Fuelling the body

Part of my resolution to get healthy was to be more inventive with our menu. I find I get in a rut and make the same things over and over again till I’m sick of making them and we are sick of eating them. To help this I have a calendar that I enter every meal onto – I sometimes look back to see what I was making last year, often only to be discouraged by seeing the same or similar things. Rarely, I’ll be reminded of something good that I used to make. The key, I think, is to have more meals to chose from so Monday night I made something new.

Sweet Potato Falafel with Yogurt-Tahini Sauce from the fat-free vegan website graced our plates. They were reasonably easy to make, delicious, and as a bonus, it made 4 servings – leftovers! Hurrah! We had them wrapped in tortillas. Next time I might try a steamed cabbage leaf, or maybe a collard leaf as the wrapper. Also, I’ll change up the tahini sauce to be based on chickpeas to sneak some better protein into the meal.

What healthy meals do you make?

At Carm's uncle's wake on Tuesday I was watching the video of photos passing by. Suddenly, with a jolt of recognition, my much younger self was on the screen. I haven't seen that self for many years (maybe even 20), and was surprised by the almost featureless visage. There were no lines of experience around my eyes or fattening up of my cheeks. The wisdom gained from years of learning how to live with a mental illness did not shine out of my eyes. I looked smooth and innocent and young. Hum.

If I could tell that younger person anything, what would it be? Perhaps I'd tell her never to give up hope. I'd tell her to enjoy each moment that she lived her dreams and to not put any of that living off to the future. I'd tell her to go ahead and cry if she had to, it wouldn't last forever, the tears would abate. I'd tell her that she would be ok. I might even tell her not to eat so much!!!

Speaking of ok… aside from yesterday, which was an out of the house all day sort of day, I've done my 15s. The thing about 15 minutes is that it is easy to tell myself, 'well, it is only for 15 minutes, you can do it'. And so I start… and find that once I am doing that thing I don't stop at just 15 minutes. Inertia has been overcome.

 

The shared meal elevates eating from a mechanical process of fuelling the body to a ritual of family and community, from the mere animal biology to an act of culture. ~Michael Pollan