Just prior to the launch of this blog, I was lucky enough to travel to Paris with my husband and two kids. For part of the trip, we were in the company of a woman who was only five years older than I, weighed well over 300 pounds, could barely walk and also on the verge of diabetes. I’m not relating this story to you to sound insensitive. I spent the entire time with her feeling worried about her future. She had spent a lot of money to visit Paris and was obviously in pain the entire time as she tried to move with us from place to place.
What I really saw was me in five years. So, I vowed at the foot of the Eifel Tower that I was not going to let this happen. This was the extra kick in inspiration’s ass that I needed to continue to manage my hormones by healthy living. Sometimes looking at others can be like a reflection in the mirror. For me, this means not letting food be the tipping point for weighing in at over 300 lbs on my 50th birthday and potentially not being able to share another trip to Paris with my husband and two children.
Speaking of the husband and two children. . . ack! Menopause management and clean eating? Ack. Veggies and children? Ack. How am I going to properly mange my hormones with two busy kids who only want to eat tortillas and cheddar? Oh, the extra challenge of having kids in your 30’s. Motherhood and menopause eventually crash right into each other and while my kids are my ultimate inspiration in life, they also present a number of barrios to my success.
Luckily, both of them like fruit and some veggies. That is a good start. But, I also need a reasonable strategy for our entire family. Working full-time and being the family shuttle only piles on the challenges of ensuring healthy, non-processed, quick food is always available to all of us. Busy menopausal management through healthy eating will be a struggle.
So, what is my strategy? It will start by focusing on the short list of what we do right versus the long list of the things we do wrong. Hope and positive thinking. Paris and inspiration. Peas and carrots – the two vegetables my kids both like. Two vegetables that will be the basis of teaching them to eat healthy for a lifetime.
Other positives –
- My daughter and I primarily eat vegetarian, husband and small boy warming up to less meat
- I decided a couple of years ago that I would strive to only provide organic and natural-sourced food
- Where I live (Boise, Idaho), there are a host of farmers markets and farms in the area where we can get fresh fruits and vegetables in the spring and well into the fall
- My kids understand the basic fundamentals of eating non-processed, GMO-free foods
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