Gesundheit!

Yes, today I'm going to talk about health. Last night I went to my mom's group meeting, where we had a guest speaker on the topic of probiotics. I was pleasantly surprised by the speaker's fairly moderate approach to probiotics and supplements in general. While she was an advocate of the use of probiotics; providing approximate doses (NOT providing medical advice) for people, reasons they should not be used, reasons they should, and what they really are. As a whole, she doesn't advocate a lot of supplement use, as she feels that most things can be provided with proper diet and exercise...really? It was exactly what I needed to hear in order to be really open to the rest of the presentation. It certainly didn't hurt that she was very well-read, had a lot of information and the way in which she presented it did not in any way feel like a sales pitch.

This is the second speaker we've had, that I've been able to attend, who was a practitioner of alternative medicine; both of whom were fairly moderate and talked about utilizing both traditional and alternative medicine to have a balanced life.

So, while I'm still a fairly staunch believer in traditional medicine, I am open to hearing about small changes that I can make that will extent my life, while making it more enjoyable. It got me thinking about my family's recent eating habits. I already know that after the birth of C, I have a lot of work to do in the weight-loss department. Not because I gained a ton of weight while I was pregnant (because I've actually done fairly well), but because I started out as a bit of a fatty. Like Tommy Boy, I've got a little bit of what you might call a weight problem.

You see, I'm the girl who orders a large milkshake because it looks so damn good at the time, but then when you get back to the office and realize you have the ice-cream equivalent of a Big Gulp you hold it up and say Can you believe how out of control portions are getting? This is a small! It's crazy! Yep, that's me.

Growing up, my mom made whole-wheat bread from wheat flour that she ground herself, used 2/3 cup of sugar instead of 2 full cups in Kool-Aid...believe me, that makes a huge difference in the taste, and it was a family tradition to get the tiny boxes of pre-sweetened cereal for Christmas morning, because throughout the year, we almost never had cereal in the house with sugar in the first three ingredients. The point is that I have a good foundation for healthy eating, it's just slid away a bit in the past decade.

Overall, I'd have to say my basic eating habits are not horrible, it's the sugar that I crave like a slobbering fiend that has become my ultimate downfall. With my dad and his side of the family being LDS, ice cream played a large role in our lives (you Mormons will know what I mean, and if you say you don't you're lying...and can't take the sacrament on Sunday.)Over the past couple of years, it's come to the point that the day is not complete unless I've had at least one sweet treat.

I started thinking about this when H asked for broccoli the other day, and I was suspect. Each time J or I have tried to get him to eat broccoli, he has touched it to his tongue and then quickly turned his head pronouncing it to be yucccchhh, so I asked him what broccoli looks like. He looked at me like I had two heads and said "Cake." (duh). I was mortified and so glad that nobody else was around to witness his proclamation.

When we lived in Portland, H was fairly worldly eating everything off my plate from Curry with Tofu to real broccoli. Since I've been staying at home, it seems like he's had a steady diet of chicken nuggets, PBJ sandwiches and hot dogs. Also, I could have counted the number of times on one hand in which he'd tried McDonald's (including the long road trip out here) and he'd NEVER stepped foot in the PlayPlace. Part of the picky eating, I know, is his age (he wasn't quite two when we moved here), but perhaps a larger part is my complete lack of motivation to be in the kitchen over the last couple of months.

Because I have committed to completing my first tri-athlon in September, I know that I'll need to be eating more healthfully in order to achieve my goal. This seems like the perfect time to make that turn-around...new baby, new body, new life.

Plus, I have to look semi-decent in my bridesmaid's dress for the wedding in August, so I'm sure that has a little something to do with my resolve. (Because a Grecian-style flowy dress is really not all that pretty when you have arms the size of a Texas cattle rancher, except with dimples where definition should be.)