Page 8 - Living Aloha Magazine January February 2017 Issue
P. 8
e v ol u t i on
of Eating Healthy
by Liah Howard
I haven’t always been someone who eats This period was followed by getting married, having
healthy. I was raised in the days of TV dinners on four children and wanting them to be as healthy as
trays, sitting in front of Gilligan’s Island in the TV room possible. I call this the tofu stage. I put tofu in almost
with my three siblings. Good nutrition and eating every dish I made and packed tofu dogs in the kid’s
healthy may come easily to some, but for the rest of us lunches. I felt proud to be raising 4 vegetarian children
it may be a gradual progression of steps. in a society full of carnivores. Tofu and dairy competed
for my attention. Our family favorites, after tofu, were
My family rarely visited or spoke during dinner. bean and cheese burritos, and macaroni and cheese. To
Commercials were reserved for running into the this day none of my four grown children will eat tofu!
kitchen to get more milk. For variety, we would have
canned SpaghettiOs, or Campbell’s soup with grilled I was, indeed, pretty ignorant about healthy
cheese. Healthy wasn’t a concept that entered into eating. Fortunately for my family, I began teaching
my mind when eating. The goals were good taste kindergarten at the private
and ease of preparation. school that my children
attended. The school was part
This changed when, at nineteen, I took a class on of a spiritual yoga community
values clarification. The instructor had us assess what that provided healthy
our values were by looking at where we were putting vegetarian food. Things like,
our time and energy, and considering what was most brown rice, steamed veggies,
important to ourselves. I realized there was a huge fresh salads, and homemade
contrast between my desire to be healthy and the breads and soups were offered
food choices I was making. every day. Suddenly, my Good
spectrum of healthy foods had
Many of my peers were making their own granola, many colors and textures and nutrition
yogurt and growing vegetables to eat. The “hip” thing my kids were exposed to a new
was to be a vegetarian. I wanted to be doing these sorts way of eating. They loved the can be a
of things, but instead I was eating junk. So, at twenty healthy new foods and so did I.
I became a vegetarian . . . and started consuming vast gradual
amounts of dairy, wheat and sugar. This phase was, This period was followed by progression
perhaps healthier than the processed food, but it was divorce and the craziness of
still essentially lacking in nutrition. single-parenting four children. of steps
Time became limited, money
8 FEATURES Living Aloha | JANUARY–FEBRUARY 2017
