It's Easter Sunday and I hope everyone collected a bunch of chocolate eggs. :D
I got into a small conflict and I thought it would be interesting to reflect upon it and share it with you guys.
I know I have wrote a bit about how I was raised but this morning, John made me pancakes and I asked him, how come there was no fruit on the pancakes. John ate his pancakes plain with syrup.
I was telling him I know this isn't a habit in his family and this is going to be a hard reminding yourself to eat some fresh fruit. We are in a health/exercise competition. No one is perfect and there is always room for improvement.
I came from a family where they value their health (I think it's a Korean thing. The culture values health foods like ginseng, royal jelly, roasted chestnuts and sweet potatoes) and it is important that you develop healthy behaviours like exercising and eating healthily. My mother and her siblings are physically active and are vegetarians. They do things like golf, tennis, walking/hiking, badminton and etc. They are healthy. I don't know anyone in my family who had to get surgery or go on medications. Only my mother who has really bad hypertension (blood pressure) which is genetic. And my aunt who recently got cancer. My mother still goes for her regular walks and plays badminton. You don't need a lot of money to be healthy. Climb a flight of stairs or something! :D
(A woman just walked past me. I'm on my laptop on the stairs stealing my boyfriend's uncle's internet signals on the staircase of our new apartment since we don't have our internet hooked up. ) O.O" how awkward!
I look at my boyfriend and their family. Their health is going downhill. No exercise. No fresh healthy foods from a store or the market. A lot of cheap foods in their kitchen.
I realized after living independently, your parents instil their values into you and they become your values. So one of the values that my parents instilled in me is, "Eat it because of benefits and it is good for you."
As a child I hated sushi. My dad always forced me to eat sashimi telling me its good for me. I cried complaining it was fishy, wet and slimy as I ate it. Eventually, I acquired the taste of raw fish.
Another one was beans in rice. Korean people put barley and different types of beans and things in their rice in the pressure cooker. As a kid, I preferred plain white rice with nothing in it. My dad saw me one time pick out all of the beans and neatly making a pile on one corner of my plate. My father got upset and told me, "Eat the beans! They are good for you!" Again I cried and whined complaining, "The beans don't taste good!" But I ate them because I would get into deeper trouble if I continued to resist.
You guys are probably reading this thinking, "This girl's father was cruel and mean!"
But in the end, I realized my parents knew what they were doing. I never had to be hospitalized to be operated for bowel obstruction or malnutrition. I learned some parents seriously give whatever their kid demands and their kid ends up severely constipated to a point they require surgery. I don't take any regular medications. I am in good health and I am happy and grateful that my mother and father fed me healthily, and kept me physically active as I grew up. It would probably been devastating to my parents if I had to be on a blood cholesterol pill or a blood pressure pill on life.
My little argument with my boyfriend reminded me of my parents, "Yes, it is good to eat foods for their benefits because your body will thank you in the long-run."
I know I just posted up 2 blogs: one was for socializing and the other was a treat/gift from John. I think it is about balance. You can go out to eat fast foods but you need to establish a rule or monitor yourself , whatever works for you to be more conscious of how much junk or unhealthy foods that are consumed.
I made a good habit of eating home cooked meals which is privately blogged on my other website. I started to develop a good habit of exercising. If I don't have time, I would sneak in some crunches and push ups and planks before I go to bed. This exercise/health competition is getting more intense as the last day is creeping by. I really want my beach body back! :D
So I really wanted to ask you.
What types of food do you eat and why? It is for pleasure, health or a bit of both?
It is for the convenience? The taste? It's cultural?
