Is this healthy?

Hey Friend! Summer break is almost here!!!! 3 of my 4 kiddos only have 4 more days of school this week - we are all focused on just powering through until a little more freedom and fun. In addition to a little work and a lot of pool time, I have a goal this summer. Learn how to become adept (not a master) of these:

Instagram made me do it.

I was never very good (at all) at roller skating growing up. Recently, I stumbled upon a reel of a woman who has taught herself how to skate over the course of the last year and I thought “I should do that too”. No clue why, but here we are. I love challenging myself to learning something new every few years (first personal training, then sour dough and baking, now skating 🤷🏼‍♀️). I’ll keep you posted on how it goes!

Now for the main reason for my message to you today. I have a request that seems trivial, but I believe it matters. Stop referring to food and healthy (or unhealthy) and instead, refer to it as nutritious (or not so nutritious). Why? Because choosing to eat things like a slice of cake or a doughnut occasionally is a healthy thing. It shows you know how to make all foods fit and you understand that one singular choice doesn’t completely undo your progress. It shows you are emotionally healthy in relationship to food - this is the key to permanent and maintainable results.

Now, is that cake or doughnut nutritious? Nah, but as Oli Overstreet says, “It’s fine.”

This has become important to me lately as my 7 year old daughter has started to ask me about food. I’m not sure where she learned it, but she will ask me “Is this healthy?”. She also asked me what a calorie is the other day because apparently she and her fellow first graders compare how many calories their lunch items have. When did this become a topic of interest for kids and WHY?! (answer: our multi-billion dollar diet culture). In case you are interested, a calorie is a unit of energy. If something has 200 calories per serving, it provides you 200 units of energy. One step further, when you consume more units of energy than your body needs, it stores that energy for use later (adipose tissue…fat).

The more you know. 💛

Your Friend,