Lisa Cooperman RDN Well knocks might now not be the best word since no one is coming to our door or in return, we are visiting anyone in today’s pandemic. With social distancing restrictions in place, one may be feeling lonely, isolated, bored, etc. However now just may be the time to take a closer look at your nutrition “behavior” or the way you and your family eats.
As a Registered Dietitian-Nutritionist for over 20 years and a mom of two kids, wait make that 5 (and three dogs), no actually 6 – plus a husband ?, I have experience with feeding a family. Prior to COVID 19, my family had a typical schedule: work, school, after school activities, volunteering, social commitments and so on. As this hectic routine has come to a screeching halt, so did my meal planning. We are home all day with nowhere to go and not much to do.
One would guess making dinner would be a snap in this situation. That guess was wrong. Honestly, I was utterly lost without my schedule. It was as if we were living in a vacuum. Thank goodness the sun rises and sets so I could tell day from night. A friend joked we needed “days of the week” underwear to help establish which day it was and I enthusiastically agreed.
After a week of eating all my prepared “in case of emergency” frozen dinners stashed in the basement, I forced myself to restart my routine. Routines are incredibly easy to stop and impossible to restart. My children are lovers of all-things vegetable (even Brussel Sprouts) and for the past week, vegetables were omitted on account of laziness. This would not and could not become our norm. Poptarts are not a staple in our house. It was time to regain control, clean out the pantry closet and start planning again. Suddenly it occurred to me – what if I could improve our diet? What can we do to be healthier? I always felt we were fairly good with meal planning and prep but perhaps we could be better?
Have you perhaps contemplated the same? Every day is a new day with the opportunity to start fresh. What can you possibly change today? Can you grab an apple instead of a bag of chips or cookie? How about taking a larger portion of veggies than starches instead of the other way around? Tell me what your specific challenges are, and together we can become healthier. This is the initial post of “blog” or website… My intention is to provide helpful resources and tools to tackle our food challenges. I will be focusing on general health and wellness, taking the latest information and creating useable bite-size take aways for you.
