What about Cheese Popcorn?

What about my French bread? Pita bread? I have already given up bagels. Now Naan? I love Naan with my Tandori chicken: is that off limits now? The Naan I mean, not the chicken, I can eat that Naan with Tzatziki sauce and grilled chicken all summer long. Wait, is there Gluten in the Tandori sauce? What about Butter chicken?

I started Shrewdsnackers.ca because I saw a friend who had just been diagnosed with Celiac disease, along with her son, and she was desperate and stressed to find snacks for her son that made him not fight the new medical diagnosis. I sympathized with her plight and silently breathed a deep sigh of relief. This wasn't my problem or something that I had to contend with my children either. But I did sympathize with the stress because stressing about your children's well being is the absolute torture.

Two months ago I noticed how tired I became 4pm. I could literally fall asleep standing up. I saw this happen to my mom at 37 and that is when she became a Type 2 Diabetic. Now at 41, I still need to lose another 40 lbs. that I have been trying to lose for at least 20 years. I knew then that I had to change my way of eating or I would become a diabetic. Then I feared that it all the years of bad eating truly out weighted (no pun intended) all the years of better eating and exercise. But I made a change and it was immediate. No Carbs from grains (excerpt rice and oatmeal) before dinner.

The change was instant. My energy shot up and I lost 15 lbs in those 8 weeks. I also lost all bloating around my ankles. 8 of those pounds came from just increasing my water intake, tea consumption, and drinking hot lemon water every morning before anything else. I eat smaller meals and more often. I am definitely hungrier. I still have to figure out the best way to manage that. I don't like thinking about food all the time. That didn't work very well for me for the first 30 years. It's a marathon and not a sprint to good persistent health.

Carbs from grains aren't my friend. I could actually be Gluten-sensitive. I will continue eating this way to get healthier.  

Here is another picture. Not missing a moment.

Where are the pictures of you Mommy?

I take videos and pictures of my kids so we can all remember what they looked like when they were younger. But there are not many pictures of me between my son's birth in 2005 and my daughters in 2007. And there are even fewer pictures of me from 2008-2014.

Why? Because I looked fat or there were too many chins in a picture, or the bags under my eyes were too dark, or my arms were flabby. Why would I want digital proof of the chins, the arms, the bags?

When I turned 40 last year I decided to have a good talk with myself and make myself stop this destructive behavior. I put myself back in the pictures. I tried not to care about additional chins, bags, or soft stomach.

Where had the handful of years gone? How was I to explain to my 7 year-old daughter that Mama doesn't like what her stomach looks like in pictures? How do I help her create the most positive self-image of herself to carry her through the torturous years of puberty when her Mama was still traumatized by bullying in 7th grade?

I said, "stop sucking in your stomach."
I said, "don't worry at what angle the selfie is taken with you and the kid"

I read an article that said little girls do not love their bodies unless their Mamas love their own bodies as well.

What?!!? OMIG-D now I have to LOVE MY BODY so she will love hers?? And that is when it hit me. I have to love me so she will love herself.

That night she walked into bathroom while I was taking a shower. (Because G-d forbid a parent ever gets to take a shower in privacy.) She sits on the toilet and starts tell me about her day. As I listen in the shower she says,

"You are the most beautiful person in the world to me." 

I stood behind the curtain and started to weep. If this is how she sees me then why don't I see myself that way? Well now I do and here we are capturing the memories together.

Why Shrewdsnackers and why now

We all have had people come into and out of our lives and leave their mark on us. One such friend is, Miami-made. She has been a staple in my life since Barnard College circa 1992. She loves me and can be surgically critical of me, my lifestyle, choices, etc. She is critical in a way that pushes me forward to be a better me. Someone who cannot be bothered to chit-chat about bullshit. Someone who has my back but also will not accept any nonsense.

We talk about Shrewdsnackers.ca and what I want to get out of it. I see for myself a better health, longer life, a business idea for my family to live on. Miami-made probes me to answer things that I have not yet figured out. She propels me to see the biggest picture. 

She says "talk about your struggle. How you have been fat and thin everything in between."

She says, "blog about how you lost 60 lbs at fat-camp and I didn't notice because I never saw you as fat."

She says,"if we could just go back to the weight we used to be when we thought we were fat, then we would be happy." 

Only a woman who has struggled with her weight understands that feeling. 

I am an Ex-Pat here in Montreal. As a New Yorker, I am used to access. I enjoy seeing 20 different brands of shampoo offered in the grocery store. I want the ability to access whatever I need to make my life better. Moving to Montreal, has been an adjustment in that area. Getting used to not accessing what I want easily has been torture. 

I took this sense of loss and went one set further. I said that if a parent is trying to access snacks for their kids that are needed due to allergies then there should not be any barrier to entry.

I would create a snack box service where parents could buy snacks for their kids and have them delivered monthly. I would use my marketing skills to create my own niche and I would help parents eliminate unneeded stress.

So why now?

As a permanent resident here in Montreal, Quebec, I consider living here a gift and a luxury. This country, Canada, and province, Quebec, are beautiful. My children attend a fantastic public school where they are becoming bilingual in a French. In the official two years that I have been here I have met many entrepreneurs. In Canada, the government, creates a medical safety net for its citizens. This enables the citizens to reach for their own dreams and actively participate in their Canadian destines.

In the dawn of 2015, I decided to stop waiting and stake my claim. 

I want to live a long, healthy, and stress free life. I want to teach my kids how to approach food in the right way and make great nutritious decisions for themselves. 

We are all in this together. Here is a picture of me with my kids this summer. Chasing great health together.

A Friday with Autumn

What did I do today? I was interested in going for a walk with Autumn in the stroller to start off our day. The walk gets me moving first thing and she enjoys it. She spends most of the time singing to herself, incorporating “twinkle twinkle little star” and the “abcs” and the “sea-saw song” (thank you Diana and Phil.) But today it was raining early. Since I knew I was to be trapped in the house I took Autumn to the to the market and bought some chicken with all the fixings for a nice warm Friday night meal. It made me feel all Jewish and Shabbat-stik. Nice. Comfortable. I stopped to enjoy Autumn loving everything in the store and wanting to walk and touch. Then I stopped enjoying that got Autumn back in the cart so we could get out of there. We came home and I began to cook a delicious chicken feast with carrots, potatoes, gravy, onions and string beans. Autumn wanted to cook with me so I gave her a carrot to play with. She ran around the kitchen talking to the cat “cat eat, cat run, moew moew, cat go downstairs, I coming, get back here!”