Month: January 2015

I will never be a foodie. I do not have the discipline to engage in a diet of any kind other than “I’ll eat what I want…”.  However, after really trying to eat healthy & doing a lot of research I’m finding a lot of conflicting info on what to feed my kiddos #GMOS #PALEO #WHOLE #HOLY SHIT.  So based off of my own common sense, & the combined wisdom of all kinds of food experts from Robyn O’Brien to Heather O’Hara of the super cool Heather O’Made blog, to the pretty impressive blog- the clothes make the girl & nom nom paleo (mind you this was all 3am food googling as I ate 10 truffles about healthy eating), HERE is my hypothesis and what I’m going to do about it.

1. GMOS are some terrible shit. Watch Robyn O’Brien’s Ted Talks here for just a taste of this info.

• Where’s the responsibility with the food industry & these giant corporations?  Time to get on the horn and give these guys a piece of your mind.  Feedback is a powerful thing.  Money is what they’re after, and if families across america start going local & fresh and stop the madness, these giants may do the right thing.
• What’s a GMO?  find out more here
• My take:  It just makes sense.  My grandpa was a farmer & we grew up picking our vegetables straight from the garden.  He typically used heritage seeds & that stuff was just amazing.  Also, all of our meat was grass fed with no antibiotics or modified feed. Plus, what’s the deal- growing up I knew not a soul with a food allergy.  Now, my child can’t take nuts of any kind to school.  She can’t share food that has dairy with her friends.  While I thank my lucky stars she escaped allergies, what is going on?  She didn’t just win a genetic lottery- there’s something going on in this country with the food supply.

2. It’s really hard to eat healthy using whole foods without learning a TON.  I will make mistakes

• I’m going to have to make food charts of the following:
  • The Dirty Dozen
  • Paleo grocery list (so i can remember all those natural fat, etc.)
  • Get my recipes for the week & make a shopping list each time.
• I’ll need to consult the experts- i.e. my health friends like Heather O’Hara, Jennifer Pesce, and Rose. (see yoga with rose, she’s amazing).

3. I’m going to have to experiment.

• No way will my children, my husband, or even myself go for the paleo diet or anything of the sort- it’s a lot of work & I don’t like a lot of the foods.  Will I change my tastebuds?  Maybe, but there’s not an eskimo’s chance we can start this healthy eating cold turkey. Example- I hate cauliflower, but tonight we’ll try spicy cauliflower in cheese with a few adjustments!
• We’re going to substitute out sugars as much as possible, introduce a LOT more vegetables, cut down on pastas & processed foods.  Here’s my first mini goal:  One week of meals using only healthy fats and no added sugars.  No cereals.

I’ll keep you posted & let you know how it goes!  What’s your experience with eating whole foods with no processing?  Have any tricks or tips to share?  Perhaps a sample meal plan or grocery list with costs?

I don’t think I’ve found anything worse than being in a 500 sq foot space on a snow day with a rambunctious toddler & a new baby.  You can’t really go outside, you can’t really stay inside if you expect everyone to survive.  Here’s what took up about 3 hours of our morning today during the first snow of the day.

1. pack your snow bag.  It consists of extra gloves & an umbrella.  You won’t be out long.

2.  Wish for the following items you don’t have, but wish you did:

• a bjorn cover see the snow covering my Aden & Anais blanket below.

• a wet weather stroller cover
• your best snow boots out of storage (I prefer L.L. Bean  boots as pictured here, shearling lined, ahhh)

3. Find a task to do so your snow time won’t last all of 5 minutes.  We went to the post office to pick up a package.  The post office is across the street, so we didn’t have far to go!

4. If you have sleds, get them, find a hill & let the kids go crazy!  ( we don’t have that here & Evie is just too young to get it quite yet)

Here are a few conversations/lessons to start with if you’re on city streets- NO YELLOW SNOW.  If you pick up snow, it needs to be snow that is white & is free of footprints.   LEAVE YOUR GLOVES ON.  Otherwise you’ll get cold & we have to go home!  Most kids get it, but start early.  With my 2 year old the yellow snow made sense.  She watches dogs pee all the time so understood.  However, the gloves- it was a lesson learned through experience.  Sometimes, ya just gotta let kids go!  Don’t be a helicopter mom.  They’ll get it eventually.