My Personal Superfood

We live in a  society that wants everything right now. From Keurig coffee machines that will brew a cup in less than a minute to iPhones that allow the user to make purchases simply by scanning your fingerprint. With all of the things we try to cram into our already busy day, we're always looking for ways to take shortcuts in order to get what we want faster.

The subject of health and diet is no exception. There are more ways to obtain food quickly than we can put a number on. Whether its fast food chains, precooked food you can take home from the grocery store, or simply going out to eat to save the time necessary to cook a meal, Americans have a plethora of choices when it comes to food that fits into our busy lifestyle. The problem with living such a busy life is that it denotes we eat food that fits into our timetable instead of food that promotes our well being. Our health becomes the victim, fallen by the wayside. Because of this problem, countless adds pop up on our electronic devices stating "Try this new diet pill that will shed pounds a day," or "Find out the one food to never eat in order to lose belly fat." Having a degree in Nutrition Science taught me the truth beyond the numerous diet fads out there. You can't solve the root of a problem by only treating the outward manifestations.

Eating a healthy diet is a lifestyle choice. I do it because I want my body to perform at its best, the way God intended it to. I want to be able to participate in the activities I love and feel good doing it. I could go on and on about how important it is to eat a healthy, well balanced diet, but instead I would like to focus on the most important meal of the day: breakfast!

I didn't always eat a well balanced breakfast. It usually consisted of coffee and a bowl of cereal, maybe a piece of toast for a little variety. Basically the main food group I was eating from in the morning was grains. By the time mid morning came around, however, I was starving, leading to snacking, usually from that same food group - grains (crackers, more toast, etc). Even though I was aware there was a problem with the meal starting my day, I ignored it. Combine this problem with hereditary digestive issues, inherited from my mom, it turned into a problem that put me in the ER one beautiful Sabbath morning, in extreme amounts of pain, mentally kicking myself (because I sure as heck couldn't physically do it at that point) for being so careless with my diet. I won't go into details about the exact medical condition I had, but if you really want to know, email me and I'll share it with you.

After that I decided my diet needed a change, and it needed to start with the first meal of the day. I began making fruit shakes. It started on a whim, just to see how it was, and it turned into a staple of not only my morning meal but also Adam's. Adam and I are no exception to the typical busy American couple, so it is difficult for me to make the time to eat at least a cup of fruit, yogurt, and orange juice separately, in addition to my beloved coffee and toast. I found the answer to my time and digestive problems in those fruit shakes. I vary the ingredients depending on what I have available, which in the winter is usually more frozen fruits than fresh, but a few things I add no matter what: bananas, yogurt (greek for extra protein, if I can get my hands on it), blueberries and orange juice.

We were given a bag of fruit that was getting ripe faster than it could be eaten, so this morning's shake turned out especially delicious and pretty.

Ingredients:

2 Fresh Bananas (can use frozen)

1/2 cup blueberries (fresh or frozen)

1 apple (I peeled it but you don't have to)

1 peach

1 nectarine

4 strawberries

1 6 oz yogurt (fruit flavored or plain)

3/4 cup fresh baby spinach, 

a dab of our very own raw honey (of course!)

and enough orange juice to cover it all almost to the top

It turned out delicious! That one large glass of fruit shakes gets a lot of fruit, protein, and even a little veggie into my morning meal, and its oh so good. :) I have also added flax seed meal for a little extra fiber, but the shake alone does wonders for my digestive system. I have a friend who has also discovered the benefits of shakes for digestive health, so I encourage you to try it. Its worth the effort and expense I assure you.

Chef for a few days

Out of all of the things I dreamt I'd be doing as an adult, I never thought that running a kitchen would be one of them. No, your right, I don't run the kitchen, yet. But for a few days last week, I was one of 2 people in charge while my boss took off for a few days. She let me know well in advance that she'd be gone, and took special effort to make sure I was comfortable with the menu she planned for those days. We did as much prep as possible before she left. It was a crazy week last week. Her leaving just happened to coincide with the drama at work upstarted by hurricane Irene. Since Bennington's water supply was cut off along with route 9 on Woodford MT., the whole town was on conservation. This meant not using the dishwasher much, using paper plates, and unfortunately, boiling water too. Even though the water was not stated as contaminated, the big boss was concerned that it might be. Lots of boiling ensued.

On Wednesday, we had a particularly exciting event. Someone got word from a Green Mt. Express driver that town water was being shut off in 20 minutes. (The time of this news was 5 minutes before we were to serve lunch). 5 women came running into the kitchen in panic, shouting, "They're shutting the water off in 20 minutes! Fill every container you can find with water to flush toilets." As an adult day facility, BPI has its many bathrooms in use constantly, so flushing toilets was a must.

Serving lunch was set aside, as we joined the panic to hog water. 15 minutes later we were told that the information was bad. Our water was not being shut off. Thus, we didn't need to fill all the containers. Annoyed and stressed, we looked around at the trash cans, buckets, tupperware's, and many other containers around us now full of water. So much for conserving!

This also happened to be the day before Maggie planned to leave, so I was absorbing as much as I could of everything she told me, feeling more and more bogged down by the cares of the week. I went home that night and typed out a detailed list of everything I had to do the next day, by time and importance.

Thanks to a lot of prayer and good planning on Maggie's part and mine, Su (the other kitchen help) and I managed quite well. We also had Rich to help us, so that was good too. Things went very smoothly, and we didn't hear any complaints. ;)

For only working at BPI a little less than 2 months, I've gained a great deal of knowledge about what food service does, and how a dietitian would serve in that role. I'm working in a different capacity, but am still learning a great deal. The work can be stressful at times, but all in all, it is enjoyable, and I love the people I work with. Its a great place, and a great organization. Its a good feeling to be serving people and the community in general. I'm happy I stuck with nutrition, as this is just the beginning of what I hope will be an exciting career. :)