Being Healthy in a Nutshell

Recently I heard a few radio ads that said something like, “We know, it’s hard to eat right.” I remember hearing someone say years ago that she had no idea how to eat right. I had the same internal reaction to both: “Really??” Shelves are packed with books on how to be healthy (healthful is the correct word, but I’ll stick with ‘healthy’ for now), but I don’t think we need 300 pages. Just a refresher.

It’s not that hard. I’m going to attempt summing it up in a nutshell based on life experience, unaccompanied by statistics, calorie counts, or microbiology.

The nutshell is in bold. Read the rest if you want to…

Buy fresh foods THAT YOU LIKE that recently came out of the ground.

If you fill the bulk of your fridge and pantry with fruits, vegies, beans, grains, nuts, and seeds that you LIKE, you’ll have plenty of options when you make a meal. As the meal preparer in our family, I know what a thing it is in this modern culture to think every single day, “What should I make for dinner?” That simple obstacle messed me up for years. If I work the other way around, making sure I have a fridge and pantry full of healthy foods, I don’t have to dream up dinner every morning or afternoon beforehand. I can wing it every night working with what I have. For me, the hardest obstacle in doing this is the cost, especially on an island. Produce these days is exorbitant, and I often leave the store lacking ALL the things I really wanted to buy. Not to mention the amazing, fresh, organic fruits and veggies that are grown right here on Orcas but cost an arm and a leg. (No offense to the growers; they have to earn properly for what they do.) I rarely buy any of them, even though I would like to stock up on them all. We don’t go to the mainland often, so when we do, we have temporary abundance thanks to sale prices, but we eat through all the bursting fruits and veggies in a week or two and make due as inexpensively as possible here until we can’t take local prices any longer and go again. When buying food, avoid the processed stuff as often as possible, since the companies that make them are not thinking about your health; they’re thinking, “What are the cheapest ingredients we can combine with synthetic flavors to make people keep buying our stuff?” Don’t believe what companies say about how healthy their products are for you – just read the ingredients and see if they come from actual fresh foods you recognize. One thing that’s processed but differs widely depending on how it’s made is bread. Bread was seen as evil in my family growing up. I love bread. I’ve always embraced bread. If I eat it daily, I go for a version that’s the closest to the ground as possible – Silver Hills organic sprouted bread from the Co-op. If I’ve prepared myself to splurge and spend more, I get my FAVORITE – a loaf of toasted sesame sourdough made by local Endswell Bakehouse at Island Market. On another note, often, typical American dinners that require a lot of daily thinking and nightly preparation cause you to cook fresh, nutritious foods to death and fatten them up adequately for your family to love. Restaurant meals aren’t sustainable, either. Have you ever set out to make your favorite restaurant meal at home? I’ve often realized to my horror how much sugar or heavy cream is required to make it, and I can’t stomach it anymore.

Make time to have meals – healthy meals don’t have to take much time.

It took me 30 years to realize that I was probably hungry every single day in high school because I didn’t eat breakfast. I wasn’t hungry at 8 AM, so I skipped breakfast. But by 10 AM I was ravenous, and by noon hot lunch at school was never enough. Then I did sports after school, so by dinnertime I could eat a bus. I REALLY needed a filling meal at 10 AM, which was impossible as a high schooler. At least now I know that my main hunger times are 10 AM and 3 PM. What an epiphany it was to realize that if I eat at those times, I feel balanced all day and never even care about eating dinner. That still doesn’t fit in with any schedule in our culture, but at least I’m aware of it. Sometimes I get in the habit of skipping meals if I don’t have time to make healthy ones. That’s a bad practice. I’ve realized time and again that I’m better off eating something early in the day even if it’s as simple as an apple with peanut butter than bonking from hunger in the afternoon and spending the next meal or two trying to make up for it. If you have to make something quickly, try to include foods with protein and fat that will give you sustained energy. This culture has told me for decades that fat is the enemy, but I disagree. I TRY to eat foods like avocados, certain nuts and seeds, and eggs when I’m in a hurry because I trust in having some natural sources of fat. Eat carbohydrates alone and you’ll be hungry all over again in an hour. These days, I find one of the biggest obstacles to having regular mealtimes is having too much going on in our family life and too little time to prepare food here and there. I’m loving the myriad post-COVID events happening again – sports, classes, choirs, concerts, lectures, potlucks, etc. – which I often find more fulfilling than food. When we book too much, though, I realize all too well that the inability to have time for simple, quality meals is unsustainable for our family’s health.

Make healthy meals you love eating.

I grew up getting an education about food without anyone ever explicitly talking about it at all. After years of observation, I realized that in my house, healthy foods were seen as an unfortunate necessity and rich foods were seen as fun. In high school it dawned on me that I really liked healthy foods – the textures, the flavors, and the way I felt about eating them. Being healthy and fit has also always mattered to me. I want to be able to hop up and do any sport any time. I want to feel strong and able. I want to look healthy and shapely enough to eat in such a way that makes it so. The more health matters to you in a deep, lifelong way, the more interested you are in eating healthfully through the years, not just for a month when you’re feeling self-critical. And why eat healthy foods you dislike? That won’t last more than a minute. Eat the ones you LOVE. I always indulge in every healthy thing I love, and there’s no result to fear.

Enjoy the act of eating your meals.

If you’re reading or texting while eating, you won’t be present. You won’t ENJOY eating. There’s something really basic and important about knowing we’re eating and enjoying it. If we miss the meal we just ate, we might have to eat all over again to psychologically take in what we missed the first time we physically ate. Especially if you’re indulging in something, be mindful and present so you can enjoy every bite.

If you love what you eat, you’ll only feel like splurging every now and then.

Make sure you DO splurge when you feel it, or you’ll start craving what you’re wanting PLUS a lot of other things to try to fill that need. Because I love bread, eating a few slices of sourdough dipped in olive oil and salt is a favorite thing of mine here and there. I’ve realized I don’t care about any other treat more than cookie dough, so I keep it in the fridge at times. When I crave cookie dough, I eat some. It’s that simple. Because I don’t restrict myself or beat myself up for doing it, I never feel like eating the whole container. I go for months without needing cookie dough in the fridge, and then I’ll feel the need, buy some, and have one or two spoons on days it calls to me. Find the ultimate thing you love to splurge on, and enjoy it now and then when you want some of it.

Limit processed sugar, added fat, highly processed flour, alcohol, carbonated drinks, meat, and dairy.

Omit them altogether if you can do so enjoyably. Otherwise, go lightly with them. Our culture says meat and dairy are daily necessities. They aren’t. The milk and cheese industries tell you that calcium from dairy is essential. It isn’t. Meat and dairy are hard on the land, hard on animals, and not great for our systems in large quantities (and arguably even small quantities). Our culture says alcohol is a great way to look cool, deal with difficulty, and release inhibitions. Embrace your individuality, face your fears, walk those dark valleys of the soul, and be who you are without a catalyst getting you there. I walk dark valleys without alcohol or any other substance thanks to my siblings, who taught me through their harmful choices that its “help” is a farce.

Avoid diets – period.

All you need to know that diets don’t work is to have grown up surrounded by a mother and sisters who spent their lives dieting. Thank you, family, for teaching me this vicariously: Diets are a joke. If you aren’t interested in healthy eating and living for the rest of your life, accept now and forever that dieting for a month or year isn’t going to work. Severe restriction will only make you pine for every last thing you didn’t allow yourself to eat once it’s over, and that leads to eternal yo-yo-ing. One of my relatives is convinced that she should not eat fat at all, so she doesn’t. That is extreme. I think there is some root in her that believes in severe restriction for its own sake. Be brutally honest with yourself in assessing your eating tendencies and beliefs, and also assess whether you’re really happy about changing your eating habits for life or just temporarily dieting again. My mom did so many diets and “life plans” whose ups and downs ultimately had no net change that, in desperation, she told me one day about a pill she was going to start taking in order to “finally” be thin. I BEGGED her not to. I told her how much I loved her as she was, and that losing weight in her early 70s was only going to result in a heck of a lot of loose skin sagging all over the place – would that look better? I feared what that synthetic drug could do to her in other ways as well. Aside from flawed cultural mores, the problems you have probably aren’t about food, it just gets stuck in the middle. Is it low confidence? Trauma? Loneliness? Lack of belonging? Lack of touch? Self-judgment? Dig deeper to find the real issue. In the meantime, learn to love yourself for the simple fact that you are a conglomeration of millions of phenomenal processes all working together each and every second, and that your body is a miraculous gift to you. You need not resemble Gisele Bundchen just because Vanity Fair tells you so in the checkout line. Love the wonderful, individual you that there is no one else like on this planet of eight billion people. Give yourself permission to be a happy, confident person that looks just the way you look NOW, and go out and take on this world!

Eat dinner foods for breakfast.

I love breakfast foods because they are dessert. But they never give me sustained energy or brain food. I don’t know why we have assigned our first foods after breaking our nightly fast as pancakes, sugary cereal, crepes, muffins, etc. Want to feel really strong and balanced all day, mentally and physically? Start the day by eating your leftover yams, rice, and green beans from last night. Or fill some lightly browned corn tortillas with scrambled eggs, black beans, and salsa. Done. Now you won’t get hungry an hour later. How grounding it is to start out the day balanced and fulfilled, not slightly frazzled with hunger as the day goes on.

Walk 75 minutes every morning – period.

Sounds too easy and simple, even boring, right? Not the excitement of windsurfing or the endorphins of running? Well, are you out windsurfing or running every single day? Or even once a week? Probably not. Walking is something you can do CONSISTENTLY, not to mention dirt cheaply. You can do it without any gear except comfortable shoes. You can do it alone, with friends, or with your dog if he or she can keep up. And it’s something your joints and bones will agree with through the years. About 20 years ago, I noticed a friend of mine was always in amazing shape. She always looked great in a swimsuit. One day I asked her what she did to stay fit. “I walk fast for an hour every single day.” What?? That’s it?? Yep, that was it. But she had abs. She was cut. What about push-ups? Sit-ups? Planks? She said she did a few floor exercises now and then, but walking was what she did consistently, without fail. Being an on-again, off-again runner, surfer, kayaker, aerobics-doer, triathlon-trier, and gym-hater, I knew in that moment that I had found my answer to consistent fitness. No limitations due to equipment, weather, location, motivation, etc. I’ve been a daily walker ever since then and I can tell you that it has served me well in every way. I always feel strong, I always feel like I can go try any sport without hurting afterward, and I enjoy counting on knowing how I will exercise every day. I also fully enjoy the time to myself and the time to be in beautiful nature. It can even feel indulgent to pause and watch eagles soar or stop and observe turkey communication in a culture that tells us our worth comes from being as busy, efficient, and productive as possible all hours of the day. I began tutoring an hour earlier this school year, causing me to miss my 19-year habit of a morning walk for the month of September. Doing it later in the day just didn’t happen – it felt funny to take 75 minutes of the afternoon to walk; there were other things that felt more pressing in the midday; I was stiff from sitting and uninterested in walking in the afternoon. My body thrives on walking to start my day after lying down all night. Waking up just to sit in a chair feels wrong. I figure I missed out on 80-100 miles last month, and I can definitely see and feel the difference. I also realized that my brain is used to doing a lot of processing during my walking time. I’m a little bored for the first 5 minutes each day, but I don’t predecide that’s how the entirety of my walk will be and allow that to stop me, because I know my brain goes into a creative and processing flow-state for the rest of the walk after that. I don’t force any thinking, and I always come up with some of my best ideas when out walking (or I read books filled with great ideas while I walk if I need more mental stimulation). Why 75 instead of 60 minutes? I find that 75 catapults me into MUCH better shape over time than 60. Once you have a habitual routine that serves you as well as walking does, you won’t easily give it up. And it IS so EASY. I often wonder why so few people walk. It’s bewildering. I think it’s because our culture doesn’t promote what’s easy and simple when it comes to taking care of ourselves. It’s like there’s some secret workout we’re supposed to find that changes our lives. Not so. The “secret” is to find something that you CONSISTENTLY ENJOY and do it every day because you like to.

The more you sit, the more comfortable it becomes to sit – that’s when you know you need to get moving. The more you keep moving, the more you WANT to keep moving.

That sums it up.

If you’re busy all the time, sitting down is hard, but stop and sit down now and then – your brain needs time to process and your body needs times of rest.

Being a busybody equals stress. Some people thrive on stress, but at times you still need to sit down and just be still. Enjoy it. Think. Space out. Listen to the songbirds and the crows; look for the Cedar Waxwings. Cuddle with someone in your family. Your body needs times of rest during the day; your brain needs restful moments to think in different ways too. My body is never in a state of important, deep calm if I am physically and mentally buzzing from daybreak to bedtime every waking moment. And boy, do I love that important, deep calm. It’s like I can hear my systems whispering “thank you” back to me.

Sleep a lot – period.

Oh, how sleep fixes our ailments of all kinds. Of course it does – it’s the body’s time to recover in every single way. When I don’t get enough sleep, my memory, vision, hormones, muscles, and joints suffer noticeably the next day, and I’m much more prone to injury. I’m a night person. Everything in me tells me to stay up – I’m super creative and productive in the later hours of the evening, and if it were healthy I would happily go to bed every night at 12 or 1 AM. It takes a lot of willpower for me to go to bed before 11 PM. Modern conveniences like electricity tell our bodies to stay up at night. Modern culture doesn’t value sleep. Again, sleep is one of those things that is so simple in healing us every single day, but that’s too easy for our modern, complex culture. We think sleep is negotiable. It’s not. Then we look for “secret,” ancient ways of healing our (sleep-deprived) ailments. Hey, I have an ancient idea – sleep all night. I know how amazing I feel on the rare nights I go to bed around 10 PM; I often awaken refreshed at 5 or 6 AM. My mom used to say that every hour of sleep before midnight is like getting two. I believe it completely. I know from experience that if I don’t go to bed early like that, I need a solid 8-9 hours a night or I haven’t gotten proper rest. The problem is, even on a Saturday with no plans I can’t sleep in if I want to. Rising early in the morning with children for so many years has trained my body to awaken early despite my attempts to sleep in. I basically HAVE to go to bed before 11 PM if I’m going to count on 8 hours. A difficult reality I have experienced is the less I sleep, the less I’m able to sleep WELL. If my body never gets enough rest to finish its rejuvenating work each night, the results down the road may be cumulative and irreversible. Conversely, the more hours I sleep each consecutive night, the more I’m able to sleep deeply and lengthily each night. If you’re sleeping 5-6 hours a night (especially after midnight) and craving carbs during the day, reconsider your bedtime. Your body is craving energy, and not the kind that comes from food.

Drink ample water.

It took me a long time to realize that when I crave sweets even after getting plenty of sleep the night before, I’m actually dehydrated. Try drinking a big glass of water next time you crave something – you may be surprised that you’re totally fulfilled afterward, and it may dawn on you that you’d forgotten to drink water lately. Water also keeps me regular. My regularity can usually be traced directly to my intake of water. It doesn’t seem to matter how much fruit I eat (and I am a fruitaholic!); I can eat 30 plums a day during plum season and there will be very little difference in my elimination patterns. I do not like to skip a day, which is a natural tendency for my body, so that keeps me motivated to hydrate with water. Personally, I drink only water, smoothies, and the occasional glass of juice. I don’t drink coffee (why train yourself to require a morning stimulant for energy when you can feel energetic all the time on your own?), tea, soda, fizzy water (it’s bad for your teeth, and bad teeth already run in my family), or alcohol.

Do things you love to do and spend time with people you love.

I’m almost convinced that you can do just about everything “wrong” in the nutrition and activity areas but if you’re happy, optimistic, and fulfilled, you’ll be better off than most people in the end. Live out your passions. Check off your bucket list. Write the play you have in your head or sing that song you love to sing in the talent show. Do what you were put on this earth to do. Orcas Island is the kind of place where you can turn all your dreams into reality. There’s no time like the present. Surround yourself with people you love and who love you. If you don’t have any, start being around people in some capacity (frequent a coffee place, volunteer somewhere, be a mentor at the Funhouse, get a side job, attend a church, join a group – choir, chess, anything – Orcas has everything) so that you can know and be known by others. Food issues often form to fill gaps left open by a lack of prospects and a lack of closeness. Sit down right now and write out your dreams. Then write a list of the people you love to be around, and call them soon to get together. Love, joy, and fulfillment do more for us than we can ever imagine.

There is a big difference between knowing things and putting them into practice. THAT’s what gets in the way the most sometimes. While I don’t live these out perfectly (who does?), these are what I aim for in a daily way through life, and I am generally happy, full of energy all day every day, and very content with who I am. I do not write this article to imply that I am the epitome of health. I write it in case sharing what I’ve experienced helps in any way. If it’s pretty ho-hum stuff that isn’t new, feel free to dismiss it.

The photo shown is a meal made at the Island Bound opening party at Orcas Center celebrating local food, art, and farms.