Health is the soul that animates all the enjoyments of life, which fade and are tasteless without it. - William Temple
I found this quote which fits right into a discussion of "the flavors of life" - i.e. food! I envy those who are truly talented in their culinary creations. The art of cooking is an area of my life I've not fully addressed - except in "rare" instances when I do come upon a recipe that interests me. I make a trademark quiche of several varieties which everyone enjoys and have a handful of other recipes I do fairly well. Oh- and I make awesome salads! : ) I am married to a man who enjoys cooking and I've allowed him to all but take over the kitchen - especially once he retired and I was still teaching. One of my goals in retirement is to become more experimental in the kitchen and increase my rather limited repertoire of culinary dishes!
Yet there was a time when I spent hours in the kitchen and cooked EVERYTHING from scratch! That was during the eight years I lived in Turkey - but then that's what everyone did there. Wonderful fresh market vegetables stuffed with ground lamb, grilled meats, stews, cold dishes drizzled with olive oil, home-made yogurt, yummy pastries, both sweet and savory, etc. Then I returned to the States and life got harder as a few years later I became a single mom. Raising two children, teaching full-time and working on my graduate degree left me exhausted (those were also NOT my healthy years - found out later that I was hypoglycemic). So I took shortcuts when it came to cooking. Or stopped at a fast food place. Or ordered in pizza. My weight increase was proportionate to my bad eating habits, and no doubt so were my health problems. Fortunately, the 'hard times' have been over for some time now and I've incorporated healthier habits into my life.
Day 11 is all about food - in fact, it appears that the next several chapters are about the same topic. However, Day 11 speaks specifically about the purposes of food: (1) to fuel our bodies and (2) to appreciate flavorsI I enjoy good, flavorful food. I have also adopted a healthful way of eating - most of the time. However, I do have moments when I cave into my "food triggers" - for me, that would be ice cream, French bread and pastries, to name a few...
The assignment we have been given is to write down our foods (I already do this in my WW food journal). However, we are to consider how we feel after each meal - are we energized by the food we eat - or not? Since our body needs "fuel", it makes sense that WHAT, HOW MUCH, and HOW MANY TIMES a day we eat will make a difference to our level of energy. I have certainly experienced this since I've retired. While I eat breakfast almost as soon as I wake up - usually between 7 and 8, I sometimes put off lunch until 2 or 3 in the afternoon - and by that time, I'm famished! When I was in school, our lunch time was set for us. This chapter has made me realize I need to be more conscientious of not waiting too many hours before I give in to hunger pangs, and pace out my meals better.
I resolve to use my Endnote electronic notebook to write down the TIMES I eat and how I feel after each meal. I will report back here in my journal in a week to evaluate the assignment and discuss what I learned from it.
Now...time for THE QUESTION:
What did I do today to demonstrate my TOTAL COMMITMENT?
1. I actually did my exercise today willingly! Not only that, but I spent an entire hour of swimming and reached a number of laps at the pool that I never have before!! I'm now swimming about 5/6 of a mile...almost at that mile marker!
2. I ate a little less mindfully today than usual. My breakfast was a small bowl of oatmeal; Lunch was a turkey and cheese sandwich on high fiber ww bread and Greek yogurt with strawberries; Dinner was a HUGE salad with veggies, apples, pecans, and feta cheese w/pomegranate viniagrette dressing.
But then came the SNACKS - 1 cup + of no added sugar frozen yogurt w/a tsp. of Bailey's (yes, a treat!), about 10 almonds, and a slice of bread w/peanut butter. More snacks of a higher caloric nature than usual for sure - but the hour in the pool was what brought on a "hunger attack"....need to prepare better for that in the future.
And so as my friend, Elaine, says (and I paraphrase) "We dust ourselves off... and we keep right on keeping on...." : )
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