The 8th World Wonder: The FOOD Pyramid

So, Andrew and I are entering into a new phase of our life: watching what we eat. We've always been fairly health conscious. Andrew gets enough physical exercise for the both of us. I cook most of our meals... we rarely eat out. But after Andrew brought home some fish oil pills one day last week and I responded with "What is this? We need fish oil?" I realized it was high time I started researching. Sadly, my degree from Murray State did not include any nutrition classes.

Thus began my intense journey that led me face to face with the pyramid: the nutritional pyramid, that is. Have you considered what it takes to have a well-balanced diet? Okay, the grains (6 0z a day) I can do with ease. And the rest looks so simple on paper: 2.5 cups of vegetables, 2 cups of fruit, 3 cups of milk, 5.5 cups of meat/beans. But have you ever added up what you have eaten at the end of the day? It's not as easy as it sounds. You feel like you need to start adding broccoli to your breakfast menu.

And another problem we are running into with this whole health thing is money. I don't understand why the healthy items are the most expensive. I mean, $4.00 for 20 blueberries? Come on! That makes me want to go straight for the peanut butter for 80 cents! Anyway, we are trying and learning what works for us. My hope is that a well balanced diet starts to become a natural thing and I don't have to start stressing at dinner because I need to add 2 cups of vegetables and 3 cups of meat/beans to the meal. I also hope that we start to see an improvement in our our general health. I tend to be a pretty lethargic person by nature, and I'm hoping this will improve my energy level. We'll see! Other things we are adding to this "diet" are fish oil pills, one-a-day vitamins, and only drinking water with meals.

I know this was far from interesting, but if this works for us then hopefully it can be an encouragement. I don't think we have to starve ourselves to diet... I think the Lord created good food for us to enjoy, but like all things: in balance. I pray He gives us wisdom as we learn to treat our bodies better!