When I introduce myself, I seldom forget to announce that I grew up believing potato chips and chocolates are inaccessible. It's not as though I never saw them, I just rarely ever indulged in them. I know what you're thinking, which 10-year-old doesn't eat junk food? I'm here to tell you that we exist. This rare breed of kids that grew up in an environment of balanced meals, flax seeds and forced mugs of milk. Don't worry though, my mother doesn't hate me, she's just a Nutritionist. Growing up with her was challenging and rewarding in ways that altered my brain chemistry. Today, I'm healthy, I have great skin and I have this incessant need to calculate my protein intake.
Wellness is a concept that children aren't really told about until suddenly you're 16 with acne and an addiction to aerated drinks. You never stop to think about your lifestyle because no one ever told you that you should. You never calculate your carbs until all the women around you are gunning for flat stomachs and taking reformer pilates. Your world changes in the blink of an eye, you're grown up and nobody even mentioned nutrition. It's daunting being a teenager around girls who seem like they're better than you in every shape and form. It's hard to grow up and suddenly be conscious of your body, your lifestyle and your choices. It's a universal experience. I had the same insecurities but the only difference was that someone in my home was monitoring everything I consumed.
My mother is a force of nature. Nothing ever gets past her. As a child, my mission was to hide the alarming amounts of chocolate I was consuming. Hers was simply to ensure I ate only whole wheat multi-grain bread, quinoa and lentils. She needed my lunch to just be healthy food like vegetables, a roti, rice, lentils, salad and topped off with buttermilk. She needed my evening snack to be fruits and my dinner to be interestingly healthy. She would come up with the most absurd recipes and manage to feed me something that I would never dare to question the contents of. My childhood was a series of Greek, Italian, Indian, Lebanese, Peruvian dishes you've never heard of. She would switch out ingredients in recipes for healthier alternatives. She would mix anything she felt like and my brother and I would have no choice but to eat it. My normal meals were exotic to an outsider.
With a mom like that, you'd assume I grew up health-conscious. Maybe I should be a fitness enthusiast but I like a packet of potato chips as much as the next person. I'm not a gym girl, I'm not the person that would pick a salad over a burger and I'm definitely not as careful about my well-being as my mother. But, I do have a nutrition trick or two up my sleeve that only growing up with a nutritionist can teach you.
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The author shares how growing up with a nutritionist mother shaped her awareness of balanced meals, healthy habits, and a mindful relationship with food and wellbeing.
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It highlights simple nutrition principles and daily habits like balanced meals, mindful snacking, protein intake, hydration, and understanding food labels and fats.
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The article explains how consistent healthy eating improves skin, hair, and overall wellness, while emphasizing moderation and sustainable habits over strict dieting.
