Sun Days on Orcas | Being healthy in a nutshell

||| SUN DAYS ON ORCAS by EDEE KULPER |||

Recently I heard a few radio ads that said something like, “We know, it’s hard to eat right.” I remember hearing someone say years ago that she had no idea how to eat right. Shelves are packed with books on how to be healthy (healthful is the grammatically correct word, but I’ll stick with ‘healthy’ for now), but I don’t think we need 300 pages. Just a refresher.

It’s not that hard. I’m going to attempt summing it all up in a nutshell right here based on life experience, unaccompanied by statistics, calorie counts, or microbiology.

The nutshell is in bold. Read the rest if you want to…

Buy fresh foods THAT YOU LIKE that recently came out of the ground.

If you fill the bulk of your fridge and pantry with fruits, vegies, beans, grains, nuts, and seeds that you LIKE, you’ll have plenty of options when you make a meal. As the meal preparer in our family, I know what a thing it is in this modern culture to think every single day, “What should I make for dinner?” That simple obstacle messed me up for years. If I work the other way around, making sure I have a fridge and pantry full of healthy foods, I don’t have to dream up dinner every morning or afternoon beforehand. I can wing it every night working with what I have. Often, typical American dinners that require a lot of daily thinking and nightly preparation cause you to cook fresh, nutritious foods to death and fatten them up adequately for your family to love. Avoid buying processed foods as often as you can, since the companies that make them are not thinking about your health; they’re thinking, “What are the cheapest ingredients we can combine with synthetic flavors to make people keep buying our stuff?” Restaurant meals aren’t sustainable, either. Have you ever set out to make your favorite restaurant meal at home? I’ve often realized to my horror how much sugar or heavy cream is required to make it, and I can’t stomach it anymore.

Make time to have meals – healthy meals don’t have to take much time.

It took me 30 years to realize that I was probably hungry every single day in high school because I didn’t eat breakfast. I wasn’t hungry at 8 AM, so I skipped breakfast. But by 10 AM I was ravenous, and by noon hot lunch at school was never enough. Then I did sports after school, so by dinnertime I could eat a bus. I REALLY needed a filling meal at 10 AM, which was impossible as a high schooler. At least now I know that my main hunger times are 10:00 and 3:00. What an epiphany it was to realize that if I eat at those times, I never care about eating dinner. That still doesn’t fit in with any schedule in our culture, but at least I’m aware of it. Sometimes I get in the habit of skipping meals if I don’t have time to make healthy ones. That’s a bad practice. I’ve realized time and again that I’m better off eating something early in the day that isn’t as nutritious as I’d like than bonking from hunger in the afternoon and spending the next meal or two trying to make up for my lack of physical and mental energy. These days, I find one of the biggest obstacles to having regular mealtimes is having too much going on in our family life and too little time to prepare food here and there. I’m loving the myriad post-COVID events happening again – sports, classes, choirs, concerts, lectures, potlucks, etc. – which I often find more fulfilling than food. When we book too much, though, I realize all too well that the inability to have time for simple, quality meals is unsustainable for our family’s health.

Make healthy meals you love eating.

I grew up getting an education about food without anyone ever explicitly talking about it at all. After years of observation, I realized that in my house, healthy foods were seen as bad and rich foods were seen as good, unless someone was on a diet and the food opinions were reversed. Being the nonconformist that I am, I embraced healthy foods – but not just as a rebel. I honestly LIKED them. Being healthy and fit has also always mattered to me. I want to be able to hop up and do any sport any time. I want to feel strong and able. I want to look healthy and shapely enough to eat in such a way that makes it so. The more it matters to you in a deep, lifelong way, the more interested you are in eating healthy through the years, not just for a month. And why eat healthy foods you dislike? That won’t last more than a minute. Eat the ones you LOVE. I always indulge in every healthy thing I love, and there’s no result to fear.

Enjoy the act of eating your meals.

If you’re reading or texting while eating, you won’t be present. You won’t ENJOY eating. There’s something really basic and important about knowing we’re eating and enjoying it. If we miss the meal we just ate, we might have to eat all over again to psychologically take in what we missed the first time we physically ate. Especially if you’re indulging in something, be mindful and present so you can enjoy every bite.

If you love what you eat, you’ll only feel like splurging every now and then.

Make sure you DO splurge when you feel it, or you’ll start craving what you’re wanting PLUS a lot of other things to try to fill that need. I’ve realized I don’t care about any other treat more than cookie dough, so I keep it in the fridge at times. When I crave cookie dough, I eat some. It’s that simple. Because I don’t restrict myself or beat myself up for doing it, I never feel like eating the whole container. I go for months without needing cookie dough in the fridge, and then I’ll feel the need, buy some, and go through it one or two spoons a day. Find the ultimate thing you love to splurge on, and enjoy it now and then when you want some of it.

Limit sugar, fat, flour, alcohol, carbonated drinks, meat, and dairy. Omit them altogether if you can do so enjoyably. Otherwise, go lightly with them.

Avoid diets – period.

All you need to know that diets don’t work is to grow up surrounded by a mother and sisters who spend their lives dieting. Thank you, family, for teaching me this vicariously: Diets are a joke. If you aren’t interested in healthy eating and living for the rest of your life, accept now and forever that dieting for a month or year isn’t going to work. Severe restriction will only make you pine for every last thing you didn’t allow yourself to eat once it’s over, and that leads to eternal yo-yo-ing. Be brutally honest with yourself in assessing whether you’re changing your eating habits for life or temporarily. Often it isn’t the need for food that’s causing an eating problem. Dig deeper to find the real issue. In the meantime, learn to love yourself. Remind yourself that your body is a conglomeration of millions of miracles all working together each and every minute, and that you are a gift to this earth. You need not resemble Gisele Bundchen just because Vanity Fair tells you so in the checkout line. Love the wonderful, individual you that there is no one else like on this planet of eight billion people.

Eat dinner foods for breakfast.

I love breakfast foods because they are dessert. But they never give me sustained energy or brain food. I don’t know why we have assigned our first foods after breaking our nightly fast as pancakes, sugary cereal, crepes, muffins, etc. Want to feel really strong and balanced all day, mentally and physically? Start the day by eating your leftover yams, rice, and green beans from last night. Or fill some lightly browned corn tortillas with scrambled eggs, black beans, and salsa. Done. Now you won’t get hungry an hour later. How grounding it is to start out the day balanced and fulfilled, not jittery and nutty with hunger.

Walk 75 minutes every morning – period.

Sounds too easy and simple, even boring, right? Not the excitement of windsurfing or the endorphins of running? Well, are you out windsurfing or running every single day? Or even once a week? Probably not. Walking is something you can do CONSISTENTLY. You can do it without any gear except comfortable shoes. You can do it alone, with friends, or with your dog if he or she can keep up. And it’s something your joints and bones will agree with through the years.

About 20 years ago, I noticed a friend of mine was always in top shape. She always looked amazing in a swimsuit. One day I asked her what she did to stay fit. “I walk fast for an hour every single day.” What?? That’s it?? Yep, that was it. But she had abs. She was cut. What about push-ups? Sit-ups? Planks? She said she did a few floor exercises now and then, but walking was what she did consistently, without fail. Being an on-again, off-again runner, surfer, kayaker, aerobics-doer, triathlon-trier, and gym-hater, I knew in that moment that I had found my answer to consistent fitness. No limitations due to equipment, weather, location, motivation, etc.

I’ve been a consistent walker ever since then and I can tell you that it has served me well in every way. I always feel strong, I always feel like I can go try any sport without hurting afterward, and I enjoy counting on knowing how I will exercise every day (and that it won’t hurt me). I began tutoring an hour earlier this school year, causing me to miss my 19-year habit of a morning walk for the month of September. Doing it later in the day just didn’t happen – it felt funny to take 75 minutes of the afternoon to walk; there were other things that felt more pressing in the midday; I was stiff from sitting and uninterested in walking in the afternoon.

My body thrives on walking to start my day after lying down all night. Waking up just to sit in a chair feels wrong. I figure I missed out on 80-100 miles last month, and I can definitely see and feel the difference. I also realized that my brain is used to doing a lot of processing during my walking time. I’m a little bored for the first 5 minutes each day, but I don’t pre-decide that’s how the entirety of my walk will be and allow that to stop me, because I know my brain goes into a creative and processing flow-state for the rest of the walk after that. I don’t force any thinking, and I always come up with some of the best ideas I’ve ever had when out walking. Why 75 instead of 60 minutes? I find that 75 catapults me into MUCH better shape over time than 60. Once you have a habitual routine that serves you as well as walking does, you won’t easily give it up. And it IS so EASY.

The more you sit, the more comfortable it becomes to sit – that’s when you know you need to get moving. The more you keep moving, the more you WANT to keep moving.

That sums it up.

If you’re busy all the time, sitting down is hard, but stop and sit down now and then – your brain needs time to process and your body needs times of rest.

Being a busybody compounds over time into stress. Some people thrive on that kind of stress, but at times you still need to sit down and just be still. Enjoy it. Think. Space out. Cuddle with someone in your family. Your body needs times of rest during the day. I know that my body is never in a state of balance and equilibrium if I am physically and mentally buzzing from daybreak to bedtime, every day of the week.

Sleep a lot – period.

Oh, how sleep fixes our ailments of all kinds. Of course it does – it’s the body’s time to recover in every single way. The earlier you get to bed, the better for your memory, hormones, cells, muscles, joints, bones, everything. I’m a night person. Everything in me tells me to stay up – I’m super creative and productive in the later hours of the evening, and if it were healthy I would happily go to bed every night at 12 or 1 AM. It takes a lot of willpower for me to go to bed before 11:00. Modern conveniences like electricity tell our bodies to stay up at night. We think sleep is negotiable. It’s not. I know how amazing I feel on the rare nights I go to bed around 10 PM; I often awaken refreshed at 5 or 6 AM. I know from experience that if I don’t go to bed early like that, I need a solid 8-9 hours a night or I haven’t gotten proper rest. My mom used to say that every hour of sleep before midnight is like getting two. I believe it completely. If you’re sleeping 5-6 hours a night (especially after midnight) and craving carbs during the day, reconsider your bedtime. Your body is craving energy, and not the kind that comes from food.

Drink ample water.

This is basic but I’ll add two things. It took me a long time to realize that when I crave sweets even after getting plenty of sleep the night before, I’m actually dehydrated. Try drinking a big glass of water next time you crave something – you may be surprised that you’re totally fulfilled afterward, and it may dawn on you that you’d forgotten to drink water lately. Water also keeps me regular. My regularity can usually be traced directly to my intake of water. It doesn’t seem to matter how much fruit I eat (and I am a fruitaholic!); I can eat 30 plums a day during plum season and there will be very little difference in my elimination patterns. I do not like to skip a day, which is a natural tendency for my body, so that keeps me very motivated to hydrate with water.

Do things you love to do and spend time with people you love.

I’m almost convinced that you can do just about everything “wrong” in the nutrition and activity areas but if you’re happy, optimistic, and fulfilled, you’ll be better off than most people in the end. Live out your passions. Check off your bucket list. Write that play you have in your head or sing that song you love to sing in the talent show. Do what you were put on this earth to do. Orcas Island is the kind of place where you can turn all your dreams into reality. There’s no time like the present. Surround yourself with people you love and who love you. If you don’t have any, start being around people in some capacity so that you can know and be known by others. Food issues often form to fill gaps left open by a lack of prospects and a lack of belonging and closeness. Sit down right now and write out your dreams. Then write a list of the people you love to be around, and call them soon to get together. Love, joy, and fulfillment do more for us than we can ever imagine.

There is a big difference between knowing things and putting them into practice. I don’t always hit the target with these, but they are what I aim for in a general way through life.