Wellbeing Starts In The Kitchen
THIS thought changed my approach to eating forever 💖
I grabbed my iPad and headed to the kitchen. It was my favorite time of the day.
See, for me, making dinner for my family isn’t a chore. Instead, it’s a chance to meditate. For me to get in tune with who I am and what I want to put out into this world.
I pull everything from the pantry and refrigerator: eggplant, couscous, an onion, a handful of spices. I slice. I mix. I pour.
The smells waft from the pan. I stick a spoon in, carefully blow, taste.
“Mmm,” I hear not only from deep within, but intuitively, from the pan. “This is where wellness starts …”
And I know it to be true.
You can’t go fast …
I had a conversation with a friend who had recently celebrated a BIG birthday. A lot’s changed in her life, and she was giving more time to her eating habits. She’d been progressing towards plant-based for some time. But now she was ready to go all-in.
“I’ve had great results so far. I want more. How do I bring plant-based quickly into my life starting now?” she asked with excitement.
I smiled and looked into her eyes. I remember this stage well. Slow down, I replied. Take it slow. Take it one day at a time. Just remember this is the start of the rest of your life.
Sounds almost counterintuitive, doesn’t it?
You’re ready to go plant-based. Why not go all-in?
It starts with habits.
Imagine, for a moment, a pantry filled with all the things you love or that make your life easier. Boxed dinners. Packages of cookies. Sauces and condiments galore.
But you’re moving to plant-based – you swipe it all into the trash, go shopping, and restock your kitchen with new.
Then you have a particularly rough day. You just want comfort food – your comfort food – whatever that means to you.
You go looking. It’s not there. You head to the store. (Or pick up the phone.)
Because in your heart, you’re attached to old food, old ways. You haven’t developed a new pattern. That takes time.
Plant-based is a practice. It’s a journey, not a destination. You can’t suddenly BE plant-based as if it was a place to be.
Instead, it’s something to strive for. To reach out and learn what it means.
Plant-based should just be nutritious eating
I wish there weren’t a need for “plant-based.”
I was walking with a friend recently. It was a warm morning, and we’d walked in the open sunshine for about a mile. A small puddle had formed off the side of the path, and his dog lapped at the water, looking for relief. “They say dogs can smell good from bad. I trust his judgment,” he said as we waited for him to finish.
Animals in the wild are known for intuitively eating. They instinctively know good from bad. They avoid things that will hurt them, take in medicinal plants when needed, and eat what helps them.
If humans ever had that, we lost that centuries ago. With so much opportunity at our fingertips, we eat what tastes good, not what’s good for us. And Big Ag and Big Food have taken advantage of the situation, creating more BAD food than we should have.
Even what’s “good” is being modified and changed to the point where it’s unrecognizable compared to what our grandparents or great-grandparents ate.
Plant-based isn’t a diet or fad. It should just be about healthy eating. We eat real food that’s good for us too.
But that’s all off the table, thanks to almost 40,000 different products being on the shelves of the average American supermarket. Most of it is made from ingredients we can’t pronounce and definitely shouldn’t be consumed.
But here we are …
We’re go-go-go, constantly looking for ways to quench the hunger within. We’re hungry. We go through the drive-thru to satisfy that urge. Quick. Fast. Get it done. Check it off.
And that’s led us to where we are today. Life is run by checkboxes. Where’s the enjoyment? Where’s the sensuality?
Because that comes when we take time to move into each day. We don’t have to know what’s going to happen to start. We wake up and carry on. Dealing with every minute as it ticks by.
We can and should make choices. Be present with what we do. Erase appointments from the schedule to allow things to happen at their pace. Take it slow.
It doesn’t have to be plan-plan-plan. Some things are better off moving forward with one small task each day.
Go to lunch with a friend. Take off the watch. Who cares how long you’re there sharing in each other’s moments?
Want dinner? Head to the garden and pick something ripe and full of life. In a pinch, walk into a great market and select something from the produce aisle. Then contemplate – what can I do with you today?
How will you make me feel?
I feel it.
Women across the globe are changing rapidly. We’ve learned a lot in these past few years.
To ask better questions.
To dig deeper for the answers.
To say YES to truly important things.
To push aside things that no longer matter.
I found myself nodding along as I read a new-to-me Substack this weekend. Kirsten Powers writes on living authentically. In her essay Living In Survival Mode, she states:
Chronic stress keeps you in a trauma response — fight, flight or freeze. Your body never gets a break because you are always on high alert and living in survival mode. The chronic uncertainty and anxiety naturally leads you to overwork so you will have the resources to survive.
This is a very primal state. You know that if you fall, society will not catch you. (Though you will be given the opportunity to amass credit card debt that will follow you for the rest of your life thanks to criminal levels of interest)
As I briefly touched on last week, most people who overwork will eventually burnout. At this point, functioning becomes almost impossible as your body and mind have been maxed out.
You are running on fumes.
Yes. How many of us identify with that? I know I do.
Burnout is real. And it’s growing, growing.
I feel it in everything.
Maybe it is in the conventional way I moved through life, checking off boxes on my mile-long to-do lists. Always striving for more.
Until I was reminded that maybe, just maybe, there is something more.
Wellbeing starts in the kitchen …
I feel it when I slow down.
Maybe that’s what the kitchen is doing for me. What it’s done to generations of women before me.
I grab a tomato, fresh from the garden. I slice. I place it lovingly in a bowl.
I follow it with cucumbers, green peppers, a little garlic. Olive oil. Sherry vinegar. Salt and pepper.
Marinade for the day. Blend it up for a gazpacho dinner I can’t wait to eat.
I focus on quality. I focus on flavor.
I focus on nutrition. I focus on what it will do for my health. For my family’s health.
Health is the one thing many of us take for granted … until we no longer can.
Maybe that’s what we figure out in midlife. Why we look at life through different eyes.
We’ve seen more. Witnessed more. We know how fragile life really can be.
And one thing is for certain: Nobody will care for our health as much as we can for ourselves. Maybe we figure this out too, as we navigate the aisles of the market, looking for good things to buy.
We don’t have to accept the status quo. We don’t have to do as they say.
We have choices to make. We can create a better system simply by asking for it.
And slowing down to experience it, one great ingredient at a time.
It’s time to focus on better eating, better food. We can find the Gorgeous bounty right here, waiting for us to consume.
Make today the day you opt for REAL food. You’ll love what it does for you.
Happy Eating!
Lori
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