Graduating Seniors and Food Freedom Later this month I’ll be speaking to the Healdsburg High School seniors as part of an event hosted by Healdsburg Rotary. The seniors have named it “Freedom Day; Some Assembly Required.” They are excited about the freedom they anticipate once they graduate. I imagine it’s also a little scary.
It’s easy, as an (ahem) experienced adult, to focus on how much responsibility gobbles up freedom; but that’s not the point. What’s important is that these bright stars are getting ready to enter the wide world in a new way. It’s a heady time when the world is open before them and it can feel both exhilarating and overwhelming.
I’ll be talking to the seniors about making healthy food and lifestyle choices. Food freedom is not as easy as it sounds and it’s not about eating whatever you want. The allure of foods that are fast, cheap and tasty is mighty tempting. Something as simple as a Starbucks Carmel Frappachino and blueberry muffin can add up to over 900 calories. Imagine how a series of mindless fast-food choices can add up over the course of a day (I’ll have a lot of fun with this in my talk.) Getting hooked into crazy food choices is not food freedom; it’s just reacting to the food environment.
Manufacturers spend big dollars on research so they can design foods that you can’t stop eating. When I was researching the calories in a bag of Doritos, I found a blog discussion about their addictive properties. My young grandson can eat a whole bag of Pirates Booty. This is no accident, foods are engineered to have just the right balance of sugar, fat and salt that makes them impossible to resist. If you aren’t paying attention, you can find yourself with an empty bag and barely remember eating the contents.
True food freedom is when you make conscious choices about the foods that fuel your body. With conscious choice, you can still eat Doritos; but you‘re likely to choose them less often and to eat a smaller portion. You are also more likely to get more enjoyment from what you eat because you are paying full attention. There is a big difference between making conscious choices and eating until the bag is empty just because it’s there.
Another paradox with food freedom has to do with planned meals. Some of my clients are creative, spontaneous people who think that planned meals are too restrictive. Yet they find themselves driven by food. It is on their mind constantly, they don’t like the choices they make, and they don’t feel physically well after eating.
At first it may be hard to see the freedom in planned meals, but look again – it’s there. When you know approximately when and what you will eat, it frees you up to concentrate on other things. As I type this, I know what I’ll eat for breakfast and lunch today. I also know I won’t be starving this evening when I start making dinner.
You can have some sort of structure around meal time, and still be creative with it. You can change your mind at the last minute, but at least you have a starting place. If you come up with an even better idea, great! Having a loose structure makes grocery shopping easier, which means you have healthy foods available. It takes the pressure off meal preparation when you have a plan and have the ingredients you need.
How much food freedom do you have? Do you make conscious choices and feel comfortable with the choices you make? Do you enjoy what you eat, and find a good balance between healthy fuel and indulgences? It’s up to us: as adults we have both the freedom and the responsibility to choose well. No one can do it for us.
Be thinking about the young people in your life who will soon be making their own decisions. What are the things that will help them organize their lives in a healthy way? Let’s do what we can to ease the way of the next generation so that they can enjoy healthy habits and an overall sense of wellbeing? Good luck seniors!
Kathy Nichols is the Healthy Habits Coach. Kathy blends her background as a registered dietitian with life coaching to help you create healthy and sustainable habits. Contact Kathy at 707 431-7524, Kathy@HealthyHabitsCoach.com or www.HealthyHabitsCoach.com. Blog: www.HealthyHabitsCoach.wordpress.com |
