Food

There it is. Food. Something I have struggled with all my life. My eating patterns were highly scrutinized and I admit to using food as my rebellion at different times in life. Oh yes, I will eat a brownie. Oh yes, I will put a whole bag of chocolate chips in the cookies when I make them. There were lots of food rules and I probably broke them all.

I could talk about how food is tied up in the whole body image/weight issue too, but I really just want to talk about food. I've always had to think about it, either because of my own food issues or because of trying to meal plan for my family. Have to admit: I love feeding people. I don't like the planning and shopping part, but I do get a lot of satisfaction from having people over and feeding the. I'm a pretty good cook when I have the time to do it.

Working full time has put a serious dent in my limited ability to plan, shop for, and prepare food. We started eating out too much, and I started buying quick-to-fix food for when we did eat at home. We ate in front of the tv pretty often because the table was usually covered with papers and homework and incomplete projects.

Food was out of control.

Last August, I knew it had to change when Caleb was diagnosed with Type 1 Diabetes. Read carefully: what someone eats does not cause Type 1, but it is vitally important in managing it well. One of the hardest things about re-entering life after his hospitalization and diagnosis was the very well-meaning people who would give me information about how we could cure Caleb's diagnosis through diet.

Type 1 has no cure and isn't caused by what you eat. Please remember that.

Anyway, Caleb's nutrition needs plus my own feeling of being out-of-control has led me to reevaluate the role of food in our life. I've already mentioned E-mealz.com and how helpful it has been. Another resource that I would encourage all of you to check out is an upcoming television series, Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution. You can watch a preview episode at Hulu or catch the 2-hour premiere Friday night on ABC. The preview episode focused on school cafeteria food, and so does Fed Up With Lunch: The School Lunch Project. I know that not all of you have children who eat school lunches, but mine do. That was one of the first things I wanted to change when Caleb was diagnosed, but he desperately wanted to continue eating in the cafeteria because it was a normalizer. When your whole world changes, you need something to make you feel normal. I couldn't take that away from him.


Tomorrow will be Food, Part 2: Books for the Battle.