For all the time, effort and many years I have spent studying nutrition, some of the greatest lessons I learned didn’t come from reading the latest and greatest, not from my doctoral degree in nutrition from the University of Florida, nor from my years of practicing as a registered dietitian. My greatest teacher was my mother. She set the perfect example of how to create healthy balance in your eating - effortlessly. Here is some pure and simple, practical advice that will cost you nothing.
My mother was 5'3" and 110-112 pounds soaking wet – and she ate everything. I am not exaggerating – anything that was put in front of my mom, she would try. She never followed a diet in her 83 years. No high protein-low carb regimen, no diet for your blood type, no cookie diet and no cleanse.
Her diet was about no extremes, but room for everything. If she came to your house for dinner, she embraced and welcomed whatever you were serving her. But she rarely cleaned her plate. When she had dessert – which was almost always – it was just a little. She was truly in touch with her hunger and satiety. I witnessed this, and I tell you there was nothing that was not permissible in her diet. Her relationship with food was comfortable and intuitive – it was really something to observe – like watching a master musician or a great athlete master their game.
So you may be thinking – she probably was really lucky and also had good genes. While this certainly plays an important role in the picture of health and diet, I have to say that perhaps genetics and lifestyle are not so far apart. From my experience in working with all types of nutrition issues and people, the majority of those who are successful have consistent good lifestyle habits regardless of their genetics.
It reminds me of something my friend and lightweight Silver Olympic medalist boxer, Pernell Sweet Pea Whitaker (ranked in the international hall of fame as one of the 10 best boxers in the last 80 years), used to say to people when people would ask him what he did differently to be at the top of his sport. Sweet Pea trained at a small family run gym called Wareings Gym – my home away from home growing up in Virginia Beach. He used to say, “No doubt, I am a lucky, lucky man – but it is a funny thing about luck – the harder I work, the luckier I get!"
My mother had gone beyond the point of "working" at it. She had turned a simple discipline into a mindless habit. She wisely understood that moderation is a joyful effortless place to live. When everything is available, then the power of the forbidden no longer exists. In other words, certain foods become less intriguing because they are permissible. You start to find that just a little of anything is actually really satisfying. You start to understand and feel how much you really need. Or more importantly, how little.
I am not saying that this is something that everyone can master as easily as my mother for many different reasons. But getting back to the basics is a good, free place to start – and we live in a world where food is readily available. So if you start to practice just a little, you may be pleasantly surprised. You may start to get a glimpse of not just how good, but how much better good health feels.
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| Vicki Sullivan, PhD, RD, LD |
