How Your Friends Make It Easy to Be Healthy: Quitting Chips, Adding Veggies

May:  Cutting Down on Chips & Adding a Fruit or Vegetable to Each Meal

This is a diary of the healthy lifestyle goals that my son, Chris, and I are making together each month…

Chris’ Experience

Chris is a busy actor in New York.  He’s always working and travelling around the big city.  Since he is not home much, he has to find food on the run.  He was finding himself eating a whole bag of chips at a time.  It was something that he could easily pick up while passing stores when he got hungry but had no time for a meal.  In May, he decided he had to stop eating so many chips!

I had often noticed that I was not getting the five or more fruits and vegetables that we are supposed to have every day.  I decided that now was the time to do something about that. Continue Reading

Health Goal Diary, Lifelong Health

How Your Friends Make It Easy to be Healthy: Cutting Down on Pizza & Wine

He cut down on pizza; I cut down on white wine

March:  Cutting Down on Pizza & Wine

This is a diary of the healthy lifestyle goals that my son, Chris, and I are making together each month…beginning with the story of how it all started.

Every year, even though we are not religiously Catholic, my son and I tell each other what we are giving up for Lent.  I was raised that way, so I kept the habit.

My son, Chris, is now an actor in New York.  Although he lives far away now, we keep in touch by phone between visits.  We missed the start of Lent this year.  When we began discussing our diet downfalls, it was just a few weeks before Easter.

When Chris and his sister, Kari, were growing up, I had a strong network of support from other moms.  Someone suggested putting on music, lighting a candle and having a glass of wine when cooking dinner every day.  That became my way of making food in the spirit of love for those I was serving.

I still have that habit.  I quit my beloved red wine because I discovered that it made my skin break out, but I replaced it with white wine.  Even though I never liked white wine, I still couldn’t seem to break the ritual of having a glass of wine every evening. Continue Reading

Health Goal Diary, Lifelong Health