eating for health

 {Image via}

I was helped greatly along in getting on the Eating Healthy bandwagon this week by my parents - who sent me back east with enough fruits and carrots & celery (rarely do I eat the two separately anymore, thus they deserve their own nomenclature) to last me through the week. Their contribution to my diet has greatly improved the way I have felt and functioned since I woke up on Tuesday morning, ready to get back to the gym and back to the healthy lifestyle I'd been pursuing before I allowed the excuse of "Thanksgiving and beyond" to derail my intentions.

But this morning, I began my day with a cup of granola cereal with milk (a "gift" from a coworker who was angling for the trash bin after he decided he no longer wanted his NEW purchase! - I simply cannot see food wasted. I cannot. It gives me anxiety). And 2 hours later, I was starving. Literally starving, looking to eat anything in sight, including the remaining rum cakes a coworker brought in for the office after a recent cruise. (Did you see that I wrote "rum cakes," plural? Yeah.)

But then? Ah then. Then the carrots & celery, and my own healthy concoction of red beans with brown rice called to me from the fridge and almost immediately after the first bites I felt more energized, and more awake. From 2 bites.3 max. Eating healthfully is so key for me. So key to my energy, to my contentedness, to my alertness. And starting the day off with sugar is obviously not working for me. Time to make my oatmeal for next week, that much is certain.

I do love this awareness though. I love this listening to my body, responding to what I know it needs (even though the crux of me wants more sugar), and having my body respond favorably in part. I love that each step I take in the right direction is a success, and that I am beginning to take those steps again. Makes me feel strong, in and of itself.

But I mostly love my parents for sending me home with such natural goodness - because I can promise you, if I had not had those fruits and veggies in my arsenal, I would have made several lunches out of all the unhealthiness that abounds around my office and home. ;) So mostly, thanks to my parents for raising their family with an awareness of health and sustainability of self, even though everyone succumbs to those bites of rum cake now and again.

PS - Oh, and no, that piccy is not one I took. I'm that lame. I have to steal pictures of carrots & celery possessing the same plasticware that all offices all across America keep for their employees. tsk.