Grace in Your Second Act by Florence LaRue & Jenny Paschall

Author:Florence LaRue & Jenny Paschall [LaRue, Florence & Paschall, Jenny]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781664227071
Publisher: WestBow Press
Published: 2021-05-10T04:00:00+00:00

Chapter 14

Diet

What we have is “sickness” care.

—Maggie Kuhn

Webster’s dictionary gives several definitions for the word diet. Most people focus on “to cause or choose to eat less.” I prefer “the food and drink regularly consumed.” I like to look at diet as a way of eating, not just eating to lose weight. After all, some people need a diet to gain weight. But no matter where you are on the scales, it’s important to remember that diet plays a key role in how we age. I’m five feet, two, and prefer to weigh 120 pounds. I’m always working on those last five pounds, but I like a little meat on my bones so I’m not fanatical.

Back in the 1960s, when The 5th Dimension was just beginning, we had an arranger, Rene de Knight, in his fifties, who we, in our twenties, considered an older man. We labeled Rene a “health nut!” He did strange things like stand on his head and eat health food! Despite these idiosyncrasies, Rene traveled with the group and never got sick. Then I began to wonder, Was that despite his odd habits, or because of them? Well, due to Rene’s influence, I became the “health nut” in the group. I developed an interest in juicing, diet, exercise, and anything that affected the body’s health. Losing weight wasn’t an issue (I was a size 2–4), and I rarely even got a cold, but I just wanted to feel my absolute best and ensure I had as much energy as possible without taking drugs, which were all around me. For a couple of years, I even became a vegetarian but found it a difficult challenge while traveling so frequently. It is much easier now that so many people are aware of the health benefits, and there are wonderful vegetarian and vegan restaurants across the country that serve very tasty food.

I won’t prescribe a diet for health, weight gain, or loss because everybody is different and everyone has need of varying amounts of vitamins and supplements. And while I do much research and am quite knowledgeable, I do not consider myself an expert on the subject. I do know that one of the problems with so many of the fad diets is that they are usually too extreme, and while people do lose weight, when they begin to eat normally again; they often gain the weight they lost—plus some. I’ve seen this happen with friends and relatives. I admit I’ve been guilty of crash dieting too. When I wanted to lose a few pounds to get into a particular dress, I’ve eliminated everything white from my diet and cut out all complex carbohydrates for a week. This really isn’t too different from how I normally eat and works without me gaining a lot of excess weight when I return to my more regular diet. Of course, there are sensible diet programs, such as Weight Watchers, that many people have used successfully. There are also good, informative health shows, such as The Dr.

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