What the Heck is Whey Protein?

It's hard to admit that I gained some weight over the holidays. Actually, I gained quite a bit before November and then continued upward on the scale with each appetizer and party goodie I consumed. It didn't help that our financial advisor sent us a huge gift basket filled with sweets and chocolate in every form: cookies, candies, chocolate covered pretzels, white mocha Ghiradelli hot chocolate, and for good measure, almond macadamia nut cookies and butter flavored cookies made with rich creamy butter. Perhaps there is a hidden clause wherein he gets all of our money if he kills me off. Should have read the fine print.

Our son visited us over the holidays and we enjoyed spending time with him. However, I should have known there would be trouble when he said he would eat anything I served, except potato, yeast bread, red meat or chicken. And, by the way, did I have any soy milk, flax seed, and berries? While he would eat fish, he didn't really want salmon because that was all he had had for the last few days. Coming up with meals was going to be a challenge especially since he knocked salmon out of the running. Salmon is my favorite fish as it's easy, delicious, usually fresh and available. The remaining fish at the store are either exorbitantly expensive, endangered, or smelly and old. At least he would eat vegetables and salad and told me to go ahead and make anything I wanted for the rest of us. I really did want to make him happy. What good mother wouldn't want to please her son when he was good enough to drive 8 hours to visit?

When he was a baby, I made all of his baby food from scratch. Nothing from a jar for him. I cooked liver (it used to be considered good for you), steamed vegetables without salt (too much salt in the processed jars back then), and pureed everything in a gizmo similar to a food mill as the home cooks didn't have food processors. So, what had changed? If I was willing to cook only the healthiest foods for my baby, why not for my 34-year old? Was it because he had rejected my healthy food when he was old enough to make his own decisions around age 10? Now here he was, coming back into the fold, and I was rejecting his healthy food. Perhaps it's because my own healthy eating habits had slipped a tad and I wasn't ready to change.

He looked great and was full of energy all day. If anything or anyone was going to change my eating habits and spur me on to lose weight, he was it! Every morning the blender would come out and he would concoct a shake of soy milk, berries, some type of oil from the health food store, flax seed, and whey protein. For lunch he would have a veggie burger over mixed greens. Dinner was a variety of cooked greens such as Swiss chard or kale, another vegetable, a huge salad and the occasional piece of fish. Not only did he eat well, he exercised.

The first time we went to the gym together I was finishing up after my half hour of walking and he asked, "Done so soon?" Chagrined, I stayed another 30 minutes. But, hey, he is used to exercising. Back home he gets up at 5:00 a.m. every morning to lead a boot camp class outdoors. I think I'm exercising by getting out of bed at 7:30 and driving my cart around the golf course.

So far I have dropped four pounds. I'm taking the remainder of the gift basket items to the home where mom lives. Though I'm not yet ready for whey protein, there are more vegetables on our plates, I'm hooked on veggie burgers, and I'm visiting the gym more often. I take pride in knowing that what I taught my son years ago he is now teaching me.