By MARY BETH MAASSEN
Los Alamos

My mother prepared three meals a day. It was almost always bacon and eggs in the morning, sandwiches at lunch, and a meat and potatoes dinner complete with an iceberg lettuce salad, and homemade baking soda biscuits. She made this every night. Then the family sat around the table and ate.

Breakfast cereal was seldom seen in her house until long after I graduated from high school. The same with soda. She never had soda in the house unless it was there as a special treat or a guest brought it. We drank ice tea or water, regular tap water with no filter, no fizz, no flavor. We rarely went to restaurants. Occasionally we would eat out for Friday night fish and chips. I think I was in the sixth grade before I had a fast-food meal with a friend.

Regrettably, my own children were subjected to a different eating lifestyle. This was made clear to me one afternoon when I drove up to my mother’s house to pick up my children. My 5-year-old daughter came running out of the house to greet me, excitably shouting, “Guess what Momma! Grandma knows how to make French fries out of potatoes!”

I was a young mother with three small children, and for most of those years a single working mother with three small children. I felt a great sense of accomplishment just to get them fed anything and in bed at a reasonable hour.

Unfortunately, my memories of those years are hazy and ridden with angst and emotional turmoil, and they were certainly the hardest of my life. I didn’t think about where the food I was feeding my family was coming from or how it was raised. Fortunately as adults, my children have largely overcome my parenting shortfalls.

In recent years, I have become much more aware and educated about what I eat and how I eat and how it affects my body and my mind. The changes I have made have improved my physical and mental self. I have lost a few pounds, the rosacea I had for years has resolved, the digestive issues that had plagued me (and those in close proximity to me) have disappeared as well. I feel I am on a good path and I intend to stay on it.

It is not about giving up the foods or habits you love, but rather choosing foods and habits that will love you back.