Friends?

Talking with a young waitress yesterday got me thinking about who determines what we eat.

This woman was eating food that she knew wasn't good for her because "going out to eat with friends, it was easier."

She used to be a vegan, then a vegetarian, then she added fish and each "add" to her diet was something she knew, in her heart of hearts, wasn't good for her.

What voices in your head or what people at your table determine what you eat?

My mother used to say, "Eat your bread." And it was delicious bread, Challah, a Jewish twisted egg bread that she would buy on Fridays for the Sabbath. She increased her order from the Hilltop Bakery in North Bergen,  NJ from 2 to 3 loaves because on the way home from the store, I would eat about half a loaf.

Who knew at that time that the flour and gluten in the flour would make my stomach blow up and look 6 months pregnant, every week? Not us! I ate the bread because it tasted good any my mom liked me to eat bread. Maybe she liked me to eat bread because she ate bread.

Although still delicious, I don't eat that bread anymore, not only because of the bloat but because I don't want to waste calories on something that is bankrupt nutritionally. What about you?

Do you hear voices from your past urging you to eat this or drink that because it was a family tradition, or it was part of great family social times?

It's time to replace those voices with new ones. Who are your nutritional role models? Don't have any? Then get some. Read. Check out: www.hacres.com  or another good blog: www.dailyraw.com

No meal is worth me having to "diet" for a week. That means if I am with friends or family, and they eat a steak that smells wonderful, or eat cheese cake that I know is delicious, or drink alcohol that I know hurts them, I will sit quietly and remind myself why I don't eat or drink those things. It takes too long to recover and
the yo-yo cycle of eating those things and then detoxing is a lot of trouble and not worth it.

Where will those people be if I am in the hospital suffering from a heart attack, a stroke, cancer, liver disease or other possible side effect of wrong eating? Where will they be? Even if they are at my bedside, they will not be in my body with me hurting, wasting away, struggling to recover. Only I will be there.

I don't want to be there. So self-control, awareness, vigilance and careful choosing will  keep me away.

Sometimes my husband used to come home from the grocery store with a few boxes of some sweet dessert and assert proudly, "They were on sale!" I always responded in the same way, "If cyanide were on sale, would you buy it?"

No, and h--- no!

Friends don't give friends cyanide. You give it to yourself. You have choices. Choose this day who you will please, the perception of what you think friends want, or what you know you should eat!

It's worth it.