I've spent most of my morning trying to change my header to look more Brady Bunch-ish. Crazy, complicated tricks out there and none of them worked right. I finally just uploaded what I wanted as a photo and it worked! It's sort of lop-sided, but it will have to be good for now :). So, ta da! I can write again.
Now about the eating. I was thinking this morning about all the foods we associate with celebrations. We have cake and ice cream for birthdays, hotdogs and hamburgers on the 4th of July, cookies baked and given at Christmas time and Valentine's Day. But I'm not even talking just about holidays -- it's the over all mind set of "Let's celebrate by eating!"
I used to do it every Friday afternoon (just about now, in fact). I'd pick up the kids from school at 3:00 and think, "What should we eat when we get home? It's time to celebrate the weekend is here!" We'd either stop at the store and buy ice cream, or go home and bake cookies. Or we'd order pizza every Friday because it was Friday night! When I started really trying to control my sugar intake, I found this habit very difficult to break. I would see it happening each week. But it's Friday!!!!!! I'd want to find SOMEthing sugary to sit and devour with my kids.
At school it's a tradition for kids to bring in cupcakes when it's their birthday. Everyone loves it (except for the teachers who have to deal with the "sugar high") and the birthday child feels special because he/she treated the rest.
We have parties or gatherings or even just meetings at church and people feel like there needs to be "refreshments." I completely understand the love of eating things laden with sugar, but it never was refreshing for my body. I don't know how we've gotten so far away from enjoying food together that's actually helping us instead of continuing to add more toxins to our bodies that are causing so many problems.
I don't want to sound like a party pooper in any way, but I've been trying to think of how to remedy this besides looking like a party pooper. I've gotten past the embarrassment of never eating what everyone else is celebrating with (I used to stress about this and think everyone would be mad at me if I didn't eat what they'd made). It would be nice if we were all celebrating in a healthier way -- whether with fresh fruits & vegetables (see, I even lost myself on that one -- as soon as I wrote "vegetables," I thought, "That doesn't sound like any fun :)).
Sure, there are many healthy desserts to make -- especially the raw ones (I'll post the mango pie recipe sometime soon). I'm just wondering if we'd feel as joyful inside celebrating without food nearby or if the definition of "treat" just changed.
I'm not sure how I got over my Friday habit -- how I stopped heaving that big *SIGH* that the week was over and we were sliding into the weekend -- time to celebrate! I do remember it being really difficult to fight the first month or two though. Now it's been a few years and I don't even think about it anymore. I haven't had birthday cake for myself in years, but that's probably mostly due to the fact that I don't really care for cake. I usually still buy ice cream for the kids who eat dairy and Soy Delicious for me and the ones who don't. It would just feel bland without even doing that. Maybe in a few more years, we'll be eating green smoothies together (I do love those more than the Soy Delicious, actually) and will think it's just fine. If I'm still blogging by then, I'll let you know.
Now about the eating. I was thinking this morning about all the foods we associate with celebrations. We have cake and ice cream for birthdays, hotdogs and hamburgers on the 4th of July, cookies baked and given at Christmas time and Valentine's Day. But I'm not even talking just about holidays -- it's the over all mind set of "Let's celebrate by eating!"
I used to do it every Friday afternoon (just about now, in fact). I'd pick up the kids from school at 3:00 and think, "What should we eat when we get home? It's time to celebrate the weekend is here!" We'd either stop at the store and buy ice cream, or go home and bake cookies. Or we'd order pizza every Friday because it was Friday night! When I started really trying to control my sugar intake, I found this habit very difficult to break. I would see it happening each week. But it's Friday!!!!!! I'd want to find SOMEthing sugary to sit and devour with my kids.
At school it's a tradition for kids to bring in cupcakes when it's their birthday. Everyone loves it (except for the teachers who have to deal with the "sugar high") and the birthday child feels special because he/she treated the rest.
We have parties or gatherings or even just meetings at church and people feel like there needs to be "refreshments." I completely understand the love of eating things laden with sugar, but it never was refreshing for my body. I don't know how we've gotten so far away from enjoying food together that's actually helping us instead of continuing to add more toxins to our bodies that are causing so many problems.
I don't want to sound like a party pooper in any way, but I've been trying to think of how to remedy this besides looking like a party pooper. I've gotten past the embarrassment of never eating what everyone else is celebrating with (I used to stress about this and think everyone would be mad at me if I didn't eat what they'd made). It would be nice if we were all celebrating in a healthier way -- whether with fresh fruits & vegetables (see, I even lost myself on that one -- as soon as I wrote "vegetables," I thought, "That doesn't sound like any fun :)).
Sure, there are many healthy desserts to make -- especially the raw ones (I'll post the mango pie recipe sometime soon). I'm just wondering if we'd feel as joyful inside celebrating without food nearby or if the definition of "treat" just changed.
I'm not sure how I got over my Friday habit -- how I stopped heaving that big *SIGH* that the week was over and we were sliding into the weekend -- time to celebrate! I do remember it being really difficult to fight the first month or two though. Now it's been a few years and I don't even think about it anymore. I haven't had birthday cake for myself in years, but that's probably mostly due to the fact that I don't really care for cake. I usually still buy ice cream for the kids who eat dairy and Soy Delicious for me and the ones who don't. It would just feel bland without even doing that. Maybe in a few more years, we'll be eating green smoothies together (I do love those more than the Soy Delicious, actually) and will think it's just fine. If I'm still blogging by then, I'll let you know.
cute cake! <3
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