A comment was made to me regarding my ability to make healthy meals and desserts. The gist of the comment was that I have more time than most others so I can make healthy foods.
Time is an excuse and it is not mine. I live a life like everyone else. I keep a calendar to keep everything straight. Time is not the reason why I cook healthy food; MAKING the time is why I cook healthy foods! Keeping the right foods stocked in my kitchen is the reason why I eat healthy.
MAKING the time to educate myself about how to care for my body and PCOS. MAKING the time to find recipes. MAKING the time to go to the grocery store. We all go to the store. I am just picking out different items. I shop at regular grocery stores and maybe once a month will go to a Whole Foods. It take me no more time to make a sugar free chic pea cookie dough pie than it would a boxed cake mix.
It is NOT that I have more time. It is making the time a PRIORITY!
If I make eating healthy foods look easy it is because it is easy! When I shop I buy healthy items. When I cook, I cook these healthy items that I got in the store with the same amount of time as everyone else. I do not use time as an excuse. <3
I feel like it's important to point out that your ability to eat a healthy diet is possible due to certain privileges that not everyone has. Often, we forget that what is simple and reasonable for those of us living in the middle class, is nearly impossible for a low income family, for example.
ReplyDeleteA single parent who works two jobs to feed their family may genuinely not have the time to cook dinner at night.
A family living in a food desert may not have access to fresh, healthy produce or the kind of health-food options (like coconut sugar) that can be found at grocery stores in more well-off neighborhoods.
A person who grew up in a home where no one cooked because of the above two barriers, may not know how to roast a chicken; they may not even know how to cook from a recipe.
I bring this up simply because what can often happen in our enthusiasm to show that healthy living IS possible (and simple too!) we can forget that not everyone shares our same circumstances. The risk is that we can unintentionally imply that anyone who doesn't make those changes is failing because they're lazy or stupid, even those who genuinely don't have the resources to make the changes we have made.
In order for healthy living to truly be possible for everyone, we have to think about issues of access and resources! :)
This post is a vent about an insult someone flung at me to excuse their own inability to change habits. She lives in town, I know where she stands on the income level, and I know she has access to all the same items I do. This was in no way an over look at the environmental and living situations of other people. Nor was an attempt to imply anyone is lazy or stupid. I work to educate and help lower income communities develop gardens in their schools. Create A Change Now is an amazing non-profit organization that works to make these healthy resources available.
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