Several of my coworkers make daily – mostly negative – comments about my snacks and my lunch. One coworker is always interested in what I’m eating because she thinks I eat weird things. (She’d never heard of lentils.) Another doesn’t eat green food and all but gags anytime I have spinach, kale or even asparagus. Still another cannot go a single mealtime without commenting on how she just “can’t eat that.”

Here’s the thing, I eat what I chose to eat. They eat what they chose to eat. If they chose to eat food-like substances rather than actual food, that’s their choice. It’s on them. And, frankly, I don’t care. They’re grown. And while it’s true that I am a mother, I’m not their mother; so, it’s neither my job nor my place to say anything about what they eat.

However, for some reason, they seem to think that it’s perfectly okay to have a running commentary on my food. Can I just tell you a secret? I’m a little tired of it.

I have this theory (yes, another one!) that most of us don’t converse on a wide variety of topics. That’s not to say that we can’t; but, rather, that if we are left to initiate conversation, we will chose one of a very few topics. And I think that goes to Carl Sagan’s statement, “When you’re in love, you want to tell the world.” We talk about things we are in love with. For some, those things are religion, baseball, football, politics or Positive Blog Goddesses (it could happen). For me, those things are my son, my pets and, yes, food. That being the case, I probably talk about healthful food choices more than I think I do, which may explain their commentary. But, there’s a reason it’s a topic for me. There’s a reason I’m “in love” with it.

Okay, so we each have 24 hours in a day. Let’s say that we spend 1.5 hours of that actually eating – not preparing food, just eating it. That leaves us with 22.5 hours. Then, let’s say that sleeping takes eight of those. That leaves us with 14.5 hours of non-eating, conscious time every day. Let’s look at each of those time segments for a minute.

An hour and a half doesn’t sound like much and maybe you spend more time than that eating; but, I eat quickly. I’d say that it takes me no more than 15 minutes each to eat breakfast and lunch. Dinner may take 30 minutes, leaving those other 30 minutes for miscellaneous snacking. Before I came to love healthful food, I loved just about any food! Barbeque chicken pizza, Twinkies, carrot cake, ice cream, chocolate, creamed potatoes, cornbread dressing, fried turkey, fried chicken, … Okay, I have to stop. I’m getting hungry. I loved the taste of those foods and for 90 minutes of the day, they lifted my spirits. But what effect did they have on my other 22.5 hours?

You’d think that the eight hours I spent sleeping would be unaffected. Wrong. I rarely slept the night through without some kind of indigestion, back or neck pain waking me. While asleep, I’m sure that it kept me from sleeping deeply since I always woke feeling tired and poorly rested. In the time of Before, I would have said that, like the princess sleeping on the pea, I needed a new mattress (which still may be true); but, now in the After, I don’t think my mattress was my only problem. In the After, I cannot even tell you the last time I woke had indigestion of any kind – waking or sleeping. And I can count on one hand the number of times in the last year (I can’t really remember further back) when I’ve awakened with any kind of body pain – back, neck, knee, whatever. I wake feeling rested and ready to go.

Before, I enjoyed my 90 minutes of consuming food; but, I had no idea the negative impact to my other 1350 daily minutes that food had. I couldn’t walk without quickly becoming winded, and forget running. My joints hurt. My feet KILLED me. I hated shopping because the clothes available for my size were usually either ugly or out of my budget. And I spent a lot of time in the doctor’s office. Those 90 minutes did not contribute happiness, contentedness or a sense of well-being to the other 1350 minutes. Now, they do! And, yes, I love that! And, I probably talk about it more than I should.

But, just so you know, I’m not planning on stopping anytime soon! 🙂