On the heels of a life disrupting experience you really do get a bird’s eyes view of your group and, by group, I mean community. Suffice it to say I am one lucky bird.
My family and I ate the last of our “healthy meals” as provided by our group last week. We will miss getting bags of carefully and lovingly prepared dinners and grab and go snacks, but it is time for us to fend for ourselves. We are ready! But wow! What a parade of food and support it was. We will be forever grateful for every morsel (and bottle of wine) and for our group. It was like getting hugs delivered every day.
What was also totally lovable about all of this is that my wildly knowledgeable nutritionist niece Abigail, who provided all of the nutritional guidelines for our game and generous participants, was so wholly included in most of the packages. As my family was in recovery mode we (my friend Christine S. and I) thought it would be helpful to have our meals be as healthy as possible. Our mindset was that food is medicine and the healthier our food the faster we would recover. We charged Abigail with doling out healthy food parameters to our kind human angels.
As such, some foods came labelled “Abby friendly” or “Not Abby Friendly” or “Sshh don’t tell Abby” or “when you’ve had enough of healthy” or “Cooked Per Abby” or “Abby’s email was slightly threatening” or “we are just sending this so didn’t need to follow rules” and more. I pictured people surreptitiously looking around the lobby when they did their food drop off worried perhaps that Abigail might pop up from behind the desk to inspect the goods. With all of the Abby references it was like having Abigail back with us in NYC, which was a little gift all in itself. We miss having her here!
To me, Abigail is still the wee young thing I used to push on a swing for hours, take sledding, and get lured away from the adult dinner table for playtime with elsewhere. She is the teenager and college kid who would visit Montauk and sleep until noon earning her and her friend the title dungeon girls. And now here she is, telling my pretty sophisticated and in the know New Yorker friends what to do…and they (for the most part) listened. And they should!
My girl Abigail knows what she is talking about. When she visits these days we incessantly pepper her with all of our “food” questions and she always has the most thorough, thoughtful, and sensible answers (some of our most pressing questions are answered here). She will laugh out loud at some of the above labels. Of all of the things Abigail is, stringent is NOT one of them.
Abigail is big into habits – embracing good, healthy habits while gradually chipping away at the bad habits with patience. She is anti-diet, but pro making savvy choices that involve real food, a lot of greens, and balance with the ultimate goal of optimizing one’s health and wellness. She knows that if this falls into place, other good stuff will too (she calls this the waterfall effect).
Philosophically @spoonfulofabby wants to simplify healthy eating and does not want you to have to make huge sacrifices to do it. She will happily talk about this for hours over healthy pours of Chardonnay (I admire that). She will also eat (some) of that muffin and enjoy a Levain cookie, but on her terms. I admire this too. To read my post Eat Like Abby and learn some helpful nutrition advice click here.
We loved having Abigail back in our lives even if just from a reference standpoint. To have more of Abigail in your life visit her website or follow her on insta @spoonfulofabby. With all of the brownies and Levain cookies we have been fortunate to receive, even my most favorite and forgiving yoga pants are a little snug. I may have to hire her as my nutritionist. Maybe we could get a group discount?? She is working remotely and accepting new clients. Covid silver lining. Reach out!
