Aloha Lovely Butterflies!
Welcome to the very first On Life as a Picky Foodie newsletter where you will find musings, rants, questions and hopefully some answers about how to live life the Picky Foodie way.
Being Picky has gotten a bad rap. In the World English Dictionary, picky is defined as: “having specific and inflexible likes and dislikes and, therefore, hard to please or satisfy.” Most people will go out of their way to avoid being labelled as Picky. But for those of us with food allergies and intolerances, we find we have no choice – it’s speak up or suffer the consequences. This is why I created The Picky Foodie.
For more information about the site and my consultation services, please see below, First, however, a few thoughts...
When I was in Hawaii a few weeks ago, one of the buff surfers I met agreed to lend me his surfboard.
“Go on,” he said, “why don’t you give it a shot.”
His slight smirk indicated that he fully expected me to slip onto and then immediately fall off his retro orange board – it was what I envisioned myself doing as well. However, instead, I hopped on, paddled off and then sat upright, bobbing with the waves, as if I had been doing it all my life.
The man was impressed, as was my husband. Though I was practically born in the water, what I experienced sitting on that surfboard was completely new (like totally mind-blowing dude). I have tried meditating in many different ways and places: I have been to a silent retreat, listened to CDs and sat in as well as downloaded classes but never have I come as close to achieving the feeling of peace that I did on that surfboard.
Let me set the scene: the sun had started to set, the waves were almost nonexistent; rather the deep turquoise water was calm -- more like a rocking chair than a rollercoaster. A group of children were frolicking on the shore alongside a couple of wet, happy dogs. My husband and I had spent the beginning of our vacation turning a deep shade of coconut and indulging in freshly picked papayas, apple-bananas and organic white pineapple. The day before, we had awoken to a school of dolphins taking their morning constitutional a mere few meters in front of the house we had rented.
And then there I was, sitting on the surfboard in my light blue bikini with my feet dangling effortlessly below, watching as the sun dove first behind a fluffy cloud and then into the horizon.
Time seemed to stop – for a moment, an hour, I wished for the week.
They say that as we age, time goes faster. In truth, sixty seconds tick by at the same rate at age three as it does when we are eighty-five. So how come it feels like the older we get, the quicker time slips away?
I remember reading once that what gives us the impression that time is going by at a slower rate is newness: when we explore the unknown, when we experience things for the first time suddenly the tick-tocking of our watches becomes less relevant. Children are constantly seeing, hearing, smelling, tasting, encountering parts of life they have not done before. That is why an afternoon can feel like an eternity to a child.
As adults, we tend to sink into routine – and while routines do offer many advantages like security and comfort, they can also make every day feel a little bit too much like every other.
These days, I like to think of my watch like I do my bathroom scales: both are foreign objects that have way too much power over me. Though I am not always successful at banning either from my life, I do approach them with caution and awareness about the kind of role they play in my overall sense of wellbeing. It is simply unacceptable that I would allow a simple number – be it in kilograms, pounds, minutes or hours – to determine whether I have a good day or a bad one.
My goal is to do something new every day. I try to reach out to an old friend I haven’t spoken to in way too long, cook with a different ingredient, take a route from point A to point B that I might not have explored before. These little changes may not slow time, but they do help make the great moments just a little sweeter.
Aloha!
Gabriela a.k.a. The Picky Foodie
About my company:
In a world where we are brought up to eat what we are served, I created The Picky Foodie in order to help others deal with food allergies and intolerances. What is deemed healthy for one person may mean three days in bed with an upset stomach and a migraine headache for someone else.
The goal of The Picky Foodie is twofold:
- To educate restaurants, hotels and other hospitality services to better cope with patrons and customers who have specific needs.
- To work with individuals and help them in their journeys to better health and overall wellbeing.
As a Picky Foodie myself, I struggled for years to find what works for me – and still sometimes an invitation to an unknown restaurant or a dinner party can mean a whole slew of adventures. But these situations need not be daunting, intimidating or nerve-racking. On the contrary – when you love good food as much as I do, every meal is an opportunity to discover and create new relationships, new dishes and new favourites.
For more information, check out my website at: www.thepickyfoodie.com
If you or someone you know is interested in learning more about either my individual counselling or my corporate training and consulting services, please contact me at:
(For a 10% discount on your first session, mention this newsletter!)
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