Sunday, January 4, 2015

New Beginnings

Over the last several months, it's become apparent that my kids are eating too much crap.  Not intentionally, because I do plan healthy meals.  The problem is that the schedule keeps us from eating together or even at home several meals each week.  Fast food three days a week during a quick break from scheduled activities out of town, ordering pizza when I'm exhausted at the end of the week, and picking up a quick snack has created children (and parents) who no longer crave real, fresh food. 
This especially became obvious when I realized that my normally healthy grazer only wants carbs.  Not good things like fruit or whole grains.  She wants refined sugars,white bread, junk. 

I've been mulling over the situation during December, hoping to find a solution to our meal problem.  The goal was to break everyone's junk food desire and get us back to better nutrition.  A pin on pinterest helped me with an idea.  Whole 30 is a thirty day plan where participants eat no grains, dairy, legumes or processed food. When I mentioned it to Mike, he thought that it was a great idea.

We began the program as a family on January 1.  The kids have had a few complaints.  The main one is that they want more variety, especially for breakfast.  After the first day, they loved the fresh fruits and vegetables that are always available.  My huge sweet eater is thrilled to eat pears and apples in the afternoon and for breakfast  The first day, I let the kids eat up a ton of yogurt that was in the refrigerator.  The second day, one of my children (not naming them to protect the guilty) went to Taco Bell.  Other than those events, we've done very well with the plan. 

Yesterday, the youngest girls were playing at a friends house and the mother offered them a snack.  My girls explained that "they could only eat fruit, vegetables or meat".  I was proud that they were trying to stick with the guidelines.  We do realize that the minor children have special dietary needs with additional calcuim and we don't want them to lose any weight.  With that in mind, we will probably pick up some yogurt and some whole grains for them during the 30 day period.

Overall, it's been working out fairly well for us and we're eating much more variety in our diet. 

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