Food

Re: food. I’ve struggled in the past (as recently as yesterday evening) to eat in a good way.

Oh. My. God. There is SO much involved with eating in a good way. A least it seems that way to me at this point. I’m defining eating in a good way for myself as consuming excellent quality food, grown in a sustainable way, treated sacredly by all who touch it, bought & prepared by me or someone with a similar mindset that celebrates nourishment, nutrition and pleasure from food. Eaten in a peaceful way with gratitude, enjoyment and community as often as possible. I’m grateful today to even be able to state that definition of eating in a good way for myself. Here are just some of factors that I think about.

I like to try and know what foods are best for me, my individual body, as it exists in this moment. And it changes day to day, hour to hour sometimes. There are so many schools of thought, theories, ideas about body types, blood types, and ways of eating. Which ones make the most sense to me? It’s shifted often over the course of my life.

I do my best to discern what brands/versions of those foods are best to buy, where to buy them, how much they should reasonably cost. I’ve found that I must have a willingness to spend more money to buy great quality food. I must create the time to learn how to prepare it well and treat it sacredly. I must find a level of trust in the food companies/farms I choose to support that they are being honest about their practices and charging a fair price that supports ALL the people in their company fairly, but doesn’t further corporate greed & irresponsibility to our planet. To me, brand trust and integrity in the food business is hard to come by. I’m happy to pay more for a product that is truly superior, but it’s hard to know what is true and who to believe when some great products can’t pay for organic certifications or great advertising and some terrible products have amazing marketing teams behind them.

Then I actually need to go to a store (or several stores or a farmer’s markets or a website) and buy the food. And hopefully I’m not in a hangry mind state when doing this…though it happens more than I like to admit.

THEN, once I make a decision about what to buy and where to buy it, I need to know how to prepare or cook it. And how to cook it in the way that it retains the most nutrients. And what foods to combine it with so that I can properly digest it and receive the benefit from all the nutrients.

And sometimes, despite my best efforts, beautiful produce can go bad in my home before I can find a way (or the motivation) to cook/prepare and eat it. Ack! Forgive myself. Try to do better next time.

Some days overwhelm leads me to just give up and order take out, even when I have broccoli and kale and kimchi and sauerkraut and eggs and other things in my fridge. But some days (like today!) I am able to just make some decisions and buy the food, cook the food and eat the food.

That’s my new mantra: buy the food, cook the food, eat the food. It’s pretty obvious and silly, but so helpful for me. I was on a juicing kick recently and I needed to recite the mantra: buy the veggies, juice the veggies, drink the juice. It’s so helpful to find the moment to stop thinking about it all so much and just do it. I have a lot of compassion for myself because the area of food and eating has, in the past, not been simple or easy for me.

I know I’m not alone in this struggle. I’m interested in finding ways to make it easier for all of us all the time. I wish that it was easier to make healthier choices because we were only presented with healthy choices in stores & restaurants. I wish all fast food restaurants could just sink down into the center of the earth and be recycled into something more sustainable. I wish learning about our body types, healing properties of whole foods and studying ancient wisdom of food & nutrition was taught in schools. I wish a lot of things…

I’m mad that so much cheap, unhealthy food exists everywhere. I’m pissed off that so many grocery stores are filled with food that has terrible nutritional value, tons of sugar and so many preservatives. I’m disgusted with the diet industry, so much false marketing/advertising that preys on our fears & body image struggles. I am happy that this seems to be slowly changing and I wish it would change much faster.

Why can’t our government subsidize the transition of food companies that make crap into food companies that make healthy products in a good way instead of bailing out banks and old, outdated industries & corporate conglomerates that don’t support or make any sense for the future of our people on this planet. I am happy there are so many better, healthier options right now, in my lifetime. I’m also constantly overwhelmed by them and how and what to integrate into my life in a practical and meaningful way.

Today, so far, I’ve taken the time to make some great choices. I drank some want water with lemon when I got up to hydrate my body after sleeping and stimulate my digestion. I made some genmaicha green tea. I love the toasted brown rice flavor. I carefully washed and de-spined some lovely kale that came in my CSA box. I sliced it thin and massaged it with some amazing raw Alive Coconut Oil. Then I sauteed some garlic in coconut oil and threw in the kale. After a couple minutes, I made space at the center of the pan for 2 organic, farm fresh eggs. Once they cooked a bit, I stirred everything together with some spicy wakame ginger kimchi, added some pink sea salt and fresh cracked pepper, patted myself on the back and called it breakfast. Yum.

The great news is that in my experience, good choices often lead to more good choices! I’m always doing my best and making room in my life to do a lot better if I can.