04 – the dining room

Feeding my little girl made me take a new look at what I was eating, which was anything that crossed my plate and how I was eating, which was as mindlessly as possible.

I notice that since I had my child, I have not eaten one single meal in my car which is what I often did to and from work. If mealtime mattered so much for my tiny baby’s wellbeing, didn’t it matter for mine?

I too needed to live. I was a forty-year-old woman with a newborn. I needed to be around to see her grow. I had friends who endangered their bodies with poor eating or substance abuse and I’d seen the results. I realized it was time to change my relationship to food. I saw food before as a necessary enemy, sucking up my precious time because it had to be ingested. Later, it would only become the calories I would have to burn off in order to not get fat. I was fortunate now that I didn’t need to work 24/7 because this made taking a break for a meal a do-able treat. I decided to regard meals as a vital link to a vibrant life in THE DINING ROOM. Today with my child, we learn about food and nutrition and try to eat healthfully. There is a cardinal rule in our home now to never ever speak about diets, weight, or the appearance of others. Personally, as the mother of a little girl, I will know I have failed my daughter the first time she reports to me that she is on a diet.