Welcome!
Welcome to the new Living Healthy in the Real World site! I have graduated from WordPress.com to buying my own domain name. Exciting indeed.
I also have a one-stop shop for Living in the Real World. It is an entry page from which you can access Living Healthy in the Real World, Living Rhetorically in the Real World, my Twitter page, and my Living Well column. Look around, check it all out, and let me know what you think!
Giveaway Winners
And the three winners of the POM Juice Giveaway are…
Mary: “OK, these are both gonna be sorta weird, but the first is a stir fry sauce. Pom juice, fresh grated ginger, garlic, soy or teriyaki, cayenne(cause I’m from the south) and a little cornstarch to thicken. Pour over fresh, stir fried veggies (I’m a vegetarian) delicious!!! Could also add tofu, chicken, shrimp or beef. Next, saute onions, garlic, chopped tomatoes. Add pom juice, cayenne, and arils at the end. Serve over wheat pasta – I could eat the entire pot (and am ashamed to say I have).”
Dia: “Am so enjoying that it’s pom season again! & like some of the others, I usually just score & eat a section or two straight from the fruit! I have thought of doing a spinach/arugula/lettuce salad for Thanksgiving with pomegranate seeds sprinkled over & a coconut/olive oil & raspberry vinegar (Plus Italian herbs & garlic) dressing . . .”
Westwood: “I like my pomegranates naked. Or as juice in vodka. Either way, I don’t like ‘em G-rated.”
E-mail me your mailing addresses and I’ll make sure your POM juice gets sent to you! I also expect to hear all about the glorious recipes you concoct from your winnings 😀
Non-Christmas Christmas and American Thanksgiving
Tomorrow is the American Thanksgiving, and all across the blogosphere it has been beautiful to see everyone write about what they are thankful for. I rather like that Canadian and American Thanksgiving’s are a month and a half apart; it’s a good reminder to continually be grateful on an ongoing basis, rather than just for a single day.
This year, my thoughts between the Canadian and American Thanksgiving’s have been gravitating towards how thankful I am for the positive influences in my life.
When I was younger I lived in Holland for a few years with my parents and my sister. This meant that we spent Christmas without any of our extended family. Because of this, when we came back to Canada, one of my aunts arranged to have a “non-Christmas Christmas” in the middle of the summer to make up for having not been together for Christmas while we were on separate continents. We all enjoyed the novelty of it so much that we began to do it every year.
We wound up celebrating non-Christmas Christmas this past Sunday rather than during the summer, this year. My sister is still traveling in Cambodia but the father dear is home visiting just for a couple weeks (hurray!), so he was able to attend.
Something that I have learned, particularly through talking with my nutritionist, is that I over-eat or restrict myself from eating when I am with negative people. If I feel as though I’m being treated in an unfairly poor manner, I turn to food to fill the void, either by not eating or by overeating. There is, as my nutritionist said, a very strong connection in my life between emotional love and food. I think that this is the same for many people, whether we’re consciously aware of it or not.
I have been working hard at eliminating negativities from my life and adding in positive people and ideas, and it is making a huge difference. I don’t need food to fill the void; I have people who do that. On our non-Christmas Christmas, I ate just the right amount, because I didn’t feel as though I had to compensate for emotional instability by eating copious amounts of food.
Although it can appear shallow, to be concerned during the holidays about how much food we are or are not eating- because holidays are about remembering and being thankful rather than “watching our diets”- we cannot deny that food plays a very big role in human society. Not just as sustenance, but as a replacement for emotional wellbeing. When we have a healthy relationship with ourselves and with others, we are far more likely to have a healthy relationship with the food we eat. If we’re struggling with eating too much or too little food, it is very likely because there is something missing from our lives. I am so very grateful that my life is whole.
What does your relationship with food say about your emotional health and your relationships with others?
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LOOOVE the new site! 🙂
VeggieGirl- Thanks! I’m awfully happy about it 🙂
Steve- It only took me nearly two years to get around to it, heh.
Candid RD- I don’t think that’s awful to say- I think that it’s a VERY valid point. How can people NOT have issues with food when it’s all that the media talks about?
Unfortunately, I fear that even blogging about these kinds of things can bring up food issues for some people. It’s all about our RESPONSE to what’s being talked about. We have to turn our perspectives around so that we can create positive relationships, rather than to sink down into disordered eating.
Sagan, I like the new site, and I am glad to see you got your own domain.
Like the new look!
I think the media can make our relationship with food, especially over the holidays, really bad. They always focus on “calories, fat, sweets, sugar”. It’s pathetic. That’s all they talk about, nothing else. I think eventually everyone is going to have some type of eating disorder. Is that awful to say? Seriously though, the mdeia is up to no good. Although they are trying to help, they aren’t.
Love the new blog – congrats. Exciting stuff!
I love that you and your family celebrate a non-Christmas Christmas, and yes, unfortunately food is the focus for many at this time of year. It’s an emotional thing for me as well…but it always boils down to food being something I can control. Don’t like it, but it’s true.
Congrats on getting your own domain! And I’m glad you enjoyed your non-Christmas Christmas.
I think your post has sort of helped to solidify something in my mind, which I will have to give some more thought to before I can express it. But it boils down to the fact that we should be able to get together with our loved ones on special occasions and just enjoy ourselves rather than worrying about what we’re eating. Good stuff.
Hi Sagan,
It’s great to be here at your new site – awesomeness!
And I hear you about food – earlier in my life, when I was in not the best place emotionally, it was also the worst time for my physical health and well-being too. Once I started working on one of these, the other one fell into place.
It took me a while too to graduate from Blogger to my own domain. I am glad you made the change. Like the new site.
Love the new site! And I am so with your about the emotional impact of food. But your non-Christmas Christmas is a really cool idea!
Love the new blog look! It looks great. 🙂
1. Happy dance.
2. Threaded comments?
3. I like your insight for food as a replacement for luv.
Heather- sighs, yes. It really does come down to control.
JavaChick- I’d love to hear where your thoughts go with that, too!
Lance- we can improve ourselves and everything around us when we have that good emotional stability, I think.
Asithi- I’m so happy about it 🙂
Charlotte- the non-Christmas Christmas is tons of fun. I recommend everyone start doing it 😀
Holly- thanks!
Westwood- I like the rhetorical implications behind your spelling of “luv” 😉 And I need your help with enabling threaded comments. It SAYS on my dashboard that they’re enabled, but it won’t allow me to do it. It makes me sad. I like the threaded comments.
Love the new look!
Welcome to your new home! I love self-hosting!
We were discussing our Christmas menu yesterday and already I’m annoyed… My family can drive me crazy! Fortunately I have a month to get over it, before the actual event (obviously it would be better if I did it today!)
love the new site! i have often thought that i wish holidays weren’t centered around food… you have all this family together, we shouldn’t be concerned over what time “dinner” is! just enjoy the company…
w/o going into it, i know i’m struggling to battle certain relationships with food that say a LOT about my emotional health…