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“Meg, you need to change your eating habits now, if you wait much longer it will be too late.”
With that sentence my doctor both scared and motivated me. I haven’t even turned 40 yet when I was diagnosed with diverticulitis, dangerously high blood pressure, and many more conditions that would make someone even twice my age worried. It took a frank discussion with my doctor to realize that I am too young to feel the way I do and that I could be living a better, happier life, if only I wasn’t so stubborn to make some changes.
As I walked through the parking lot to my vehicle I broke out in a sweat, and it had nothing to do with the fact that it was 90 degrees. I was worried. I have kids who range from adult down to toddler; will I be the mother and grandmother I want to be or will I let my health keep me home and miserable? Will I be able to travel when my kids are grown? Do I want to depend on medicine to keep me alive when I have the chance to make my life better now with lifestyle changes? And my worst fear, will I be around to see my kids grow up and have their own kids? Three of my grandparents died in their 60s, two from heart attacks. I live in a time when I have opportunities to make choices my grandparents didn’t have, and I decided that I was going to take them!
That day I made up my mind to change my health and eating habits. Changing our habits isn’t easy, we all know that. I decided to start with one goal: increase my intake of fruits & vegetables by 100%, which is actually quite easy considering I didn’t eat that many to begin with. I like vegetables, I just didn’t eat enough of them. While my mind was made up it was a bit harder convincing my husband. My husband grew up in a family where the same vegetable, canned green beans, was served at every meal. I don’t blame him for disliking vegetables, I would too if that was my primary experience with them.
Challenging ourselves to try new things we tried a cold beet salad at a local cafeteria restaurant, and we both LOVED it. I set out to recreate the recipe the best I could and we were both happy with the result, as were most of my kids. This beet salad is delicious alone but you can make it into a meal by serving it over salad greens with some grilled chicken slices.
A word on beets: don’t use canned beets, use raw beets. A mix of red and yellow, or candy cane-striped heirloom beets like I used make for a pretty salad but the regular red beets you can find in most produce departments will work just fine. I suggest slicing the beets as thin as you can, using a mandolin slicer if you have one.
Raw Beet Salad
8 servings
3 large beets, peeled & julienned
2 or 3 radishes, julienned
1/3 cup balsamic vinegar
2 Tbsp honey
2 Tbsp lime juice
1 tsp salt
cracked pepper to taste
dash dried rosemary
crumbled goat cheese
¼ cup walnut pieces
In a small bowl mix together the vinegar, honey, lime juice, salt, pepper, and rosemary. Pour this dressing over the beets and radishes. Allow the beets to chill for at least 4 hours (overnight is even better), top with goat cheese and walnuts before serving.