India’s Ingredients

(Op-ed)

Four years ago, my older sister, Natasha decided to change her eating habits. She then created a blog that taught her friends and family where to eat, where to shop and who she was. She “created the blog to be an outlet for younger people to understand what eating clean and healthy would do for you. I started eating healthy because cooking whole nutrient dense ingredients make me feel ten times better than eating processed and artificial foods. Cooking has become an outlet and the satisfaction of preparing a meal on the table is so satisfying after a long day.”

At first, Natasha’s decision confused my 11-year-old self, but two years ago I finally realized why she did this. It was not a diet or anything of the sort; it was solely for the purpose of feeling good about who you are. I wanted to change my eating habits, not because I was a little sister, wanting to do everything my older sister was doing, but because I wanted to become faster and stronger for soccer.

After eating ‘better’ for the entire summer of 2016, I discovered that I didn’t want to eat healthier only for sports, but that I loved how I felt about myself as a whole after eating like I did. If you’re an athlete, I’m not telling you that you must eat better, but that you should try it and chances are, you will notice how much faster and stronger you become. Making healthy eating choices simply makes you feel good. I hope that this blog can be helpful to you, just like my sister’s blog inspired me.

When school started and I knew that it was going to be hard to continue eating how I’d started. Once I arrived at school, I was pleasantly surprised at how easy it was to continue eating well.  Many of my friends complain about Packer’s cafeteria food, I do too sometimes, but it really is good. Packer’s food has drastically changed throughout the years. When I was a second grader, I would get three cookies after school from the cafeteria with an Izzy. Today, Izzy’s and cookies are not options attainable on the menu. A salad bar is always open during lunch as well are hot meals and soup. Even on pizza Friday, vegetables are served too. I think that Packer’s cafeteria is a great place to eat lunch, so why spend $15 at Shake Shack or Perelandra when there is free, healthy and delicious lunch in our midst.