FIRST THOUGHT: Food for Thought
No matter who we are or where we are, we all have something in common. First, no matter what language we speak, smiling and laughing are things we can all understand and embrace. Second, everyone has got to eat, and most of us really love it.
Those things go hand in hand because, I don’t know about you, but when I have to wait an hour to get a seat at a restaurant, I get real cranky.
Many of us also have a difficult relationship with food. We shame ourselves for eating too much or eating unhealthy things or failing to actually make all those recipes we pin on Pinterest. Today, let go of the nasty things you say to yourself. Every day is a new day and a new chance to make a change.
WOMEN IN NUMBERS: 40 Percent
Some facts are hard to stomach. Today’s Women in Numbers is one of them. According to the President’s Council on Fitness, Sports & Nutrition, 40 percent of what 2- to 18-year-olds in the country eat consists of empty calories from added sugars and solid fats.
Not only that, but half of those empty calories come from foods like pizza, soda, fruit drinks, whole milk, dairy desserts or grain desserts.
WOMAN TO WATCH: Melissa Joulwan, Best-selling Cookbook Author, Food Blogger and Paleo Diet Authority
Melissa Joulwan has rolled her way into becoming a pioneering Paleo Diet expert. She started her career in the corporate world, working as a creative director and content strategist, but she realized that world just wasn’t for her.
After quitting her traditional job, she stopped comparing her career path to those of others. It worked. She began blogging about fashion, and embraced her flexible career.
Joulwan has long been one who carves her own path, and isn’t bothered by the dust she kicks up in the process. She was a founding member of the Texas Rollergirls, the first flat-track roller derby league in the world and an organization that helped skyrocket the sport of roller derby in the modern era and around the globe. Joulwan even wrote a book about her derby experience called Rollergirl: Totally True Tales From the Track, released in 2007. By the way, her rollergirl alter-ego name was Melicious.
In 2009, Joulwan found another passion: the Paleo lifestyle. She had struggled with her weight since childhood and started eating Paleo to lose 15 pounds. She’s been hooked ever since. A catchy way to describe Paleo is the acronym JERF: Just Eat Real Food. A Paleo diet centers on avoiding inflammatory foods, which were not part of our ancestors’ meals. That’s why you often hear it called the “caveman diet.”
This healthy lady puts it simply: Avoid those enticing bags of Doritos, and instead, chow down on food that started with a little bit of sun, dirt and rain. Her dedication to creating healthy, tasty Paleo recipes has gained her an impressive reputation in the Paleo community and tons of blog followers, which led her to write two wildly successful cookbooks: Well Fed: Paleo Recipes for People Who Love to Eat and Well Fed 2, and another cookbook is in the works.
Joulwan has emerged as one of the foremost experts on this lifestyle. Readers are drawn to her no-B.S. approach to recipes and tips of the trade. In an interview with TV personality and chef Andrew Zimmern, Joulwan said her family is the most happy when they’re chopping and simmering away in the kitchen, so it’s no surprise she finds joy in sharing her love of developing recipes for fans throughout the world.
QUITE THE QUOTE
You are what you eat, as they say. That’s why the Greek physician and “father of Western medicine” Hippocrates said:
“Let food be thy medicine and medicine be thy food.”
This is Melinda Garvey signing off until next time. Remember, ladies, empowered women empower other women. Share On the Dot so more women can have a voice. Thanks for getting ready with us.
To learn more about our conversation, check us out at OnTheDotWoman.com and talk to us @OnTheDotWoman on Twitter and Instagram. We’d love to hear your voice.