Cheers to Your Health

The last time I wrote I was in complete denial. I knew that my body was fighting something, but to what extent I was strangely oblivious... I spent that Saturday night staying up late and drinking a couple beers, only to spend a long eight hours tossing and turning with cold sweats, waking up to a full-blown flu.

So often in our Western society we take things for granted: food, shelter, freedom. And, as the saying goes, we never really truly grasp what it is we have until its gone. It's not easy to keep things in perspective - to realize as your eating breakfast that somewhere in this world your peanut butter toast is a delicacy, or to remember as your huffing and puffing about your distant parking spot that you should be so lucky to even have a car. Such, of course, is the case when you get sick. It is the ultimate reminder - the ultimate kick in the ass - that HEY! you've got a body that's mostly healthy! Keep it that way!

Laying flat on your back for five days with head-to-toe body aches and a fever sure renews your appreciation for the body's normal state. And it also reminds you - in an almost terrifying way - just how inextricably linked you and your body are. Without it, quite literally you are nothing.

Thinking about all this, and having been downright giddy the past few days thanks to my rejuvenated health, has stirred up thoughts about food and exercise and how horribly unhealthy so many of the habits in our culture really are....

In a culture where virtually every social activity and holiday is connected with food, we certainly have a lot of garbage in our grocery stores. Aisle after aisle of over-processed crap, void of any nutritional value.

My diet changed dramatically in early 2006 when I worked as a prep cook at Perelandra Natural Foods in Brooklyn Heights. Responsible for baking the daily vegan muffins and chopping the veggies for the homemade soups and salads, I was introduced to qunioa, soba noodles, agave nectar, seitan, and the unbelievable capabilities of tofu, which produced everything from delicious stir-frys to vegan cheesecakes.

My dear friend and the head chef there once said something to me that has been burned into my brain: "I don't eat really well because I'm scared of dying someday. I eat really well because I don't want to spend the last 20 or 30 years of my life suffering from poor health."

I think of those words whenever I catch myself overdoing it... and after spending a week horizontal, they ring truer than ever.

Personally, I have grown addicted to how good food makes me feel. Eating fresh fruits and vegetables and dishes made with whole, hearty grains and pure, additive-free ingredients makes my body run like a well-oiled machine, which - in turn - positively effects every other aspect of my life. And after spending much of my life with an unhealthy, out-of-whack relationship with sugar (read: serious binge-eating) I have finally struck a balance with my sweet tooth.

After gaining confidence in myself and reading the book French Women Don't Get Fat (a fascinating read!) I've decided that not only can I have sweets, but I can have some every day as long as 1. I have just a little taste and 2. it is real, pure, and high-quality. And I'll tell you what, it works so well and I have been so spoiled with my household stock of delicious, organic dark chocolate, that I barely flinch when someone offers me a Snickers or an M&Ms... why waste the calories?

Anyway, every body - no matter how healthily tuned - gets sick. But how often and to what degree can be drastically altered by what we put in out tummies. I'm ecstatic to be well again... and have promised myself that I'll continue to eat as well as I know how. I certainly don't want to spend my last years on this planet feeling the way I did last week!