My Scheme for Healthier Eating

So I’m trying to eat healthier, like probably lots of you. But how to achieve it? Over a lifetime of unhealthy eating I’ve tried lots of fixes but what I think I need is rewards. Good ones!

(That’s how I quit smoking back in my 20s, using SmokeEnders. We were told to calculate the money we would have spent on cigarettes and then to treat ourselves with it a year later.  It’s hard to believe now but my reward was a week in Martinique!  And that’s when cigarettes were dirt cheap.)

Back to food, I decided to take action the day after Christmas, which I think of as my “bottom” in addiction terminology – my addiction being to sugar.

My healthier eating scheme includes giving myself rewards of pure-fun money for each week that I succeed at just two goals:

  • Eating no sweets, defined roughly as added sugars. For me there’s no moderating of sugar; I have to abstain altogether. It’s worked for me once – 18 months sugar-free until I made a Thanksgiving exception that sent my eating steadily downward.
  • Not eating past 6 pm. Time-restricted eating within an 8-hour window keeps my weight where I want it without having to think about it.

And so far, so great! In four weeks I feel great and have accumulated some money, money I needed to spend according to my scheme. (Twist my arm.)

Orchids as a Reward

Normally the only thing I enjoy shopping for is plants, and now it’s the dead of winter so choices are limited. But I have one orchid in my kitchen window sill and room for two more, and a very pretty garden had just gotten in a truckload of them so – timing!

I eyed the orchid choices for quite a while, wanting them all, then selected two that fit on the window sill and – I’m hoping but don’t have enough information to really know – are the easiest to keep alive.  My picks – Casa Orchid ‘Petite’ and ‘Waterfall’ – have tags telling me to water them every 14-21 days and fertilize monthly. Does that sound right you, any readers who know anything about orchids? (Coz I don’t.)

And what type are they, I’d like to know and wish the tag had told me. Here I learned that ‘Waterfall’ is a type of  Phalaenopsis. I’m not sure what the ‘Petite’ tells me – just that it’s short. And is this care info correct?

Orchid Book to the Rescue?

The same day I brought my new orchids home I got an email containing the PDF of a new book about orchids – Saving Orchids by Philip Seton and Lawrence W. Zettier. It’s rare that I’m offered a book to review that I actually read, I’ll confess, but this one I definitely will and maybe even review here. It’ll be a nice companion to my orchid-gazing at the kitchen sink.

Van Gogh Kimono as Reward

Another reward, kinda plant-related, is this kimono of Van Gogh’s nature paintings that I found at the National Gallery of Art.

If you’re wondering what happened to my head in the photo, I cropped it off before posting to the free blogger.com blog I created about my healthier eating scheme. It’s another tool, an anonymous space online for accountability and for gathering images of all the cool things I buy for myself as rewards. Plus menu ideas, and more.

Best Reward of All – Frankie the Kitten!

Now you may suspect that I bought the orchids just so I could show off these next photos on a gardenblog and in my defense – sure, maybe subconsciously. But then who’s going to complain about seeing kitten photos?

Frankie with an admirer, and posing alone on the day I adopted him.

I wasn’t thinking of rewards when I stopped at a PetSmart to buy special food for the 5-year-old girl kitty I adopted in August. But as I searched the shelves I heard a cry coming from a cage, holding such a bundle of cuteness that I gasped and was immediately drawn into a lovefest of strokes and purrs.  I couldn’t walk away.

Until I asked myself if I could think of a single reason NOT to take this bundle of joy home. Not coming up with an answer, I quickly filled out the adoption paperwork and an hour later I drove home with him.

I immediately invited my favorite 4-year-old to come visit, anticipating another lovefest, some even-cuter photos, and pure fun to watch.  

I named him Frankie for FDR, and my girl cat is Ellie, for Eleanor Roosevelt. The names feel just right in my home and town that both Roosevelts were involved in designing.

Cat Tree as Reward

With my next chunk of reward money I was back at PetSmart buying this cat tree, fully assembled, thankfully. (No thanks, Internet.) And it was such an instant hit with both cats that I can’t believe I ever pooh-poohed cat trees, thinking that they’re ugly in living rooms. But I don’t mind this one at all.

Shopping for Plants as Self-care

There’s lots of talk about self-care these days – in the media and among my friends – and I’m all in. But what about shopping as self-care? Buying in museums may be new to me but I’ve been plant-shopping and -buying more than ever lately – no matter that my small garden is full. No surprise that it just makes me happier, right?

Definitely the dozens of annual plants I’ve been buying the last few years are worth it every dime, despite being killed off at the end of the season. Just one Lantana,like the one above, gives me constant flowers for six months here in Zone 7b.

And sure, alliums cost more than daffodils and other popular bulbs and don’t last forever and spread, dammit they’re worth it. They add so much more to the garden than my pitiful batches of daffodils. I also surprised myself by spending $250 on a bird bath. My old tightwad ways are loosening up a bit, at least for anything remotely plant-related.

From now on I’m declaring seemingly non-essential and fleeting plants like annuals to be self-care, at least for this gardener. I need color just outside my door, and these more ephemeral plants really lift my spirits.

Reminds me of the old L’Oreal commercial, with Cybill Shepherd defending another type of self-care: “Because I’m worth it!”