Our New Anahuac

“You can bequeath investments.  You can bequeath wealth, but you can also bequeath knowledge from one generation to the next”-Ryan Mack on CNN

I fully believe that only a holistic approach to improving our gente will ultimately lead to our liberation and to Our Restoration (O/R).  However, dealing with our community holistically is a gigantic task.  As a nationalist, I see our pueblo as a nation, and a nation is much more than current events and proposed laws.

Healthy eating habits, and health in general, have been seen in this country as a private issue.  We have been trained to be private “consumers” of food and health “services.” 

History teaches us that our traditional diet was a very healthy diet, and that we pioneered agricultural techniques to make it so.  The growth of beans, squash, amaranth and corn and many other staples were perfected by our ancestors.  The function of the agricultural economy was not the production of wealth, but self (individual or family) determination, according to Bonfil Batalla in Mexico Profundo.  The objective of the agricultural economy was health and self sustenance, not wealth.

Rates of obesity and diabetes in our community are extreme, and as people of conciencia, I believe that we need to address the issue of health for our people.  Colonization, apart from divesting us of our wealth, divested us of our wealth of knowledge, particularly with respect to health, medicine and diet.

We have forgotten how to eat healthily, and this is something that we must learn for ourselves and pass on as part of the collective wealth of knowledge.  I say this as a participant in the health struggle, as I have lost around 30 pounds at two points in my life, once in middle school and once about two years ago.  In the first case I kept if off 10-15 years, and a happy marriage helped me to put it back on!

I know that a blog post might not revolutionize our community’s eating habits, but this is the avenue that I have so here it goes.  I have given these tips to a couple who asked me about my own weight loss, and they did lose weight.  Tips alone usually doesn’t cut it, but if you want the whole program, e-mail me and let me know.  These are general tips that have worked for me.  Everyone is different and has different needs.

-Healthy eating is much more key to weight loss than is exercise, though exercise provides other benefits that diets do not.

-Do not diet.  Diets come and go, and so will the weight.  Be prepared to permanently change your eating habits.

-Portion control is the key.  Do not fall into the trap of never eating a particular type of food or dessert, as this is generally unsustainable and may even be unhealthy:

-For the first three weeks of your new eating habits, eat: 3-4 servings of lean protein (chicken breast), 3 servings of carbs, 2 servings of lean dairy (skim milk etc), 1 serving of fat (oil to cook food or low fat margarine) etc, an unlimited amount of, but no less than, four green or non-starchy vegetables (corn and potatoes are counted with carbs not veggies), 3-5 fruits and six-eight glasses of water.  You will be very hungry for the first 3-15 days, depending on how overweight you are.  Be mentally prepared for the hunger, and be aware that it will pass.  Drink water or eat a fruit or vegetable to deal with it.  You will not get over the hunger during the initial phase, but you can manage it.  After the initial phase, your body will be re-trained to get the sensation of being full by eating veggies or fruits.  To accomplish this, you will have to weigh and measure everything that you eat.

-Starting on week 3, you can choose to add one extra serving of carbs, fats, dairy and proteins.  Plus you can add perhaps three to five servings of non-lean proteins per week.

-Once you have attained your ideal weight, you can add desserts from Panaderia La Unica once or twice a week max.  You can try other panaderias, but I can’t vouch for them.

Anyway, just sharing my own experience here.  I am in the process of teaching my daughter better eating habits, not to impose it on her, but just so that she’ll know later that I tried to share a little of what I have learned with her.

By the way, to add a little practice of Mexicayotl to your eating habits, we separate a little pinch of each item on our plate as a symbolic remembrance-offering to our ancestors.  It keeps them present in our everyday life.  My daughter is excellent at reminding me of this at almost every meal.  I understand that traditionally the offering was not eaten, but I encourage my daughter to eat it if she is hungry, considering the worldwide food shortage.  I am sure that this could be a point of reprimand, but…