Food: Small changes can be big winners!

FYI - It is official, the crazy time before the holidays has begun. And the holiday season is off an running at full speed. I have elected to add a new hoop and food class to my plate before traveling at the end of the month to celebrate the holidays with my family. Why am I doing this now? Because this class has been in the works since I returned home from presenting at the Wahls Protocol Seminar last August. I truly love moving with people, seeing smiles and finding a way to work food into the conversation. Food really matters a lot. Interestingly, I think people THINK that food is easy for me. And truly in some ways it is easier now because a lot of the foods I once ate like bread, pasta, and even lots of deserts, just make me feel so bad that when I do choose to eat something “because it looks so good”, I am once again “physically” reminded that it is NOT good for me. I usually end up feeling uncomfortable, bloated or just sick. That usually cures me from running back to that food. I am not super human and I do have a few food items that challenge me. It’s a dance with some foods for me. I still challenge myself by forcing myself to, Think about that choice Amy. I do talk to myself and it slows me down from impulsively doing something I do not want to do! 

So the trick for a lot of people is finding out that healthy foods cooked in great ways - tastes good! And once you taste something cooked in a yummy way, it might even be something you could serve to your family and be confident they would try it and maybe even like it. Boiled green beans as a kid I NEVER liked. But now, green beans cooked the right way for me - I love them. I am still mastering how to cook these yummy beans myself. 

I think people basically KNOW that they need to eat healthy and that the adage, Garbage in - Garbage out, applies to the machine we live in: Our Body. Additionally I truly believe, You are what you eat. Sadly, many people want to eat whatever they want to eat and hope that drugs prescribed by doctors will solve their problems. And don’t get wrong, I do believe medications have their place and we have some very brilliant doctors in this world. However, I think the real question in a health crisis should be, What caused the problems? And, Can food help my recovery? I can only speak for myself and my story and this is how I approached it. 


I was a meat, pasta, white potatoes and bread person when I had my first significant attack of MS. In that window of time with an onslaught of tests and evaluations I viewed a TedTalk by Dr. Terry Wahls about about her recovery from MS and my world changed. Something triggered inside of me and I decided that maybe food was my answer. That moment in time when someone decides that food REALLY matters enough to start thinking about it, has to happen at a personal level. I don’t think it can be forced on anyone. However, as a cook for my family I think it can be assisted. In my house, when I cooked vegetables that didn’t taste horrible, my family started coming along with me on a food journey of their own. 


I won’t elaborate on their food journey - just that given a chance to try new foods; a vegetable, healthy snack or a main dish that they would not have tried otherwise, was convincing enough for them.  GREEN foods really did not have place in our house. My goal was to make vegetables taste good enough to put on their plate and have it be eaten. I added a food component to my new class for this reason. I hope that I just might help someone cross the bridge to making their own meals a little healthier. Because really, we spend a lot of time thinking about food, where to eat, what to eat, when to eat, and what to spend money on or how long will it take to make food or pick up food.  But if we are eating the Standard American Diet, we often don’t spend much time thinking about the quality of what we eat and how it is affecting our health. My hope is to nudge some people into thinking about healthy foods in new ways.


My journey started with smoothies - green smoothies and antioxidant berries. That was a change for me. And it had a radical effect on my body. I started loosing weight and feeling better - what an awesome combination. And I did this by drinking a smoothie for breakfast and lunch  and then had a paleo dinner. This was my starting place. I went from meat, pasta, white potatoes and bread to green foods at three meals a day and it was miraculous. It was a shocking transformation. So this is why I am sharing foods in the new year. I hope to move with more people and nudge more people towards yummy foods. And in my family I am always working to find new yummy healthy foods for them. And I battle the same issues so many people do when it comes to food and food prep, busy schedules, limited shopping time and low energy to create new food dishes/snacks. But now I am taking that last item - creating new food dishes/snacks and focusing on it. My New Years Resolution starts now…………………ready GO!