Another Day in the Country
Turn over a new leaf
© Another Day in the Country
The phrase “turn over a new leaf” is just perfect for an artist like me, who delights in a fresh sketch book page so that I can start again.
It’s also good advice for a writer who thinks, “I can do better at expressing myself,” and picks up another piece of paper to try again.
When a new year comes around, it often inspires us to metaphorically turn a page, start again, and vow to try something new.
We treat Jan. 1 like a starting point even though it’s really just another day like the day before and the day that comes next.
That’s one of the mysteries of time — its consistency, its pace, its opportunities for personal growth.
On New Year’s Eve this year, I was in California at the home of my daughter’s in-laws. Their family has a custom of writing down resolutions and, just for the fun of it, making predictions for the new year.
After we’d written our resolutions down, they gathered them up and put them in a box until next year.
The next step of the tradition is to pass out slips from a random year in the past and take turns reading them out loud.
Everyone guesses whose resolutions and predictions they’ve just read.
My daughter started reading: “Resolution No. 1: Do more activities commensurate with my skill set. No. 2: Figure out if I have a skill set.”
I recognized that vocabulary and wry wit immediately. It was my grandson when he was 15.
I could relate to that resolution. As an adult in late life, you are challenged to keep reassessing your skill set, and it’s never too late to make course corrections.
One of my resolutions this year was to recheck my eating habits. Sometimes we get in a rut.
I was most aware of this when we were snowed in for a week.
My pantry is quite well stocked, but was it stocked with the healthiest things?
I’ve always been a health-minded person, as my friends could tell you. I believe that our overall health is either improved or harmed by what we eat.
Just to make sure I was on the right track, I Googled, “What is the worst food to eat?”
I wanted to make sure none of it was taking up space in my pantry.
Here’s what I discovered:
1. Processed meats like bacon, hot dogs, and cold cuts.
2. Soda.
3. White bread.
4, French fries.
5. Fast food burgers.
6. Donuts.
7. Processed cheese.
8. Potato chips.
9. Processed snack foods (pretty much anything in a wrapper, box, or can).
10. Alcohol.
Most of the addictive (and unhealthy) foods are a tempting combination of carbs and fat — along with added sugar and salt — designed to keep us munching.
It was the truth when a widely known potato chip ad said, “Bet you can’t eat just one.”
We get hungry for those crispy, salty potato chips, and before you know it, the bag is empty.
After the drifting snow shut Ramona off from the world a couple of weeks ago, it took a week before we were able to get out and go to the food store.
Since I’d been gone for two weeks in California and then spent a week being snowed in, my refrigerator was unusually bare.
My sister and I were leisurely walking up and down the aisles, looking at all the abundance of choices at the market like little kids at a candy store.
I didn’t even have a list. I’d made one but left it on the kitchen table in my excitement over leaving the house.
Wouldn’t you know it? One of the things in my shopping cart was a bag of potato chips.
Lucky for me, my favorite food store stopped having fresh donuts behind glass a while back and substituted half a dozen donuts behind cellophane in a package. That ruined it for me.
First of all, I don’t want that many donuts. Second, there’s something about choosing which donut to buy, even if it’s the last one on a tray, that I enjoy.
When I looked at the list of the worst things you could eat, I must admit I was sad to see donuts in the lineup, but thankful they were no longer such a strong temptation.
I hadn’t bought donuts. I had bought processed cheese, though. And processed cheese is on the list. I had to re-educate myself as to what that meant because I really do like cheese — all kinds of cheese, and almost every morning I have an egg and a slice of Kraft singles on an English muffin for breakfast.
Yup, those little slices of cheese are “processed.”
Then I did some research, trying to find what cheese is least processed. I discovered it’s Ricotta cheese, cottage cheese, goat cheese, and feta.
I also looked up “healthy” cheeses and added mozzarella, blue cheese, parmesan, Swiss and cheddar to the list.
Of those 10 worst foods on the list, only four are tempting to me: soda, potato chips, cheese, and donuts.
My New Year’s resolution to have the healthiest diet I can manage is being implemented.
Thanks to the mouse in the house, I’m cleaning the pantry again, and I’m being extra careful not to stock my open shelves with anything the mouse likes — or I shouldn’t — on another day in the country.