How Your Friends Make It Easy to be Healthy: Cutting Down on Pizza & Wine
He cut down on pizza; I cut down on white wine
March: Cutting Down on Pizza & Wine
This is a diary of the healthy lifestyle goals that my son, Chris, and I are making together each month…beginning with the story of how it all started.
Every year, even though we are not religiously Catholic, my son and I tell each other what we are giving up for Lent. I was raised that way, so I kept the habit.
My son, Chris, is now an actor in New York. Although he lives far away now, we keep in touch by phone between visits. We missed the start of Lent this year. When we began discussing our diet downfalls, it was just a few weeks before Easter.
When Chris and his sister, Kari, were growing up, I had a strong network of support from other moms. Someone suggested putting on music, lighting a candle and having a glass of wine when cooking dinner every day. That became my way of making food in the spirit of love for those I was serving.
I still have that habit. I quit my beloved red wine because I discovered that it made my skin break out, but I replaced it with white wine. Even though I never liked white wine, I still couldn’t seem to break the ritual of having a glass of wine every evening.
Then, recently, I read that wine and sugar are aging. So I was thinking I should have less of it.
Now, over to Chris. He is always on the go. He walks miles every day getting to auditions, appointments, meetings, social events and various acting and producing jobs. So he picks up a giant slice of pizza on his way, or a sandwich with soda pop at the deli, or a burger, or whatever is quick and portable. Since he loves pizza so much, he has it way too often. 
So we made a deal that during the month of March, I would only have wine once a week and he would only have pizza once a week. The first week was murder!
Actually, the first day, I was on my way home from work thinking about dinner and I suddenly panicked. I couldn’t have wine with my salad and torta like I always did. What was I going to drink with my meal? I shuddered to think about how much less enjoyable it would be without the wine.
But I also thought about how I often feel tired after having a glass of wine and then don’t feel like doing things. When I looked in the refrigerator, it didn’t look so bad. There were other things to drink that would be acceptable.
A co-worker is addicted to pop and continues to drink it even though she is diabetic. She stopped for a while and the diabetes cleared up. But then she started drinking it again and the diabetes came back.
Then one day I read an article about how many ways it damages the body. It was shocking! It causes obesity, heart attacks, diabetes, kidney problems, reproductive issues, osteoporosis, asthma, and bad teeth. In the end, it shortens your life!
I began to avoid regular pop and began to substitute it with diet pop, but I knew that diet pop was said to be a possible cause of brain tumors. So I totally quit drinking soda pop about six months ago. I replaced it with Perrier water, which I enjoy almost as much. Sometimes I make it a spritzer, mixing Perrier with juice. I also like Perrier with lemon or lime in it.
Anyway, Perrier came to the rescue again! That first night, I had Perrier with my salad and torta and was reasonably happy.
The second week, Chris texted me “I would kill for some pizza right about now,” followed by three pizza slice emojis. (Of course, he would have eaten a whole pizza, not just three slices!) Soon after, I felt like I would kill for a glass of wine. It seems that the middle of the month was the hardest.
After a whole month passed, though, we both felt that we were competent enough to sustain our lower level of wine and pizza consumption. In fact, we were so happy with the results, that we made a deal for April. He will cut his daily consumption of pop to twice a week and I will cut down on sweets. Specifically, when I have wine, I won’t have any sweets at all that day. On the other days, I’ll stick with smaller amounts.
To be continued…
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