Back To My Roots

I’ve always been interested in healthy living. My mother was a pseudo-hippy, granola type of woman back in the ’70s and ’80s. She loved to cook and bake, and she was good at it. She’d make her own whole wheat bread and experiment with wholesome recipes at a time when the markets were exploding with convenience foods. Cookies were always filled with nuts and seeds, and some of the cookbooks on our kitchen counter were ones like Recipes for a Small Planet and The New York Times Natural Foods Cookbook.

The foods she’d purchase at the grocery store were things like muesli, brown sugar and yogurt at a time when my friends’ homes had Pop-Tarts, Nestlé Strawberry or Chocolate Quik, Froot Loops and Wonder Bread. Whenever my mom went to visit one of her sisters, my siblings and I were treated to Swanson frozen dinners because Dad was in charge and it felt exotic and dangerous.

Growing up, we visited doctors only rarely. I recall one time I had a bad ear infection and had to be dragged into the doctor for treatment. Mostly she’d give us peppermint on a sugar cube for stomach aches and soothing foods for colds and flus. The first time I recall taking anything like an aspirin was when I was around 12 — not to say I didn’t before then, but for some reason I have a clear memory of that day, as if it was significant.

My mother herself was not a fan of doctors or the medical profession. In fact, none of my aunts were either. My grandmother, who was a Mennonite refugee from Russia, was, I believe, a natural herbalist in the old sense — healing traditions passed down through the generations. There were times later in my mother’s life when it became necessary for her to rely on the allopathic system, but she would not hesitate to tell a doctor to f*@# off if they pushed her to do or take something she didn’t like.

So, that was my experience growing up, and it was fitting that my first job was at a health food store called the Herb & Spice Shop. I was surrounded by healthy foods, bulk goods, fresh-ground peanut butter — just peanuts, nothing else — fruits and vegetables, and meat alternatives like tofu and tempeh. None of this sounds particularly unusual now, but in the mid-’80s, it really was.

I moved out of the house shortly after I got that job and was excited to start cooking for myself from recipes in the Moosewood Cookbook. I stuffed my tiny attic apartment kitchen cupboards with mason jars full of nuts, seeds, beans and grains and whole wheat flour as well as small random bottles filled with bulk spices.

Somewhere along the way, all of those things simply became part of me. I’ve never thought of myself as someone who follows a particular diet or health philosophy. I tend to listen to my body, pay attention to how I feel and adjust accordingly. Maybe that comes from growing up in a house where health wasn’t really a “program.” It was just how we lived.

With all the changes in the last six months, I’ve let many of my healthy habits fall by the wayside. But entering into September, I’m feeling the itch to get back at it and really start to dial those habits in again.

Getting back to exercise feels a little different at this age. Progress is slower and the muscle build may not be quite so noticeable. My own history of injury is also something I fall back on when I’m looking for reasons not to exercise. And yet I know — I KNOW — my body was made to move. I always feel better when I’m stronger, and even the pain from old injuries seems to fade.

I have weights at home, but I’m going to join a gym for the first time in a long time because I think I need something like that to force me back into the routine. Why is it that when you have that perfect space in your spare room, it never gets used? I walk by mine all the time.

So, that is my commitment to myself this month — my fall resolution to get back to my roots. To dial in my eating habits and make healthy choices rather than the easy, convenient ones. Food preparation. Whole foods. Grains, beans and veggies. Returning to the gym slowly and mindfully, with the intention of focusing on steady progress.

Entropy is the only other option, and I’m not ready for that!