Previously: Shevi has a long talk with her father about dance class and the family making healthy choices.
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Mommy and Abba had agreed; I didn’t need to go back to the dance class! The stress I’d felt ever since Mommy had mentioned the dance class for the first time slowly melted away, like a big cone of vanilla chocolate-chip ice-cream left outside on a hot, dry day.
In the meantime, Monday rolled around again. We went back to the dietician together, Mommy and I. When we parked, I noticed Mommy’s tense expression. But this time I knew she wasn’t only upset because of me, she was nervous herself, too.
Mrs. Rich greeted us with a big, friendly smile and I felt myself relax into the chair across from her desk. She wasn’t as bad as I had expected her to be before we’d started coming.
I told Mrs. Rich that I was practicing eating slowly and taking the time to enjoy each bite before shoveling in the next. I told her that I remembered that it takes my brain 20 minutes to realize that I’d eaten, and that I was trying to wait before taking seconds. She beamed at me and told me that it sounded like I was making great progress, which made me happy and made Mommy smile a bit.
Then Mrs. Rich took out a colorful, laminated placemat. It had a big circle, like a plate, right in the middle of it, and a round circle for a cup on the top right. The plate was divided: one half was green, one quarter was red and one quarter was yellow.
“Like we discussed,” Mrs. Rich said, “We are here to discover how to live a healthy life. Our bodies are our tools, and we only get one set of tools. So we have to take care of our tools, our body, very carefully. When we live in a way that makes our bodies healthy, we can keep them going strong for many more years. If we mistreat our bodies, we can expect them to start breaking down. Unbalanced eating, and a sedentary lifestyle, can cause diseases, pain, and a shortened life-span.”
I glanced at Mommy nervously. Mrs. Rich was making me feel really anxious. And she was using big words. “What’s sedentary?” I asked, taking a deep breath.
“Good question, Shevi!” Mrs. Rich beamed at me. “Sedentary means without moving, spending most of your day sitting or lying down, like at the computer or reading books and at school.”
Oh. Like me.
Mrs. Rich told us that every person in the world, regardless of his or her weight, needs to follow some rules to increase the chances of keeping his or her body healthy.
She tore a paper off a pad on her desk and wrote in clear, big letters:
What TO eat/drink
What to AVOID eating/drinking
The AMOUNT to eat/drink
Enough exercise
Enough sleep
“This is what we will be discussing over the next few sessions together,” Mrs. Rich explained. “If we don’t know what we should be eating, then our bodies won’t receive the nutrients that they need to function well and to grow. Especially for you, Shevi – these are years of great growth and development, and if your body doesn’t get the vitamins, minerals and nutrients that it needs, it won’t be able to do its job well.” She paused to take a breath and to make sure that we were still listening. “No less important is what we shouldn’t feed our bodies. When we give our bodies things that can harm it, we are destroying our health with each bite.”
I squirmed.
“Of course, it’s also critical to know how much to eat,” she continued, pointing at number 3 on the list. “If we eat too little, it can be dangerous, and if we eat too much, it can be harmful. So we’ll talk about amounts, and portion control, too.”
I was starting to get overwhelmed. I glanced at Mommy. She seemed to be deep in concentration and was focusing on every word Mrs. Rich was saying. I forced myself to pay attention, too.
“Exercising and moving around is a big part of staying healthy, too. And when we don’t get enough sleep – which is especially important for children and teenagers – our bodies have a harder time feeling full, and we can crave things that are harmful for our body; things that give us false energy.”
Mrs. Rich smiled at us. “Here we have a 5-part plan to excellent health. We’ll discuss every part of it over the next few weeks.” She glanced at me. “Don’t worry, Shevi. It looks overwhelming, but we’re all here, in this together. You won’t be alone for a moment. And of course,” she continued, looking at Mommy, “as we’ve said in the past, this goes for every member of the family. We all need to live a healthy life-style, regardless of our weight.”
To be continued…