How my daughter changed my life

I had never paid attention to the good and bad of food. Of course you grow up knowing that fruits and veggies are good for you. I'm talking about the words you can't pronounce and the artery clogging ingredients in food. Who knew about that?

The only veggies I ate were either beans ( I'm Puerto Rican ) and corn or string beans out of the can. I got a bit of fruit from my grandmother and peaches from free lunch in the summer time.

But I had tons of other crap. From the " butter " my mom used, the free "cheese" we got or the kool aid we drank, with tons of sugar, of course. We would eat spam like it was going out of business and potted "meat" and crackers was slamming. And my favorite of all time, large cans of Ravioli, with white bread and Pepsi. I would dig in the pot and sneak more every time we had it, I loved it.
My mom the whole time doing the best she could, of course!

My grandmother would make a sweet treat called limbe, don't know if  I'm spelling it right, probably not, but it was good and sweet. It was made with sweet condensed milk ( which I would guzzle ) coconut milk, cream and sugar of course. She would freeze it and we would eat it in the summer time. Her (white) rice pudding was also full of sugar and good. She would also fry white rice and we would eat bags of it. My grandmother did always have mangoes and a fruit she called "Chinese apple" come to find out it was really pomegranate, so there goes some fruit.

Growing up I ate tons of junk food - the savory kind and the sweet kind.  I would sit on the steps of my building and eat $2 ribs tips from the Chinese spot. Sandwiches made with $1 packs of "deli meat" with gov. cheese and no name brand bread. Now and laters, lemon heads, bags and bags of chips. I'm surprised my fingers are not permanently orange from all the bags of crunchy cheese doodles I would eat. I could go on and on about the gross - good food - I ate, but I digress!
The point was we were poor and had no clue about how to eat well. Nor would we have had  the money to buy the "better food" if we did.

Fast forward years and years, I'm out of work and have ample time to fall in love with watching cooking on T.V.  I'm not cooking yet but am obsessed with watching.
Next, I give birth to my daughter, I'm over weight not by much but enough and I join Weight Watchers with my sister hoping for some help to lose weight. It was an ok experience but I stop going. I did get something from it. Even though I was watching cooking shows, there wasn't a big emphasis on health. I got eating brown rice, veggies and lean meat from Weight Watchers.

When it was time for my daughter to eat real food, I wanted it to be "good" food. She had already been drinking formula with DHA and HRA in it, which is good for the brain and eye development. I learned that by researching the best formula for infants, since she had not taken to breastfeeding. I just wanted to build on that beginning.

I took what I learned about healthy food at Weight Watchers and started learning more and even started cooking. I was now reading ingredients when I shopped.
I have a bad stomach and even had a hernia repaired. I'm pretty sure my diet had something to do with that. With the knowledge I had gained there was just no way my daughter was going to eat like I did.

So this is where my healthy eating journey starts. The little knowledge I had gotten changed me, actually scared me. From then on I started watching everything we ate.

Now I know some stuff.  I'm also learning all the time. I have a good friend who's been a chef for 20 years, another who is a new chef (vegan) and a couple of good ole foodie friends. We talk food all the time. Learning about health and food has become my passion!

The press person at my job last year came to me and said the Daily News wants to interview a single mom about her food shopping on a budget in the city, will you do the interview? I thought nobody wants to hear about what I do and buy, but she said, yes they do.
I did the article and was pleasantly surprised by the response. It wasn't all good, cause I didn't know much yet, but it wasn't all bad either. I thought, maybe I have something here.

In this blog I just hope to share what I know, what works for me and what I continue to learn with anyone who cares. 

I'm certainly no expert by any means, not a Chef or a Nutritionist. And anyone who reads my blog should definitely do their own research regarding anything I post.

So this is my intro.

Until next time, I wish everyone good health, peace and blessings

Lcyerra