Over the last several months I have been reading up on food. I’ve never been the healthiest eater but I believe that over the last 5 years my eating habits have spiraled a bit out of control. I try to control what I eat in front of the kids because I do not want them to struggle with the same issues I do. However, I am realizing that I am not doing enough. It is time for change in the Brown house. This is the part in my blog where we talk about growing.
I haven’t yet come up with my game plan but I know there are a few areas that I can address.
1. Eliminating artificial sweeteners. CHECK! This one I already did a few months ago. We haven’t been 100% successful because so many products are “sugar-free” and have snuck their way into my mouth – things like pudding and chewing gum. Fortunately, after eliminating artificial sweeteners for a few weeks the chemically taste of them stands out like a sore thumb for me. It doesn’t take more than a bite or two to identify it. When I say artificial sweeteners I mean aspartame, saccharine, and yes, even sucralose (just because it’s “made from sugar” doesn’t mean it’s good for you).
2. Meal planning. I am hit or miss with this. Some weeks I have things planned out and some weeks we fly by the seat of our pants. The weeks that are unplanned are consistently less healthy. If I can become consistent with my meal plans then eventually I can start to substitute in healthier ingredients and recipes.
3. Eliminating soda pop. Yes, I just said soda pop. I wanted to appease all of you. I grew up saying soda. I learned to say pop when I moved to the Midwest. And now I’m going to learn to just say no. Thank you Nancy Reagan.
4. Making my own bread. We love breads in our house – sliced bread, rolls, quick breads, tortillas – if you can spread it with butter or fill it with meat and cheese or put it in the toaster we eat it. I’ve taken to reading the labels on the bread products we buy. It is very difficult to find breads made without High Fructose Corn Syrup (HFCS).
These are just my first three steps. I’ll keep you posted on how well it’s going. We have a long way to go as a family to moving away from the common items that pass as “food” to real nourishing food. But don’t they always say that the first step is admitting you have a problem. Well, dear readers, we have a problem.
If you have the time, this video I found at The Lazy Organizer is extremely eye opening.
What steps are you taking to help keep your family healthy? I’d love to learn from all of you.
Any recipes you love?
Foods you avoid?
Books that have helped you?
Other resources you rely on?
4 comments:
I learned when Matthew was a baby that Organic products don't have HFCS. I now have switched us to organic ketchup and bread to avoid the dreaded HFCS.
I often double some of my recipes and then freeze half. I take them out of the freezer on days I don't have any ideas of what to make for dinner. I also keep a supply of things like premade salmon burgers and buffalo burgers (we don't do hamburger anymore) for those days as well. Both can be put on the grill without defrosting them.
Salmon burgers - yum! Do you make them yourself or buy premade? You know that if you make them yourself I'm going to ask for the recipe! BTW - your lemon cookies were David's favorite!
I'm too lazy to make salmon burgers. Costco has them- they are all natural (meaning no "weird" ingredients). I buy the buffalo burgers from there as well. You guys go to Sam's, right? Let me know if you want me to pick you up some.
I loved the lemon cookies, too. I'm tempted to make more, but know I would just eat them all and that's probably not the best idea.
For about 18 months or so we ate about 90% organic and it was great. I didn't lose any weight but the food was natural. It was also expensive and when I quit working so I could stay home with Lily we had to stop buying so much organic food. We are now trying to find healthy recipes that we will both eat because neither of us really like veggies. We're trying though.
My Hubby found this gum/mints that are sugar-free and free from all the normal artificial sweeteners. They have Xylitol in them as a sweetener. It is suppose to be good for your teeth. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xylitol
Post a Comment