Change

Many years ago I had an uncle who was fond of saying, "I love change, as long as it's the other person who is changing."  All these years later I tend to use that phrase often and infused with the humor and underlying truth of its original user.

As many of us do, I have come to a point in my life where I must change.  I must change the way I cook, the way I commune with my food and shed the addiction I have to "fast food".  Those of you who are also addicted will understand what I mean.  It's not just fast food, but what comes with it that I tend to add to my home cooked dishes.  I add far too much salt and fat. It's my guess that some of us are just more prone to such things, such addictions.  Who knows for sure?  What I do know is that either I beat it or it will beat me, right into the ground.

I would be hard pressed to tell you the last time I served a vegetable dish as even a side dish.  Here at our house our main meals consist of a meat and the other half of the plate will be taken up by a starch, most often white rice.  My spouse is Filipino and white rice has been a must at 98 percent of our meals and I do mean breakfast, lunch and dinner.

So here is the new adventure and the change I've been strongly hinting to.  I will begin to post about what I will call "Life Food".  By Life Food I mean food that is not overly processed and filled with chemicals and other things we simply don't need and in the end do us harm.  I like anyone else want to ease into the second half of my life with my mind and body intact and I'm sure that the things we put into our bodies plays an enormous role in how we age and how healthy we are during that journey.  There'll be no fad diets here, no fake Mayo Clinic diets or any other such craziness.  What I will tell you about is something that all those who sell diet plans, books and other methods don't want you to know -- It's all about paying attention, it's about being mindful of what goes into our mouths and what we are doing while that food goes into our mouths.  In its simplest terms I'm talking about portion control and better healthy choices.  That's all it is people.  The idea is simple -- however as I well know putting it into practice is not.  Our food addictions and over-eating are hard to break.

So for this first post there will be no recipe or lovely photo of what I just cooked up.  Only this missive of what is to come.  I hope you join me in what will be a difficult journey for me -- stay tuned.