Turns out…
Oldies know stuff.
(She wasn’t called Super-Gran for Nothing!)
“First you are young; then you are middle-aged, then you are old; then you are wonderful”
Everything is getting WAY too complicated;
- Slimming clubs,
- diet supplements,
- milkshake for dinner,
- low/high/no/all-carbs,
- Atkins,
- 5:2
- those tablets that make you poo yourself when you cough,
- cabbage soup diet…. liquid diets
WTF?
Back to the codgers…
In a rather long checkout queue (why don’t they put more staff on?) I met a very smartly-dressed lady in her mid-seventies.
We had a really long chat indeed. (I had a lot of shopping)
Her name was Rose.
The conversation started when she complimented me on the contents of my trolley
(get in!) as I started to unload it onto the conveyor belt.
Rose used to run a village store.
She told me… years ago the ladies of the village would come in to the shop from the butcher next door and buy the other things they needed for their evening meal – potatoes, carrots, peas and so on then head home to put the bread in the oven.
Food was simple, nutritious, cooked from scratch (maybe a bit repetitive – Rose’s words!!)
What confounded Rose was that rather than a village store – we now have these obscenely stuffed shrines to food:
Supermarkets
full of every type of food you can imagine, from all parts of the globe – yet the choices people made were extraordinary.
Rather than choosing mouth-watering fruit and delicacies from sunny islands – they chose processed rubbish that makes them feel bad.
Rather than 3 ‘square’ meals a day, people snack on chocolate bars and crisps and ready meals; filling their stomachs with treats and convenience rather than food.
What she would have given for such choice and variety for her family!
When Rose was a young woman she didn’t have a washing machine or a hoover.
Days were filled with hard work – cardio work, that kept her fit and strong.
In conjunction with the advent of labour-saving devices came an increasing lethargy in women
(her words, not mine) and she noticed how younger women not only ate differently. but behaved differently.
Nowadays we have every opportunity – and yes, life is hard but arguably not as hard as Rose’s life was.
Yet she ate well, exercised often and maintained a healthy weight as did her friends.
Her shopping basket when I met her had real food, vegetables, fruit, lean meat, milk, good bread – things she knew would keep her happy and healthy
(and able to enjoy the golf and yoga that she still loves).
So my Eureka moment was this: we should learn from our elders!
Eat smaller portions like they do, make our meals nutritious and meaningful, take advantage of the wonders our supermarkets offer, keep active…
There is nothing new there, but it worked for 100s of years before we got all carried away and confused with the choices and were seduced by the massive marketing machines that control our spending.
And our EATING
My God do they…
Yes, we have new information now to add to the mix, but the facts remain.
Eat up your vegetables, they’ll make you big and strong YEP still true
Treats are for special occasions…YUP still true
As your gran (and everyone’s Gran) said:
“Everything in moderation”
But I would add: not EVERYTHING
Rose didn’t have processed food to choose from when she was a young mum.
And she wouldn’t have fed it to her family.
Some of us feed our pets WAY better than we feed ourselves.
Letting a pet eat food not designed for its body or letting it overeat to the point of obesity would be animal cruelty.
The RSPCA would come.
No RSPCA for overweight humans or ones that are going to cost society a fortune in ill health as they get older. Or their children.
We just wait until they are ill then use our resources to fix them.
We see a really overweight Dog and we pity it because we know his little joints and heart will be suffering.
And we cast a disapproving eye at its neglectful owners.
If you want a treat – have a bloody treat – on special occasions, but recognise that a bit more great food and exercise is necessary to counterbalance it.
Short-term quick fixes would have been laughed at by Rose’s generation, and they knew a thing or two.
Keep it simple, manageable and maintainable.
If you want to lose some weight: up the exercise. Make sure your healthy diet is one you and your family can keep up..
Make sure you feed yourself better than your pet.
Good protein, pulses, fruit, vegetables, complex carbohydrates….
that’s what humans are supposed to eat.
It is not rocket science…it is the wisdom of ages.
And if Rose says it…it must be true.
p.s. She left me with this:
“Life begins at 40, dear — but so do fallen arches, rheumatism, faulty eyesight, and the tendency to tell a story to the same person, three or four times.”
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