One thing I've noticed about retirement. I have a lot more time to think about things that I had no time for before. Thinking can morph into writing and I'm engaged for maybe an hour maybe more--Sometimes this is a good thing....sometimes not so good.
Today I'm thinking about how I'm constantly sucked into the ether that is the internet. I log onto my computer with the express intent of doing one thing---ONE THING!!! Then I get involved with the top stories on the Yahoo search page, or I get engulfed by the flood of what's going on in "Trending Now"--Or I just have to check facebook to see what my friends are doing/saying. Before I know it, an hour has passed.
This morning I got on the computer to check out my checkbook balance and, of course, got sidetracked with one of the Yahoo top stories: "Ten Best Foods For a Healthy Heart". I'm always interested in staying healthy so I took a look. Here they are:
1 - Oatmeal
2 - Salmon
3 - Avocado
4 - Olive Oil
5 - Nuts
6 - Berries
7 - Legumes
8 - Spinach
9 - Flaxseed
10 - Soy
Those of you who know me well know of my strong aversion to oatmeal or anything that looks like hot cereal. This hatred stems way back to the days when my mother used to make me eat hot cereal that had lumps in it. I would gag, but she made me eat it anyway because "it was good for me and a few lumps never hurt anyone". Well I'm here to tell you that eating lumpy cereal has hurt me for life!!! Even now when I can appreciate that she was a single mom with no help and had to make the cereal well before we woke up so that we could have a hot meal before she scurried off to 1 of her 2 jobs--even now, I can hardly look at hot cereal (this includes grits which is a staple here in the south) without activating that automatic gag relex.
Okay, so how I was able to cook and serve Cream of Wheat to my children (who, by the way, loved it--no lumps) is beyond me. Perhaps a mother can do whatever she needs to do to ensure the health of her children? I tease my daughter about her "dorky" diet but I'm secretly proud of her--she loves oatmeal, salmon, berries, nuts---the whole nine. And her mom? I do really well with most of the items on the list. I will admit to "eating stupid" sometimes--that's my family's way of saying that we're eating stuff we know we shouldn't. Somehow I think that if you use the 80/20 rule you'll be OK--eat right 80% of the time and the other 20% will take care of itself--or as my mother used to say "you can have anything in moderation". I guess that does not include stuff you're allergic to! So, I do pretty well but the #1 healthy item?--No way--I've got to subsitute Kashi cold cereal for that.
So after an hour spent on a task that should have taken maybe 10 minutes, I'm blogging about how I feel about oatmeal...hmmmm
Have you eaten your oatmeal today?
I, too, am one who has never been able to eat oatmeal. As a child when my mother would force feed it to me, I would gag because the texture reminded me of worms!! I've learned to get around this and take care of three items on the list at one time by making a berry, oatmeal, flaxseed shake in the morning. I use frozen berries and add some kind of juice plus some cinnamon for flavor and an additional healthful punch. Mmmm - delicious! Try it.
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