Food and Nutrition Conference

Allison watched my kids so I could attend the annual food and nutrition conference. I love going to this conference and finding out the latest research about nutrition. Whenever I go to these academic events I feel like I'm so out of it. I would love to take a class but don't know where I'd find the time. The first guest speaker was the Food Nanny. I had never heard of her before. Her claim to fame is getting families to eat dinner and she does it by planning meals around a theme and she has a cookbook and a show on BYU. As I listened to her I thought to myself, lady you are speaking to the choir. We all do this and really who doesn't. Is planning a menu really such a novel idea? It's something I've always done and my mom and so on throughout the generations and here is this lady making big bucks off it. I bought her cookbook and the recipes are so basic and seem bland. I haven't made anything yet so I may be being too judgmental. I guess I'm just ticked that she's making money off something I've always done and it got me thinking about what are things that I do that I've always done that the general population doesn't do. I'm still thinking about that one. With my menu planning I started planning out all the meals and snacks and the kids love knowing what we'll be eating all day long. The only problem is that the kids hold me to it and there is no deviating from the menu unless I want to be met with a lot of crying and whining. When I got back from Georgia it took about a week for me to get back into the swing of things and Sam came to me whining one day holding an old menu and asked when I was going to make a new one. It is very comforting to him.

Another keynote speaker talked about passion and told us to find out what our passions are and that a passion isn't something you have to be good at but it's something that gets you excited and giddy. I've thought a lot about that. What are my passions? I would have to say one is getting a good deal and saving money. Nothing gets me giddier than getting something for free or close to it. Another passion is food. I really do enjoy cooking, baking and experimenting and sometimes it doesn't always turn out very good but I still love it. I think being on a budget and cooking for kids who don't appreciate good food has dampened this passion a little. Another passion I have is sewing but not just any sewing. What really makes me giddy is making costumes. I think part of it is because I know I'm saving money by making them and they are usually awesome. I love seeing them come together piece by piece and Neil gets to listen to me gush for days while I'm making them.

So back to the conference. I went to classes on different cooking methods like Vietnamese, gluten-free cooking, high altitude cooking, knife skills and others on eating disorders, sports nutrition, food additives and fad diets to name a few. Sitting in the fad diets class was like a slap in the face. I just don't believe in diets. I think it has to be a lifestyle change and if we listen to our bodies we will naturally arrive at our ideal weight. I'll never forget that Neil decided to lose weight for my high school reunion. For two or three months he didn't exercise he just listened to his body. He only are when he was hungry and really hungry at that and he got down to 139 or was it 129. I can't remember. He actually was almost too skinny. Look at kids. They eat when they are hungry and when they're full they're done. I used to be so good at this. I would only eat if I'm hungry but over the past few years I've ignored that signal and overeaten for many reasons and I'm now the heaviest I've ever been. So going to this class was a great kick in the pants. January and February and half of March I did so good at exercising and then the kids lost my exercise dvd and I stopped. After this class I've picked it back up and have been doing good again. I still have a hard time stopping when I'm full but I'm getting better. I checked out a book from the library called Intuitive Eating that the presenter suggested. It's been a week and I still haven't had a chance to crack it open. I'm dying. So both Neil and I are trying to change our behaviors to becoming more healthy.