My Love Affair...With Food

Today is Labour Day in Jamaica and my dearest friend and Guest Author, Clara Brown, is teasing me about the breakfast she is having as she is off work. Why? She knows that I love food, especially that of my country of birth.

I am a very passionate person – and food is one of my greatest passions. My weight and yes, my health status have told that tale very well. However, in the last few years, I have managed to maintain a more healthy weight relative to my height and structure.

Image: wallpapersshop.net

For 16 years, I lived with someone who loved to cook. I too love to cook but my then partner actually wanted to cook professionally. Soon after our migration to Canada, that dream came through with entrance into a culinary school. For almost two years, I was the guinea pig for various recipes, old and newly developed. My waistline protested but my mouth delighted in the delicacies coming out of our kitchen.

Food has been a comforter to me. Now, my relationship with it is changing. I no longer “live to eat” but “eat to live,” and my health is grateful. Low carb meals have become a way of life for me. Since January 2014, my diet has been centered around and challenged by finding suitable and tasty low carb options for my sweet and breading loving taste buds.

At Clara's for supper - November 2013

It is simply another stage of the journey, one that I am enjoying. Now back in Canada, a wider variety and a more international array of food options are open to me.

What is your relationship with food? Any special dish that you really love to cook? Share them with us here or on our Facebook page. Do follow us on Twitter as well.

Have a fun weekend exploring the food of your neighbourhood!

Blessons Along The Way

How many times does Life have to knock you down for you to finally get it? Are some experiences easier to learn from than others for you? Which are the hard ones - relationship, financial, career, health?

In my case, health was and to this day poses the most challenge. The 'plagues' of diabetes and hyperthyroidism visited my house over two decades ago yet I remained in denial. Weighing in at 200lbs then losing 80 in a month were not signals enough to me to get a grip on my health.

My mother had diabetes and, with time, every related and imaginary ailments. My father died at 40+ from complications of diabetes that were escalated by his alcoholism.  None of this meant anything really to me as they both modelled "the art of ignoring" very well.

"Blesson" is a word coined by Karen Salmanshohn and it is one that has become very meaningful to me. My blesson regarding my health was dispensed about two years ago when a short man of a physican stared me down  called me a "coward" and wrote a prescription for insulin! I really am not fond if short men but that is fodder for another past. Never dare me or call me a coward - someone must havd told him. Snitches!!!

The moment of my first self-injection was the turning point. Since then, another short physician came into my health journey  (is there a special medical school for short men?) This one is an endocrinologist and he has me doing things and eating in ways I never imagined.

Not there yet but I am much closer to an ideal for me body weight. My diet and eating habits have vastly improved in quality and quantity.

I love food - as evidenced by today's focus on our page at www.facebook.com/daughtersofsheba.  Most types of food and dishes I will try at least once. Now, however, I eat to live and my life and this journey are so rich and fulfilling without needing to endlessly and obsessively count calories.

What about you, what has been your blesson in food, dieting and/or your health in general? Do share with me through the comments section, on our Facebook page or on Twitter @DOSFoundation.

Have a blessed day!