Believing is one thing.  Living what you believe is an entirely different matter altogether.  For years I’ve believed in eating to enhance and sustain our healthy, strong bodies. I’ve studied nutrition as a hobby/passion/conviction and I’ve implemented lots and lots of good, healthful habits in our home, with our children.  But over time, my sharp edge of nutritional conviction has been dulled by the busy-ness of life and the frivolous preference of our taste buds.  Some new and not-so-beneficial habits have made their way into our daily menus, little-by-little, until it’s bugged me enough to want to make some radical and consistent adjustments.  (key words.)  Subtle changes made sporadically, really don’t have any long-term, positive effect on our health.  So, here are a few of the ‘kitchen decisions’ I’ve made:

1-white flour is not our friend.  From tortillas to toast, pasta to pizza dough, I’m determined to purchase exclusively, whole wheat, whole grain and sprouted grain breads.  (I’m open to deviation at holidays) Kids aren’t allowed to complain.

2-oatmeal is our friend.  1/2 cup a day will lower your cholesterol by 2% and keep diabetes away.  Topped with fresh berries/bananas/raisins, cinnamon and a little rice milk makes for a perfect breakfast.

3-frozen fruit smoothies loaded with berries, bananas, rice milk, almonds, a little flaxseed oil, yogurt or keffir (without added sugar or sweetened juice) will be an almost-daily snack around our house.

4-fresh vegies love us and we love them!  I’m buying all sorts of new kinds and daring breeds; lightly steaming, then putting them into everything and using fresh vegies instead of potato chips at lunch and for snacks.  Salads are like an artist’s blank canvas - so much room to roam and create!  Wow am I having a blast with all the varieties of greens and complimentary veggies available to purchase in our great nation.  I’ll share some combination ideas with you soon.

5. if I stir-fry, I’m trying to use PAM spray and some chicken broth instead of loads of oil and butter.

6. beans are nearly a miracle food.  1/2 cup a day will lower cholesterol by 8% and add a super-fiber food to your body that’s begging for real fiber.  My goal is to daily get these into our diet.  I’m adding them to salads, pasta dishes, soups, stir-frys, egg dishes and anything else that fits.  The broad variety and delicious flavor makes this quite an easy change to make.

7. we love our meat, but I’m aiming to make this a smaller slice of the total ‘pie’ of what we’re consuming.  Majoring on veggies, minor-ing on meat and adding lots of fish.

8. processed foods are getting scarce on our table.  Macaroni and cheese, potato chips, lunch meat, frozen burritos and breakfast cereal will make the occasional appearance, but for the most part…bye bye.

We are loving this simple and delicious way of eating and I’ll keep you posted and share some more ideas/recipes/results along the way…

This entry was posted on Sunday, April 6th, 2008 at 8:35 pm and is filed under Home'sCool: homeschool helps, Mom's Home: domesticity, No Ornery Child! solutions to parenting predicaments. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.