27 Responses to “Eating Real Food.”

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  1. This post is beautifully written. I grew up in a house with real-food meals too, but as my mom cooked less and less, I got more and more control over my own diet. I’d always been the heaviest person (relatively) in the family, and when I no longer had to eat meals with my family, I took the chance to eat only frozen diet meals and low-carb bread. I do think that eating socially helps you learn how best to eat in general- nothing will kill you. There are no healthy or unhealthy foods, just healthy or unhealthy diets in general!

  2. I believe you are on to something good 🙂

  3. i love this!! i am the same way. we tease my mom that even after a full day of work plus meetings, she would always take time to prepare a real and healthy meal for us, even if we suggested just ordering a pizza. i think it’s so important (and such a lost trend these days as people get busier, and pre-packaged foods are much easier to eat). see you tonight!

  4. Loved the “Nonna’s Diet Tips” post you linked to! My italian grandmother was very similar. She always used to tell me how beautiful and perfect I was, all the time…but it didn’t stop her from taking me aside when I was in sixth grade or so and promising to get me electrolysis for my sixteenth birthday. (And no, she never made good on that promise! I had to get my own laser hair removal much later, haha.)

  5. I fully agree with everything here. Our bodies need fat! Especially females for fertility. Great post Sabrina!

  6. This was a very thoughtful post. I loved reading it. Growing up, my Dad’s side of the family immigrated from Croatia. They believed in 2 things: Family and Food. I will always cherish the lessons learned from my Grandmother in the kitchen. Dinner is a time to celebrate family and cooking traditions at the same time. We had amazing food, great conversation and memories that will last a lifetime.

    • RhodeyGirlTests

      @Jeff, Did you know that my mom was from Trieste, Italy… which is right across the border from Croatia?! You should visit both some time if you haven’t already. Anyway, explains why you’re so light! My mom had blonde hair and light eyes… as an Italiana! Have a great day!

      P.S. Man, you’re up early!

  7. Oh how I love this…. I follow the same philosophy and attribute it to how my mom and grandmothers both cooked. No fake ingredients, no measuring, perfect balance and moderation… and never a word of bad body image.

  8. AMEN! Everything in moderation and eating REAL foods is totally the way to go

  9. I love this! I try to eat along the same lines, not worrying about fat and calories, but focusing on eating whole foods and getting all the nutrients I need. It wasn’t always this way and looking back I can see how lethargic and unhappy I was when I was eating a “low fat, highly processed” diet. Great post!

  10. is it fair to say that i’m with you 100% on this? i am still working on eating things that are close to the earth ALL of the time, but i love to and feel great when i do. how could you not enjoy with gusto?! 🙂

  11. I grew up exactly the same way. I remember any time, which was rare, that we would eat out the next day I’d ask my Mother, “Can we have real food for dinner?” It’s the way I learned how to cook and although like you I shied away from it for a while, now that I have my own family I find myself back to my roots of real food. It’s THE best.

    I just made the Midgets french toast for breakfast, with whole wheat bread I made myself. I cooked them in real butter, topped with real maple syrup. Mmm

  12. wow i definitely have a similar memory of being upset when my mom cooked with olive oil…. i remembered being terrified of any fats!

  13. I wrote a post very similar to this once. I couldn’t agree with you more. Food is also my passion and I will never, ever, ever exclude these beatiful ingredients from my life ever again (I went through a similar phase as you did).

  14. I think I need to become more educated on “real foods” – I think I would like to try to be better, but have no idea where to start. As usual – suggestions are welcome 🙂

  15. I really loved this- perfect thing to catch first thing this morning. My mom always cooked dinner and took pride in that but she would not characterize her cooking as something she “loved” to do. And I have a father who insists on yoyo style dieting without much room for moderation. What this means is I have two parents who I love dearly but I’ve kind’ve been on my own to find a food philosophy as an adult. This describes perfectly what I’ve come to.

  16. While my upbringing was different from yours (I grew up eating processed foods), I couldn’t agree more with eating real foods. I eat lots of fat and don’t believe in “good” and “bad” fats. I do TRY to soak or sprout my grains, legumes, and nuts to increase their nutritional value but I balance that with occasional fast food! 😉

  17. What a great post! Those are exactly the values I am trying to pass on to my children!

  18. I am a lot like you. I don’t count fat or calories. I am this second eating a salad drenched in EVOO-based dressing and including a whole avocado. And I spend a lot of time thinking about delicious meals. Food is such a source of pleasure in my life (which hasn’t always been the case and is something I am grateful for).

  19. When I was growing up, my mom made a lot of hearty Italian food–pasta and breaded chicken. Anything Italian she made was using fresh ingredients. However, anything *not* Italian she made, she took all the shortcuts–vegetables from a can, mashed potatoes from a box. As such, almost everything I’ve cooked as an adult, I’ve had to learn on my own, since I like fresh ingredients.

    I lost a lot of weight last year, and I lost it by eating a very simple diet of whole grains, lean protein and fruits and veggies. I never counted calories, but I thought about whether everything I ate was healthy or not. Now that I’m trying to maintain my weight, I’m trying to learn that balance–eating healthy most of the time, but learning to allow myself indulgences, too, without getting off track.

    I’m glad for people like you who made me realize that it’s not just overweight people who love food!

  20. Karina

    I believe food brings people together. I love inviting friends for a big meal filled with laughter and good wine or beer.

    Coming from an eastern european mom who cooked the way her mom cooked, I grew up with tradition and fond memories of my mom’s youthful days in her village. As an adult, the way I cook is different from my mom but I understand that I am a lot more adventurous than she is.

    Thanks for sharing!

  21. We always had family dinners and I’m SO grateful that it was important to my parents – I’ll definitely be doing the same with my own family!

  22. I completely agree. The more real the food, the less likely it is to have a label on it with nutrition information anyway. 🙂

  23. Growing up for me was many whole foods but not the healthiest. I give my mom a hard time about it but she did a great job(now that I am a mom I realize this). Now I am all about whole foods and while we have some processed foods in our house, we eat nuts, fruit and whole foods for snacks instead of junk. Dinner is always something “real.” Great post!

  24. Great post. I grew up in a house with a lot of frozen dinners, fast foods, and canned veggies. Believe it or not, I am now trying a lot of fresh vegetables for the first time. And no wonder I never liked vegetables. Canned ones are just gross! I have been up and down in my weight so I have always thought about how many calories or grams of fat something has in it. But I am getting to the point where I don’t look as much and I don’t feel (that) guilty over eating something that was once considered junk food.

  25. Couldn’t have said it better! I had a very similar experience growing up, and a very similar philosophy on food and health now.

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