I was driving around doing some errands before Shabbat a week or two ago and WAMC had a nutritionist named Nicole Rodriguez on their VoxPop call-in show program. OK, I know I could lose weight and all that, but it wasn’t the type of show I was interested in listening to, when something she said caught my attention. Actually, the rest of the show (as much as I heard going in and out of stores) was variations on the same message:
It was about sandwiches. Bread can be a big calorie monster for those on diets. So what’s her take on sandwiches? Here’s what she basically said: The goal isn’t to take away foods, but to add to and enrich them. Suppose you have a deli sandwich, admittedly, not the greatest nutritional food. But how about loading that up with some lettuce and tomato? Even a cucumber for crunch. Pepper strips, too. Or maybe shifting out the white bread for something that’s a heartier whole wheat? Or turn the whole thing into a lighter wrap? So now you still get to eat your deli sandwich but that one sandwich may fill you up a lot more because of all the veggies you stuffed in there. There may be less need to go for a second sandwich plus you got to eat all those healthier veggies, too.
She said the same thing about a BBQ. Yes, men can sit and just eat tons of meat and drink lots of beer. That’s not good. But instead of taking away the meat, think of the sides you can add. Grill up some corn with it, throw on pineapple slices, singe some peppers. Make a spicy cole-slaw, drink a lot of water, but have that beer, too. Focus on things we can add and enrich!
The bottom line of what she said is: You have a food situation. Think of how you can make that better. What healthier option can we add here? How can we change this up for the better? Its more about adding than about taking away, and the more we add in the right direction it will subtract from the wrong direction, without feeling that we’re losing out. Longer-term, she says, this approach is more sustainable and effective for most people.
I walked out of the car realizing that Nicole Rodriguez is more of a psychologist/therapist than a food nutritionist, but the truth is that for anything to work it has to deal with our mentality first.
But surely, I am not here (and I am certainly not the one!) to share with you a nutrition lesson! But there’s a lot more to this than just a food message.
I heard this show on the car radio in the month of Elul, the month of repentance and return leading up to Rosh Hashanah and the High Holidays. It’s a time to make a reckoning of the year, to look back and reflect, to see where we need to improve and change. One approach is to focus on negative behaviors or character traits and try to change them. Another approach, like Nicole’s with food, is to see areas we can add, where we can enrich. The more good choices we add to the mix, the more positive add-ons and fill-ins, will begin to change the chemistry and character over time. In the old texts, it can be likened to the difference between “turn away from evil” vs. “do good” in the Psalms 34 verse, or as the difference in emphasis between the Chassidus vs. Mussar movements.
Take some time this Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur to envision our daily activities, look through our daily routine, and see where we can infuse a little more Judaism, a little more Torah study, another Mitzvah, to add and increase a little more involvement. Its like adding lettuce and tomato, cucumber and peppers to the sandwich. And it will change it all for the better!