Rah, Rah, Radishes!

April Pulley Sayre has new book out this summer: Rah, Rah, Radishes!: A Vegetable Chant It's a lot of fun and we shared with our Pisgah Storytimes this week. Our theme was food fun and we (Lyd and I) threw in other food stories: Night of the Veggie Monster by George McClements, Little Pea by Amy Krouse Rosenthal, Herman the Worm, the poem, "Oh, I'm Being Eaten by a Boa Constrictor" by Shel Silverstein, and songs "There are No Bananas in the Sky" and "If All of the Raindrops were Lemondrops and Gumdrops." We had kiddos in the groups that liked pizza, hot dogs, hamburgers AND VEGGIES!

I headed back to Weight Watchers this summer. I'm a lifetime member that falls off the wagon and it rolls back and forth over me a while . . . then I finally climb back in the wagon! It's been great to get back to journaling my food intake. This really makes me THINK about WHAT I eat and HOW MUCH I am eating and WHEN I am eating. Adding the GFY@Home idea of HOW I FEEL has been a new twist for me--focusing on WHY I'm eating. We do talk about that at WW, but I haven't concentrated on it as much in the past. I will eat when I'm HAPPY to celebrate, or TIRED and SAD and LONELY to comfort--I have used food or abused food in the past and not just eaten for fuel. WW works for me because I have a budget of how much food is appropriate for my body, and I can spend the points as I want, following WW's healthy food guidelines.

Our family is paying attention to foods that are organic and locally grown. I like the GFY@Home comment on the bottom of page 58, "With greater awareness, we can make more empowered choices." I think that's what it's all about--learning about the best, most healthy choices and then making those choices more times than not! Moderation is a good strategy--at the top of page 58, Dr. John Doulliard's Perfect Health for Kids is referenced: "The habits we follow the majority of the time are the ones which set the tone for our lives."

So my "food journey" is another powerful connection for me with bringing yoga and children together. When I put together my mission statement, I will have to include this piece. It's been an elephant in the room for me most of my life, and I'm looking forward to sharing how I've eaten it one bite at time and now am managing more balance and achieving peace and happiness with my relationship to food and moods.