The Healthy Perspective

I was slicing some wonderful leftover pork roast my mom sent home with us and plating fresh garden vegetables when a feeling of gratitude swallowed me whole. So thankful for food, nourishment, and what family dinners represent! 

 

Many times I have placed all the social aspects of food in a negative light. Everybody knows there is more to eating than just nutrition. Food was often the annoying guest we have to invite to the party. It became a hurdle. Just something else I have to struggle through to reach my goal. Just another opportunity to mess up. “Let’s just take it one meal at a time.” I begrudgingly said as if it was some necessary evil.

Just as with everything else in life, there are two perspectives. I was looking at social eating through a lens of negativity, a perspective of lack and difficulty. I have taken food for granted many times. I have misused and abused it. I’m not an unhealthy weight because food is bad. I’m at an unhealthy weight because my relationship with food has been unhealthy. I actually happen to like healthy foods. I like variety. I like feeling satisfied but not stuffed. I want a healthy relationship with food and it starts with the proper perspective. ALL healthy relationships are simply about love and enjoyment. In the moments it took me to plate up a tasty, well-balanced, and nutritious meal for my family, those dark shades began to fall off, and a new light was shed.

How fun is food? All the flavors! Fun traditions and memories associated with eating! All the people I like to hang with and enjoy life together! Funniest family moments around the table. Going out to eat and ordering something new or something familiar. Browsing at the Farmer’s Market. Independence Day Queen Burger. Movie popcorn. There is just something so fun, familiar, easy and restful about food. Everybody is always in the kitchen. It’s great to love to eat! It’s fine to be excited about planning the food for that party, that ballgame, or even your next snack. There aren’t “bad” foods. I have struggled with food instead of just enjoying it. Food and life were created to be enjoyed. To abuse something lovely is to miss out. How wonderful is it that our bodies were made for taking nourishment breaks? When we see three squares a day through a perspective of abundance, it makes health happen. 

 

Having a healthy relationship with food is another great lesson to learn from my three little professors. Those three boys are GOOD at eating. (Some better than others.) They generally like a variety of foods. They get excited about mealtime. They have foods they like to eat at different people’s house and they get excited about eating it when they get there. Even our quiet little Jack who does not like attention used to get so excited about food that he would actually make up songs about food in the grocery store. Unloading the groceries at home was as grand as Christmas morning! Jack even takes social eating to a new level. He needs a flavor associated with every single wonderful thing we do. My Boys Enjoy Food! But you know what? They are at healthy weights. They refuse sweets as much as they accept them. When they are full, they quit eating. When they want a little more, they ask for a little more, “But dust a wittle bit! Dat’s enough!” 

 

This attitude of gratitude is more than just a rehearsed prayer before dining.  It’s a real, live, emotional fruit from seeing things in the real light. So thankful to experience the abundance of good food with the people I love most in our favorite places together. So thankful for the freedom to befriend and enjoy food. So very thankful that health flourishes in presence of light.

Let’s let health happen.