Things I don't want to share around the dinner table....

A while ago, my friend (and sister from another mother)Nina, said something I really took to heart. She said that food is what melds families together. For my family in particular this is so true. Every family event we have there is tons of delicious, decadent food. When I first started this journey, that was something I just didn't want to give up. I wanted to have all the family around the table, laughing, talking, and sharing their day surrounded by delicious food. Some of my fondest memories are of my Mom and I in the kitchen. Her teaching me all of her culinary genius. I also remember the sugar, the butter, the creams......OH BOY. Yummy, yes. Healthy, no! What I realize now is we can still have that camaraderie, we can still share in the delicious food. What we don't have to share is our family health history of high blood pressure and cholesterol, obesity, diabetes, and cancer. Now, what if you were sitting at a table full of food and family and someone asked you to "Please pass the cancer.", or "Give me a big scoop of the diabetes". "Or how about a slice of this high blood pressure?" Wow, you might look at all of that food a little differently. What I didn't realize when I started this and that I do now is that all that comfort-it wasn't from the food. It was in the people, the love, the laughter. And those are the things I can still share around the dinner table. The food can be healthy and tasty, but we need to use it as fuel, not comfort. I can still cook with my daughters, and we can learn new habits together. The best gift I can give the faces around my dinner table is a healthy wife and mother, and a promise to stop that evil family health history dead in its tracks. So, will someone please pass the salad......