Eating Healthy at SAGE with Ms. Filocco

Eating healthy is not always easy, especially at SAGE where chicken fingers and fries are available everyday. History teacher Stacy Filocco lives a very healthy lifestyle and is an expert at selecting hearty and healthy foods at SAGE.

Achona: When did you start eating healthy?

Filocco: “I think that I probably always thought that I was eating healthy, but it was not until after my freshman year of college that I started to really understand what it means to truly eat healthy, and it has been an ongoing process since then. I recently finished the book Unprocessed and I previously read books by Michael Pollan like The Omnivore’s Dilemma.  Both of these books made me consider what it really means for food to be “healthy”.  “Healthy” does not necessarily mean low-fat or low-calorie, it means full of nutrients that will help to fuel your body. I try to eat mostly real foods- foods in their natural state. That means lots of fruits and vegetables and actual meat- not processed meat.”

A: What inspires you to maintain a healthy lifestyle?

F: “Being really active motivates me to eat well because I can perform at a higher level. My parents also inspire me because they have aged really well. My parents are in their mid-sixties and they ride bikes, walk the dogs, do yoga, play softball, and lift weights. They have not slowed down much as they’ve aged and I am hopeful that I can do the same.”

A: In your opinion what’s the most important component in eating healthy?

F: “In my opinion, the most important part of eating healthy is eating balanced and that means a few different things.  

1. You are eating a variety of different foods from both different food groups (fruits, vegetables, whole grains, etc.) and within each food group (ex. Not just apples, but different fruits)
2. That you allow yourself to eat things that you enjoy- not just things that you think you should eat. For example, I LOVE cookies. Not eating them at all would deprive me of something that I really enjoy. I tried eating just one or two but that did not work very well for me so the compromise that I made is that if I eat cookies, I’ll eat as many as I want, but I can only do that every once in awhile. The best way to eat healthy, in my opinion, is to eat in a way that is sustainable and affordable for you- that way, you’re much more likely to enjoy your food and actually make the choice to eat healthy.”