Scary Food is Fun(ny) Food

My children were upset when I told them we were not stopping at Captain D’s for lunch after church. My youngest son screamed and thrashed in the seat next to me. My older son mewled from the back seat like a wounded animal. But I stood firm. No fast food! But I want to be completely honest; I wanted fried fish and French fries as much as they did.

But Mom, my face will melt off if I don’t get Captain D’s!

So we made a compromise(i.e. I told them I would not leave them on the side of the road). I wanted to find a restaurant with healthy options and I told them that if they were willing to try something new, I was too. So I pulled into the parking lot of the Asian Buffet in my neighborhood with high hopes. I had been wanting to try their food for several months because the pictures on the front of the building were bright and inviting. My mouth watered as we walked up. I envisioned row upon row of steamed vegetables and lean meats. Maybe they would even have sugar free desserts. Maybe, if I was good I would even allow myself 1 crag Rangoon(my favorite appetizer).

We all grabbed our plates and ran to the buffet like ants to a picnic. Much to my children’s chagrin I saw a fair amount of fresh fruit and vegetables. But since it was a buffet, there was also plenty of sweet rolls, pizza and pasta for my sweet-toothed children. So I did what any honorable mother would do, I loaded up plates with all the healthy stuff first – promising them a big dessert if they would stick to their promise to try the healthier foods. And, true to my word, I began to search for foods I don’t normally eat (that are healthy) so I could show my children that it’s fun to try new things.

I perused the food stations with care – reading each item carefully — in order to determine what I had never eaten before AND that would nourish my body. Then I sat down at the table with my children and we all stared at our plates. My older child grimaced. My younger child moaned. But I assure you, neither of them were as terrified to take that first bite of food as I was. For staring up at me from my plate were the following items: sautéed baby squid(tentacles and all!), fried frog legs, and sushi. Oh the humanity!

Tasty vittles!

My older son looked at me and said, “You’re not actually going to eat that, are you?”

I swallowed and nodded. Then I stabbed at the squid with my fork, placed a squishy bite into my mouth, and began to chew. It was a lot spicier than I expected, but I thanked God it didn’t come back to life, latch onto my tongue, and chew its way back out of my face(yes – I have quite a vivid imagination). My children then watched in horror as I picked up the frog legs and began to nibble off the spindly flesh. I thought my older boy was going to cry(and I was doing my best not to). Because at my house we all really like to catch and play with frogs, and eating them just feels, well, wrong. I then tried the sushi. I have tried sushi before, most notably when I visited my friend Becky in San Diego a few years ago. She insisted I try it, but eating raw fish felt a lot like chewing and eating my own tongue. This sushi wasn’t terrible. In fact, it was almost good. Almost. But after eating the other creatures, I didn’t have the capacity to like it because I kept thinking the squid was going to climb up out of my stomach and kill us all. I think all in all, my kids definitely got the better deal out of our food adventure. I don’t really consider fried ochre or steamed pea pods to be blatantly offensive to the taste buds. And because I am a woman of my word, they both enjoyed ice cream for dessert.

So maybe you are wondering why I chose to share this story with you today. The truth is, eating healthy foods doesn’t have to be gross. We all have to start somewhere. The majority of my homemade meals are multi-colored and very tasty. Green beans. Broccoli. Sweet potatoes. Salmon. Chicken. It’s all pretty simple. Finding a restaurant that provides a healthy and tasty option, however, is often a challenge. For that reason I find it much easier to make my own meals at home. This keeps me happy AND healthy. Because when I look at the ingredients on menus I have to sigh. “Low sodium” usually means bland and more bland. “No sugar added” usually means it contains aspartame or its wicked cousins saccharin and sucralose(unless it’s Menchies and boy I love me some Menchies frozen yogurt!). “Low-fat” tends to be synonymous with more sugar added which is a total misnomer. So generally trying to eat healthy food means clogging up my body with chemicals it doesn’t know how to process.

Today if you are stuck in a food rut, I encourage you to step outside of your comfort zone and try something new. Maybe you hated lima beans as a child(like me!). Well guess what, it’s been 30+ years! Maybe you should try them again. Brussels sprouts are the great love of my adult life. When I consider all of the years I could have been enjoying them, I want to cry.

So often we get hung up on the idea that if we want to live a healthy lifestyle we can’t eat foods we enjoy, but it’s simply not true. Half the fun of being human is living and learning. Learning to love new foods has opened up a whole world of personal happiness for me. Granted, I will probably never eat frog legs again, but the look of horror on my children’s face made every single bite worth it. And that was the whole point of this exercise. I wanted to teach my children that it is fun to try new things. We don’t have to be afraid(or angry or just plain resistant) to trying foods that are healthy for our bodies. Just because it’s “healthy”, doesn’t mean it yucky.

If you take nothing else away from this blog post, please know this, shifting ones mindset from “I refuse to try that” to “I will try that” could mean the difference between never reaching your goals or finding a happier, healthier you.