Time to grow up and eat your veggies

Pam Young, the delightful author of the best-selling book, "SideTracked Home Executives" and the Web site: www.thebratfactor.com, has absolutely hit the nail on the head when it comes to discovering your "inner brat."

I never understood my inner struggle with making grown-up decisions till Pam enlightened me. Pam named her inner brat Nelly after the famous Nelly from "Little House on the Prairie" fame. My inner brat is Lulu.

Lulu is probably the most stubborn child you could ever meet. She absolutely hated eating her vegetables. When Lulu finally met Leanne face to face, Leanne was a grown-up in her early 30s. Leanne informed Lulu that there was a baby growing inside of her and that she had to get over her distaste for vegetables. It was important to Leanne that her example be a good one so when she told her child to eat her vegetables, she was a doer of vegetable eating as well as teller.

At first, Lulu didn't want to listen, but she knew that having a baby would mean someone to play with in a few short years (and possibly train to be a brat, too?!?). So she complied and ironically, she learned to like her vegetables! Funny how your perspective changes when you try things out a little later! And, I suppose, we'll have to give Leanne a little credit for Lulu's change of heart — she did show Lulu that eating your veggies can actually be tasty if they're cooked right.

There comes a point when we simply must sit down with our inner brats and have a heart-to-heart. We (and I say that collectively, as in you, me and the inner brats we all know so well) need to get along when it comes to making big decisions about our futures.

Food is high on the list of needs. Regardless of the need to get rid of body clutter, you can't negotiate eating or not eating. You have to eat — there is no such thing as abstinence with food like there is with alcohol (for example).

The neat thing is you can realign your thinking to view food as fuel and building blocks for a healthy body (and that doesn't mean icky "healthy" stuff all day long with no fun ever — I'm talking to your inner brat right now). You need three things to do that.

• One, you need to make a decision that being healthy and strong is what you want.

• Two, you try new ways of cooking to make the healthy food, conscientiously saying to yourself, "this food nourishes me, body and soul and I like it."

• And lastly, you need a certain amount of flexibility. Just because you tried zucchini in the sixth grade and didn't like it, doesn't mean that 20 years later you're going to feel the same way. Try it; you might like it this time!

Pam is right — we can't let our brats take over our worlds. There is way too much at stake, especially in the food department of life.

Food can do two things in your body: build your health or destroy it. It's that simple.

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Leanne Ely, a k a Dinner Diva, is the author of the best-selling "Saving Dinner" and "Saving Dinner the Low Carb Way" (Ballantine). What's for dinner? Go to www.savingdinner.com and find the solution!