat everything (I'm not convinced low-fat, no-fact is *always* better for you), a lot of good fresh fruits and veggies but maybe not prepared in the best way (lots of tedious casseroles).
I started reading "In Defense of Food" and really enjoyed it before I had to give it back to the library. I'll have to pick that up again.
I personally have a hard time just plain cooking for my family. Most of the time I know what we should be eating, and I buy it (like lots of fresh produce) but I'm at a loss for how to prepare it in new ways. Maybe I'll have to check out your food blog.
Daja & Sara, have either one of you gals seen "Rodale's Basic Natural Foods Cookbook"? I first picked-up a copy of it many years ago, from the library. By the time I wanted to buy it, it was out-of-print, so I searched for a copy on one of those out-of-print "books for sale" websites. It is absolutely THE best cookbook I've seen. It makes no judgements on meat vs. vegetarianism... but it's loaded with recipe after recipe after recipe for every kind of vegetable & meat & fruit you have ever heard of... and some you haven't. For example, there's 4 recipes whose primary ingredient is celery. I've seen many recipes that call for celery but none where celery is the primary ingredient. The recipes are: Spiced Celery & Fruit, Celery Root Remoulade, Celery Root Timbales, & Heart of Celery. Under "fennel" there's a recipe called "Celery Parmesan & Fennel".
So it's a real nice, thick (over 800 pgs.), unusual cookbook that uses all the various good vegetables & meats to make different dishes for our families. On the back, under the title, it says "The First All-Purpose Cookbook Specifically Designed to Make You Comfortable with Natural Foods". The ISBN is 1-56731-044-3
~More than 1,500 recipes that are free of salt and refined sugar and use minimally processed ingredients.
~Useful health information about foods & beverages
~Basic guidelines on how to buy natural foods for quality, quantity, economy & proper storage.
~Special chapters on herbs & spices, sea vegetables, legumes, whole grains, nuts & seeds, and sprouts.
~A listing of natural foods recipes that children will love
~Dozens of menu plans for entertaining & for family meals
~Step-by-step illustrations throughout
~Canning, freezing & drying procedures fully explained
etc. etc. etc. A real wealth of info.
Just thought I'd share. :)
Daja, I've never been in a Whole Foods store but I've heard about them. I remember reading about one of the stores one time and thought to myself that it sounded a lot like a Sam's Club-type store. Is it? I don't do well in Sam's Club. :-/ But I sure would at least like to go into a Whole Foods sometimes, just to see what it's like. I think the nearest one to us is in Chicago. Maybe I should do an internet search to find out.
That cookbook sounds great! I'll have to look for it!
A Whole Foods is not like a Sam's Club. It's a grocery store, but it's just like the name WHOLE FOODS. Huge selection of organic produce, all their meat is ethically raised (certified by PETA no less!), milk is all without antibiotics, carries a wide selection of grains, beans, and the like in bulk, huge selection of coffee and tea--all organic and fair trade, and so on. They have a big ol' selection of wine and beers, some exclusive to WF. Big selction of gourmet foods. I think you'd like it, like I do--but truly it did overwhelm me at first. Just too much stuff.
:-)
I loved this post. Though we came into it different ways, perhaps, we think very similarly.
A local chef (who is also gluten-free) posted this to our local e-mail celiac group, and I very nearly blogged about it yesterday: http://www.thymeforachef.com/resources/healthyandsmart.html It's basically about grocery shopping for whole foods, and several of the things he said are what you've mentioned, as well.
Perhaps it's where my closest Whole Foods is located (on the edge of Scottsdale), but I find it difficult to shop in WF due to its clientele. It's more like the trendy & wealthy healthy-shoppers, instead of the ones who are making it their everyday lifestyle. I shop more at a local chain called Sprouts. The "aisle" part of the store (which is maybe a little smaller than a typical WF) takes up only about 1/5 of the store. The rest is devoted to TONS of produce, a huge bulk section, meats, wines & cheeses, and supplements/natural products. There are as many supplements & natural products (like mineral-based makeup, soaps, etc.) as there are "aisle" grocery foods.
ANYWAYS. Not sure I've added much to this conversation, but I sure did enjoy reading this post. I think that you have a better handle on embracing your femininity and beauty than I do. That's hard for me, but God is walking me through it!!
One more thing! I went to search that cookbook on Amazon, and it appears an updated version, with a slightly different title, was published in Dec 09, which makes the title mentioned by Andrea as cheap as about $4 plus shipping!
Great advice Daja. I'm reading What the Bible says about Healthy Living. I'm trying to do better about processed foods.
We do have a Chickfila habit here that is hard to break.
I've never officially gone on a diet either, but I'm definitely more aware than ever that I'm not burning thru the calories like I did when I was younger.
♥ Joy
Love your blog Daja...and thank YOU for visiting mine. I wasn't sure which of yours to leave a comment on! And, JOY, the word "JOY", the meaning behind it is THE best food for our soul. I'll be back. Blessings!
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