A Shout Out To Seniors

I love my senior clients. They are full of wisdom and they tell it like it is. You would think that when you hit a certain age, you should be able to eat anything you want. I wish that were so. How you eat is important at any age, but as we get older it's even more vital.

Unfortunately, eating well is not on the priority list as we get older. I hear this anthem over and over from senior women: "I cooked for 40 years and I'm tired of it, it's just easier to eat out." Wonder if I will say that one day? Mind you, I don't have a large family to cook for, so cooking for one to three people is not hard. Maybe I would feel differently if I had to cook for more than 3 every day. Anyway... as seniors become more carefree and leave their kitchens for restaurant meals, it really effects their health. Let's face it, you can't eat a meal out for less than 1500 mg of sodium - and that's just one meal out. I won't even bore you with the fat, cholesterol and additives in restaurant foods. Our "golden years" are supposed to be about relaxation, fun and adventure. That's not going to happen if you eat out constantly. It's no wonder that most of us have to take more medicine as we age. You can't blame every health problem on the aging process. What you put into your body and how active you are makes the biggest impact on your health. Think about that if you know a senior who has been put on a third blood pressure pill or a second diabetes pill. That could be less likely to happen if activity goes up and eating out goes down. Dare I even talk about the pot lucks????

Every Once In a While

How often do you do something just every once in a while?
“I only eat ice cream every once in a while”
“I only eat steak every once in a while”
“I only go to the buffet every once in a while”
“I only eat candy every once in a while”

I hear these phrases all day long. Maybe we should add up all of our “once in a whiles”.

In the dressing room

So I was in the dressing room at Old Navy (my fav inexpensive clothing store) several weeks ago. I overheard a mom and her daughter in the room next to me. The daughter was frustrated trying on clothes as everything seemed to be too small. Mom was doing her best to not upset her daughter. I was waiting for it... and then it happened. The daughter called herself the dreaded "fat" word and mom said what so many moms have said before - "You're not fat honey, I just want you to be healthy". What's wrong with that you ask? Nothing really. It's actually the word "healthy" that has started to bug me. When you tell your overweight child that you just want them to be healthy, don't you think that most kids, if they hear it enough will soon associate the word healthy with being thin. I'm not saying that we should call overweight kids fat by any means. It just seems that the word healthy gets thrown around a lot. There are a lot of thin kids that are not healthy. I just don't want kids to think that healthy means thin - because it doesn't. If the daughter decided that she would only eat salads to fit into clothes better, that would not be healthy. So, we are all worried about self esteem in our daughters. Maybe rather than saying "I just want you to be healthy" when discussing weight, how about a different approach. How about "Lets find you a better style and size of clothing." This could imply that its the clothes fault and not the daughters fault. You know what I mean? What do you think??