Food: Feast or Famine?

Food: Feast or Famine?

It’s time to check in again on your Wellness & Self-Care! I know you’ve been anticipating this topic’s return! Recently, in several of our groups we’ve been doing the session on Wellness and Self-Care, and once again the group members are struggling with the same issues that are common to most of us. So let’s revisit this.

The second Refocusing Principle for this ministry goes like this:

“Grief can be intense and overwhelming, sometimes manifesting in unexpected sadness, exhaustion, or medical issues resulting from fulltime caregiving. As a part of my grief recovery, I choose to prioritize my self-care, getting plenty of sleep and exercise, and giving attention to my personal health.”

Why do I need to make my own health and self-care a priority? And what does that really mean? I once heard someone say that you can tell a person’s priorities by looking at two things: their calendar and their bank account. (They used to say checkbook, but then who uses those anymore?) This tells us two things: where they spend their money and where they spend their time. We profess that something is a priority, but if there are no actions to back up our words, then they are just empty words.

I Corinthians 6:19-20 says the following:

“Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. So, glorify God in your body.”

Ouch! Our bodies are literally a holy place in which the Spirit of God dwells. I am responsible to keep it clean and in good repair so that my body can be used to glorify God. In order to accomplish that, I will sometimes need to make taking care of the temple a priority! It will need to come before other things that I think should be done. Like when company is coming and the house needs to be cleaned. We typically drop everything to get the house in order. Is your house for the Holy Spirit in order?

There are four basic areas that need attention, so that’s where we will begin. You may recall the nurse in the cancer center who addressed one question to me…yes, me, when everyone was concerned about him. She said, “Have you been fed, watered, walked, and napped?” Those are the four primary areas that are essential to your continued good health, or to your recovering good health as you process through your grief.

1.)   Have you been fed? Most widows would tell you that this is one of their most challenging areas of adjustment. There seems to be no purpose in cooking, so they don’t. There’s no real purpose to plan meals, or even to go to the grocery store. They stop by the drive-thru, they order takeout, they eat out, or they have popcorn for dinner – and maybe leftover popcorn for breakfast the next morning! The basic issues surrounding nutrition tend to revolve around not eating at all, eating all the wrong things, or eating constantly. None of these are particularly helpful for maintaining a healthy weight and level of mobility and fitness.

You may be asking yourself how you can make adjustments that will move you in the right direction with your nutrition. Here are a few suggestions:

• Consider meal planning. This seems to work best if you have a plan in mind, and you have the necessary ingredients on hand to put together the meals in your plan. All too often our schedules are also a bit erratic, so prepping every meal ahead of time may find you throwing out a lot of food. Just keep those healthy components on hand.
• Batch cooking. Maybe on Sunday afternoon put together a batch of soup, or 5 meals that you can use throughout the week. Many recipes can be frozen for future use. You may even find you have a week that you don’t need to cook much at all if you eat from your freezer stash!
• Try new recipes. This can inject freshness into your “food life”. If they taste terrible, just toss them and move on to the next option! There’s no longer any law that says you have to clean your plate or eat something you really think is disgusting! You just may come up with some new additions to your menus that you really love.
• Invite friends over to share a meal. This is especially helpful if you love cooking and entertaining. It may seem overwhelming at first, so just keep it simple! It gives you a chance to cook for someone else and enjoy sharing a meal together.
• Sign up for a pre-structured meal plan like Hello Fresh! Or Noom! Or any of a number of other plans available online. Most of these come with options for you to choose, and all of the ingredients needed for the recipes are included and pre-measured. If you enjoy this, it’s not necessarily more expensive than going to the grocery store and coming home with a lot of things you didn’t intend to buy!
• Download an app on your phone or computer that will allow you to track what you eat so that you know exactly what your nutrition is looking like. (As an added bonus, many of these also track your water intake and your exercise/steps.) One that I’ve found to be very user-friendly and helpful is called Parrot Pal. Download 7 days free to give it a try!
• Cook with a friend and split the meals! This might even give both of you some inspiration!

In closing this, please allow me to ask a couple of thought questions? First, what have you found to be true in your own experience since your spouse died? How has being alone impacted this area of food and nutrition for you? What small steps could you take to move you in the right direction? Always bearing in mind that our bodies should glorify the Lord to the best of our ability.

I Corinthians 10:31— So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.

Come back next week to talk about staying hydrated….As always, your thoughts and comments are welcome here or you can email me at sheryl@freshhope.us. Si está buscando un nuevo propósito y un camino para seguir adelante, considere unirse a uno de nuestros grupos de Refocusing Widows, ya sea en persona o en línea. Puede registrarse en www.refocusingwidows.org/Groups. ¡Esperamos conocerle!