My favorite lunch box

Tis the season of school lunches!  Just wanted to share a few quick tips for those who will be packing school lunches this year.  Even if you homeschool, take a lunch to the office, or have little ones who wish they could accompany big brother or sister on the school adventure, I recommend still packing lunches for everyone.  It helps save time during your day and gives healthy options if you should find yourself out and about and starving around lunch time.  I always pack some sort of fruit, nuts, and protein each day and usually stick to grain and dairy free options.  My kids always drink water in their kid-sized CamelBak's which are going into their third year of use (we threw away the straws...an unnecessary extra part to keep track of and we always have several bite-valve replacements on hand).

These PackIt Freezable Foldable lunch bags on Amazon are my favorite lunch sacks as they keep everything cold throughout the day and now feature a zipper closure and clip for easy clip-on to backpacks!  My kids were even trained (after lots of reminders) to unpack, fold them back to their collapsable state, and place back in the freezer after school so they were ready to go for the next day! They are easy to wipe out and come in all kinds of cute patterns!

By clicking on the links above, I will get a little kick back from Amazon if you make a purchase! Thanks for supporting a mom on a mission to educate others about making good nutritional choices!

What Do You Cling To?

"Whoever tries to keep their life will lose it, and whoever loses their life will preserve it." 

- Luke 17:33

In researching a similar quote, "You can only lose what you cling to," I found that credit has falsely been given to the Buddha when in actuality should be given to the Bible's Luke 17:33.  Before I discuss how this quote applies to nutrition, the misquoting that frequently goes on made me think of a Freakonomics podcast I recently listened to called, "The Idea Must Die" from Mar 5, 2015.  The podcast discussed all kinds of false ideas that have become mainstream like the idea of being "right brained" or "left brained" and how these ideas misrepresent fact.  Freakonomics podcasts are one of my favorites for the simple reason that they remind me that, "it's okay to think like a 'freak'" or to get more in touch with thinking more creatively, productively, and rationally instead of thinking what I'm told or what mainstream tells me.  After college graduation, I found myself surrounded with some of the US's most experienced Rocket Scientists during my first job with the USAF.  The most important take-away from working with them was to always ask, "Why?" or "Where is the evidence?"  These simple questions tie nicely into a very popular myth in nutrition called the "Lipid Hypothesis" that still has people believing that fat is BAD and that eating fat will make you fat.  You can always read "Know Your Fats:  The Complete Primer for Understanding the Nutrition of Fats, Oils, and Cholesterol," one of the required books in the Nutritional Therapy Practitioner Course I am taking this year.  Let's, however, get back to "clinging" and it's connection to nutrition.

Three important questions to ask yourself when wanting to make a (fill in the blank) [dietary] change:

1.  Do you cling to [food]?

2.  What evidence is there that you cling to [food]?

3.  WHY do you cling to [certain foods]?

These three questions are a very good starting point for anyone looking to make changes in their life when it comes to [dietary] habits or any sort of habit.  Food is one powerful habit forming substances out there as our lives depend on it for survival.  Excuses aside, there comes a point when unconscious attachment to the quality and quantity of food gets out of balance.  Hello disease!  We must start making more conscious choices.  Consciousness begins:

• in the grocery list you choose to write or not write
• the menu you choose to plan or not plan
• the item that you choose to put into your cart or walk by
• the thoughts about being (fat, skinny, good, healthy, lonely, loved) enough or not enough
• when you reach for one more cookie or mindlessly place food in your mouth during social events or in front of the TV
• in deciding you need that haircut to help make you feel better over paying a little more for locally raised grass-fed beef
• the stress of being able to pay for a cable TV bill or put that money into quality food
• whether you will get up 30 min early or sleep a few more minutes
• with that one last Facebook visit or not opening up the browser which = 30 min more sleep at night
• that latte at the drive-through or pushing through the afternoon slump with some lemon water

Time and time again, I see people cling to their [dietary] habits at the expense of their health and happiness.  I've heard countless people cling to a certain food item, saying, "I could never go without bread!" despite having no idea how good they could feel going without bread.  They'd rather take a pill, live a poor quality of life, and shorten their lifespan instead of trying a short stint of changing a habit to see if something as easy as eliminating a trigger food could reverse a certain symptom or disease.

You have everything to lose if you cling to your [food] habits and nothing to gain except living years of "I wish I would have..." resentful living.  Would you want to spend your days full of vibrancy seeing your grandchildren marry and start families of their own or maybe even be there for your spouse until the end?  If you are attached to nothing, you will lose nothing.  If you are attached to health, money, fame, possessions, a person, popularity, reputation, etc. your sense of self becomes hopelessly intertwined with the things that fill your life (food addiction included).  Could you give up soda, bread, milk, or pasta or even the idea that these things could actually not be nutritious? What can you go without and thrive because of it?  Go ahead, give it a try, you have nothing to lose!

The Venerable Sariputta once said, "Is there anything in this world whose change or alteration would arise within you sorrow, lamentation, pain, distress, and despair?"  To the irony of this post, I'd like to share that I cling to the idea that "You are what you eat" so much so that it has become my passion to help those who are "sick and tired" of feeling "sick and tired", to make a change in their lives by what they put into their bodies.  It brings me great despair to see people suffer from a limited knowledge or determination to heal naturally.  I personally will be working diligently to share the knowledge that I have with those ready for change, and to step back from those unwilling or ill-prepared for change.

God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change,

The courage to change the things I can,

And the wisdom to know the difference.

 - Reinhold Neibuhr