I decided a couple of weeks ago that I was going to change my family's eating habits. We were consuming far too many processed foods, refined sugars, carbohydrates, fatty meats, and well it was just plain bad. And it was bad because I work odd hours and because I work odd hours, I thought it was an excuse to be lazy about food. The result of it wasn't apparent until I switched out our diets.
I grew up eating pretty well thanks to my parents. My father didn't allow anything sugary in the house and Mom enforced it with an iron fist. We had the occasional cookie, but we did not have sugary cereal. We had plain Cheerios, plain old Rice Crispies, Chex, Kix, and Raisin Bran. My brothers, of course, would dump 10 teaspoons of sugar on top of their cereal when Mom and Dad weren't looking, but I digress. My father wouldn't hear of sugar in the house. Our meals were always well rounded. If a vegetable wasn't served at dinner, someone would get mighty angry: "No vegetable, Karen?"
Because we ate so well all the time, my brothers and I would sneak all the stuff all the other kids had. I can't count how many times I drooled over the kids who brought Doritos, pudding, Hostess Cupcakes, a Blow-Pop for dessert in their 6 Million Dollar Man lunchboxes. I had a PB&J, milk and an apple. Very well-rounded; a wholesome lunch, indeed. Nobody ever wanted to swap lunch with me. So, whenever my Mom would buy stuff for her, we would go hunting for it like a pack of hounds on the trail for blood. One of us usually found it somewhere, someplace remote, like in southeastern Australia, or in one of the not so easily accessible cabinets or closets behind healthy stuff. We would piddle it here and there. Heck, if one or two little shnibbles was gone, would she notice?
As we got older and started to get allowance, we then saved that allowance for Quik Chek (A Jersey convenience store) down the street from our house. Before school, my brothers, friends, and I would stock up on as much sugar as humanly possible, or as much as what our weekly allowance would allow. The rest would be spent at school lunch as we would drown ourselves in cheese fries and ice cream. We wanted what everyone else had. I stashed away many tuna fish sandwiches in my locker in exchange for cheese fries and chocolate milk in my four years of high school.
I felt very deprived food-wise so I always wanted the garbage. In college, I continued to eat like crap. Now I'm an "adult" and nobody was around to see, or monitor what I was eating for breakfast, lunch, and dinner! Yes! It was a free-for-all! Bring on the crap! It's a wonder I managed to not only stay small in all the utter garbage I was eating morning, noon, and night, but stay alive as well. My then boyfriend's habits may have had something to do with my thinness and my questionable "aliveness", but I digress yet again. That, is for another day.
Fast forward. I'm married, have some kids (4 kids). I decide I'm going to parent like mine parented me because we learn and do from where we came. I was doing well. Alekzander didn't exactly need 3 large baby food jars in one sitting, but he was hungry! I wasn't going to deny him food, until I realized that it might be unhealthy. It was. My kids got well-rounded meals morning, noon, and night and they did for many, many years. Then I started to get lazy about it. I don't know if it was because I had four children, had to run the home, worked a couple of jobs, the police academy, who knows what it was, but I got darned lazy.
I used my busy-ness as an excuse to feed my children whatever was "easy" on that particular day; be it take-out pizza, cereal for dinner, boxed hamburger helper, mac and cheese, whatever was in the freezer. That is NOT fair to them. It is MY responsibility to see that they get what they need regardless of what I am doing! My kids loved the crap they were getting, but it wasn't doing them any good and it was obvious one day after I stopped being lazy.
Mom, what is this? I LOVE IT! Well, that's free-range chicken, organic wild rice, organic vegetables, sugar free applesauce to make it sweet, and almond milk to make it creamy. My goodness, you'd think they had had a taste of heaven. I have been cooking like this for two weeks now and nobody has noticed a difference. My food bill has stayed the same since I have cut out red meats. I've replaced it with chicken, legumes, fish, and shop only organic produce. My paper products and detergent are still bought at the EVIL Wal-Mart. King Soopers is reserved for those special ten for ten deals on toothpaste.
What I've noticed around here: increased energy, less grumpiness, kids waking up without me having to wake them, INCREASED ENERGY!
I've always preached to those I mentor that you need to both diet AND exercise to meet your weight loss goals, but I admit that I have not always practiced what I have preached. I have always leaned heavy upon the exercise and athletics, but paid very little attention to my "diet". I hate using the word "diet", I prefer the word NUTRITION. Your body needs fuel and that is what proper nutrition provides. I eat a Big Mac for lunch (my favorite) and I feel like crap the rest of the day. I have a blueberry, strawberry, banana, almond milk smoothie for lunch and I have the energy of ten people.
What you put into your body is the direct result of you will get. You feed it with crap and you will FEEL like crap. If you feed it with crap AND don't exercise daily, I feel bad for you. I will say that it IS ok to "cheat" every now and then with hmmm...say some french fries, but don't make it a habit.
You are only given one body. Take care of it.
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