December 10, 2013 - "Cooking For My Memory"

I want to begin today and share some great news. Many of you ask on a regular basis about the status of my devotional cookbook. Saturday, I received the edited/proofed draft for me to begin reading and adding comments. I burst into tears as the sobering moment consumed me. I did text a few of you, but wanted to share the news with the remainder of my health family. I went following church on Sunday and had a spiral bound, hard copy produced as the publisher asked. Cool to go back to pick it up and see your first manuscript laying on the counter of Office Depot. But the coolest thing happened when several of the Life Group members arrived Sunday evening. All of the sudden we realized that several of us, several of you, have played a role in this journey. Your love and support is priceless to me! Paulette and I burst into tears and grabbed each other in tight hugs. It was quite a moment! Also wanted to share, we had a GREAT Life Group meeting! The light mac and cheese with quinoa noodles was a hit and the red velvet cake, as Mary said, "tasted illegal." Our next meeting will be January 5th and we will add the next layer of monthly accountability. We will weigh-in. We will not share how MUCH we weigh, only if we have lost or gained from the previous month. Spring swimsuits - here we come. (wink) As you know, we have been working through the "Experiencing God" series on Wednesday nights and I have really been challenged in some areas. One of them is in memorizing the weekly verses with each unit. I would love to announce that memory work comes easy for me. Oh no - really have to work at it. I have to make mental pictures, create links in my brain, tease myself and rehearse a lot. Then I have to reason with myself that I have an IPhone and an IPad and a Mac. Who needs memory? Right? I am so used to going to the favorites on my IPhone and calling, I have a hard time remembering my friend's cell phone numbers when asked. Am I the only one? But I am reminded that keeping my mind sharp through memory exercises is a great component of my long-term health. I was reading an article that actually suggests that the process of cooking and planning meals is one of the best exercises to keep one's memory sharp. The article stated that as easy as most of us feel cooking is, there are a lot of cognitive steps involved. Even simple things like cooking 2 eggs over easy requires reasoning and memory. Go figure. So the moral of today's blog - cook. Cook for your heart - cook for your mind - cook for your long-term BEST health. And...I wonder if going through the drive through is not only adding to our hip measurements but decreasing our ability to remember? HUM????? Talk tomorrow - PK