From the Soapbox

This subject is stretching the theme of this blog a little, but the soapbox subject to which I am devoting my 1 day a week of fame as an author is the encouragement to eat as a family.

My mom was (and still is) an extremely devoted mother of seven and my dad is a farmer/rancher who started his days at 5:00 AM and ended them after sunset. However busy they were, dinner was a sacred time, never missed, when all nine of us met to eat and to talk.

This is the place where we talked about our lives, our successes, our questions, our beliefs and our failures. This is where we formed our opinions and learned to debate. This was the training ground where we learned to meet head on any challenges from peers, to question dogma thrown at us by teachers, and roll with teasing from siblings. This was a safe place where we could feel bold in expressing our opinions, secure in asking questions, and were not scarred by sarcasm and ridicule.

Hardly ever did we end a meal by immediately clearing the table. We pushed back our chairs and continued to talk.

There is not space here to extol the value of the practice of family dinners. Suffice it to say that it was probably the best bonding time we spent together, a place where our parents had more influence than they ever dreamed.

If this non-empirical evidence and my personal conviction of the importance of family dinners leaves you with any questions, you can find a lot of research in out there in support of family dinners. Here’s an interesting fact that I will leave you as I step off of my soapbox and away from the spotlight of my day of literary fame:

A child who gets through age 21 without smoking, abusing alcohol or using illegal drugs is virtually certain never to do so. And no one has more power to prevent kids from using substances than parents. There are no silver bullets; unfortunately, the tragedy of a child’s substance abuse can strike any family. But one factor that does more to reduce teens’ substance abuse risk than almost any other is parental engagement, and one of the simplest and most effective ways for parents to be engaged in teens’ lives is by having frequent family dinners.

Frequent family dining is associated with lower rates of teen smoking, drinking, illegal drug use and prescription drug abuse. Compared to teens who eat dinner frequently with their families (five or more family dinners per week), those who have infrequent family dinners (fewer than three per week) are:
three and a half times likelier to have abused prescription drugs, three and a half times likelier to have used an illegal drug other than marijuana or prescription drugs, three times likelier to have used marijuana, more than two and a half times likelier to have used tobacco, and one and a half times likelier to have used alcohol.

Sugar, Sugar --- Oh Honey, Honey

One of our polls asked what was most difficult to change in your diet. The number one answer was cutting out sugar. So I thought I would post a few ideas and ask for your feedback.

1) Try switching to sugar free. I actually can't believe I just typed that, since I have been anti the taste of sugar free for YEARS!!! I could taste it in ANYTHING!!!! And it always left the most disgusting after-taste in my mouth. HOWEVER . . . . things have changed. Food scientists have come a long way with some things, and there are actually sugar-free products I prefer now to the regular stuff. Some of my favorites:
--- Bryer's No Sugar Added Vanilla Ice Cream
--- A&W Diet Root Beer
--- First Two Comined for an AMAZING Root Beer Float
--- Swiss Miss Sensible Sweets No Sugar Added Hot Chocolate
--- Cook and Serve Sugar Free Chocolate Pudding
--- Laughing Cow Oreo Ice Cream Sandwiches
--- Weight Watchers Smart Ones Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough or Chocolate Mint Ice Cream Cups
--- Weight Watchers Oreo Ice Cream Bars
--- Dannon's 80 Calorie Yogurt cups with 1/4 cup of Fiber One

For the last few months I have had a REALLY hard time saying no to sweets -- I LOVE THEM TOO MUCH!!! But I have been surprised to see that when I allowed myself these few simple, sugar-free sweets every day, I felt less guilty. And slowly but surely, I find myself not really wanting them as much. That's FANTASTIC, right?

I think the trick here is to choose healthier options while waiting for my body to balance itself out. I'm still not to a point where I use Sugar Substitutes in things like Oatmeal or baking. That just ISN'T me. And, yes, some of these things are a little more pricey (which helps to not get them so much, right?). BUT, I allowed myself that splurge for a while to keep myself from feeling deprived and just giving up or binging on things that I wanted but couldn't have. And, as I said, I have been surprised to notice that I don't crave them as much.

2) Choose fruit first. You have to be a little careful with this one because you don't want to eat one thing when you are really craving another; you'll just have added calories from the first and over-indulge on the second. But if you can first eat fruit, you may find your post-meal sweet tooth is actually okay with it and doesn't need anything else.

3) Set small limitations. For example, you may not quit sweets cold-turkey. That probably won't lead to success for you. HOWEVER, you can start with small things like limiting yourself to one or two portions. Or maybe all you need to do is decide to look at the nutrition information of everything you eat BEFORE you eat it. That's a cup of ice water in my face sometimes; and the shock alone is enough to stop me when I think about how long I'd have to run to run off that tiny little splurge. Again, slow and steady wins the race. And you might just find yourself NOT craving sweets as much as you thought you would or have previously done.

4) Use portion sizes of sweeteners. For example, I eat oatmeal pretty much every morning, without fail. I used to add sugar to the point that it was like, "Do you want some oatmeal with that sugar?" Now I just add one tablespoon of brown sugar to my bowl of oatmeal and I'm just fine with it! I had to get to that point. But now that I'm there -- VIOLA!!! It's not even a question anymore.

5) Choose fresh over dried EVERY TIME. If you have a sweet tooth and are going to eat fruit, go for fresh fruit instead of dried fruit. Dried just doesn't have the same nutritional value and the sugar in it is so incredibly concentrated. Eating either one will give you that sweet taste in your mouth, so go for fresh.

6) If you don't make or buy it, you won't eat it! If you need help with this, call in the reserves: family, room-mates, friends, etc. Or if you want to make something because you are really craving it, call a friend and make it at their house. Make sure you have an alternate activity going on (like games or a movie or something outside), then you can eat just one and walk away to join the activity. OR you can take the plate of goodies TO the activity and steal one before serving everyone else. AND you can leave all the left-overs with them to find a way to dispose of them.

Getting Back on Track: WINNING the RACE

Hello friends! So I am sure you have noticed that I kind of fell off the wagon, so to speak, in the last month or so. I think I just got so frustrated with everything, overwhelmed with life and sick babies and my husband's finals week and everything.

I am sure you have had many similar experiences. Then my babies turned 9 MONTHS OLD, and I realized that I am only THREE MONTHS AWAY from their ONE YEAR birthday. There are a lot of statistics out there about carrying around the pregnancy weight a year after your babies are born, but I NEVER thought I would be one of those women who was still struggling with it. I mean, how long does it take to lose 15 POUNDS anyway, right?

Well, as you can attest right along with me, SOMETIMES IT TAKES LONGER THAN YOU THINK. I have tried implementing everything I put on here, tried to fit exercise in even when I LOATHE INDOOR EXERCISE AND WORKOUT VIDEOS. I have slowly cut calories every week and even got to a point where I just dried up and couldn't breast feed anymore. But still, the WEIGHT HAS STAYED WITH ME.

So I decided the week after my babies turned 9 months old that I was going to kick it in gear and get back on track. I made a calendar, made a count-down chain (like you do for Christmas), made a calorie tracker to record everything I eat every day WITHOUT FAIL AND WITHOUT EXCEPTION, and I have been working like crazy to accomplish this ONE GOAL.

This is about more than weight for me at this point, though. This is about me feeling like I am still myself: someone who sets goals and accomplishes them; someone who can pull things together and make things happen instead of being pulled along by life and never really in control of anything; someone who succeeds at everything she does because FAILURE IS NEVER AN OPTION. Have you ever felt like your life was running in a different orbit than everything around you and just when you think you are back IN SYNC WITH EVERYTHING ELSE, someone sneezes and it spins you into a whole new galaxy? That's how I have felt these last nine months, and friends I feel that I need TO TAKE CONTROL.

So, I have YOU, my PEN and PAPER, my PAPER COUNTDOWN CHAIN, my RUNNING SHOES, my BIKE and JOGGING STROLLERS, my WEEKLY MENUS and expensive fresh fruits and veggies that I cannot live without, and just this one final thought:

"The will

to WIN

means nothing

without the will to

PREPARE."

~Juma Ikangaa, quoted in Elaine Dalton,

"A Return to Virtue," Ensign, November 2008.

Thank You, Cicero

My uncle sent me this quote today:
"A thankful heart is the parent of all virtues." ~ Cicero

I looked Cicero up on Wikipedia and found this:
"Cicero is generally perceived to be one of the most versatile minds of ancient Rome. He introduced the Romans to the chief schools of Greek philosophy and created a Latin philosophical vocabulary, distinguishing himself as a linguist, translator, and philosopher. An impressive orator and successful lawyer, Cicero probably thought his political career his most important achievement. Today, he is appreciated primarily for his humanism and philosophical and political writings."

So not only was Cicero very wise in acknowledging the great value that is to be found in a grateful heart, he was also a dynamite man whose influence and popularity has transcended cultures and generations.

How does that apply to this blog on nutrition and taking care of you and your family's needs?

Well, I don't know about you, but I find myself becoming discouraged at times by how far I have to go and how hard it seems to get there. And I find myself falling into the popular trap of our society that connects what we look like with what we are worth. I didn't find a single mention in Wikipedia about Cicero's weight or eating habits, by the way.

I do know, however, that Cicero was Greek. And in the Greek culture, athleticism, physical activity, was a defining characteristic among those who were deemed worthy to be citizens and soldiers. Leadership in that citizenship meant that there was a certain mastery of all that was deemed important, including their physical aptitude.

I think that I often lose sight of the fact that physical exercise and health, though important, is not everything. It is one aspect, my weakest aspect at times, but still just one aspect.

So in all of your daily duties, all of the great and noble things you are doing each day to rear and lead those you associate with (spouse, children, co-workers, siblings, grandchildren, etc.), remember that the most important thing is to be well-rounded and balanced.

If you have lost focus of the other things that are so important and going so well in your life, the things that you hope to accomplish with your life's work and in the rearing of your children, take a minute to consider this quote from Cicero and make a list of all the things you are grateful for, all the things that are going abundantly well for you, all the things you have mastered throughout your life. Maybe take it a step further and write a gratitude list for the things you are doing well with your physical preparations and challenges. And then go forward, committed to do better while not losing sight of the things you are already doing so well and enjoying so much TODAY!