Yes, these are all the results of foods/beverages that we think we are rewarding ourselves with because it has been a good or difficult day and yet the opposite is true- we are punishing our bodies, minds, brains, following workday/day off by what we are ingesting.

Now wait, am I being judgmental or being scathingly honest? Unfortunately, scathingly honest.  I’m Sicilian. Food was the center of our universe growing up.  Celebrations, funerals, get togethers, Sunday danishes at the local bake store, Candy from 7-11 when we would get the Sunday paper, butter sitting in the glove compartment when we would get the fresh warm bread from our local bread baker (yes, really, my parents would bring butter with us for once we got the fresh mini loaves of Italian bread in the car). When we are younger, we do not notice too much when foods affect us negatively-or t least when we were kids, there weren’t as many foods that did this in the early ‘70’s. Now it is much more common for children to be noticing the negative effects of food but as parents sometimes we dismiss it and modern medicine today simply gives them a pill vs. gong deeper into the seed of the cause of the issue.

I am digressing. How do you feel, really feel after having a nourishing, whole food meal? Full? Satisfied? Energized? How do you feel after a traditional Thanksgiving meal-turkey, bread dressing, mashed potatoes and gravy, green bean casserole, rolls and butter, ham, sweet potato casserole with marshmallows, pumpkin pie, and apple pie with whipped cream? Naptime, indigestion, buttons popping, time to loosen the waistband?

This is what I am talking about with Nurturing Yourself with Nutrition. Do you deserve to be in pain for the second half of your life because that is what happens as you get older? Aren’t you supposed to get diabetes, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, high triglycerides, gain weight, have hot flashes, unexplained weight gain, IBS, GERD, A FIB not caused by heart defect, PE, and ED, as you get older? That is what we are led to believe.

I had no idea at 16 yeas of age, when I was diagnosed with hypoglycemia, that I was about to embark on my Food For Health Journey. Our family doctor was wise enough to plant the seed in my brain and soul that sugar is my enemy, food is my friend. The nurturing foods- proteins, complex carbohydrates, fruits, and veggies. He told me that if I wanted to keep my pancreas running, I needed-for hypoglycemia, if you have high sugar you need ONLY 3 meals a day-to have 5-6 small meals a day to keep my sugar balanced.

People are under the impression they are to eat AND snack every day.  NOT!!! Just because we are adults does not mean we are to enable our inner child at every turn.  MY bestie sends me these TikTocs of a woman and her inner child.  They are hilarious and true. What has happened tour self-discipline? The world stops and we are supposed to nurture our inner child by indulging our every whim to be “happy”?  How fleeting are these indulgences? About 15 pounds, higher A1C levels, need new clothes and have to learn new coping mechanisms fleeting.

I can say all of this because I too had my moments of indulgences and experimented with them to see results. And I circle back to IT IS NOT WORTH IT!

I DESERVE BETTER AND MORE IN THIS SECOND HALF OF MY LIFE.

And so do you.  What are you going to do to NURTURE  yourself through NUTRITION  for this second half of your life?