Written by: Ariel Winn, MD
As a mother, wife, pediatrician, and athlete, my days are packed with responsibilities and challenges. Over the years, I have prioritized the needs of my children and job over my own health and well-being. My diet consisted of quick and easy meals, such as buttered noodles and chicken fingers, and exercise was limited to chasing after my children.
However, over the past year, I have given my own health and well-being a seat at the (very crowded) table. My journey started by re-introducing daily exercise into my day and I began to feel strong again. I started to prioritize sleep, and unsurprisingly, I felt less tired and more energized. And lastly, I started reading about research on longevity (Drs. Attia, Ludwig, and Sinclair, to name a few) and the role that nutrition can play in health. I experimented with some of the strategies to promote longevity. Some things worked for me, and some did not. For example, I failed out of intermittent fasting. I was too cranky without food in the mornings, and I realized it was not worth it to me, a decision that my family supported. I started paying attention to the glycemic index of foods, sources of antioxidants, micronutrients, polyphenols, and more. I started cooking protein-rich meals and traded handfuls of goldfish for healthier snacks such as almonds.
As a busy mom, the most hectic part of my day is the mornings. I must get three kids out of bed, dressed, fed, and out the door with packed backpacks in time for school. In those moments, I don't have enough time to prepare a nutritious meal for myself, and am thankful for products such as Goode Health, which allow me to quickly prepare an easy-to-make, delicious drink packed with nutritious ingredients to start my day. Prioritizing health sometimes means going for a long run or preparing a home-cooked meal from scratch. Sometimes, it means hitting the “easy button.” For me, Goode Health is that “easy button”.
Lastly, before having children, I always imagined that I would feed them the most nutritious food. As a parent of three relatively picky eaters, that is not always the case. However, by watching me prioritize exercise, sleep, and nutrition, I hope that it will influence them to make similar choices as they grow up.
