As we enter month 7 of being parents to Joely, we are entering the fun world of foods. Things were much easier when all he consumed was milk/formula. Now, we have to read labels and make conscious decisions concerning his eating habits. We also realized that we need to make changes to our diet as well. While, we've been successful in losing the baby weight we gained (yes, Murad gained sympathy weight), we want to make sure we have good eating habits that benefit us as well as Joely. I already make most of Joel's babyfood from veggies and fruits from local growers (I do buy the little Earth's Best baby foods at WalMart from time to time to see what he likes), but in five months, he'll start eating real food!
Our goal is to do the following over the next five months:
-seriously lower the amount of high fructose corn syrup we digest (it's insane. it's tasty. it's in everything. we eat it everyday.). Yeah, the commercials say it's okay in moderation, but my husband thinks that it's impossible to consume in moderation if it's in EVERYTHING. So, he really wants us to be better consumers.
-cut processed foods and snacks--this is going to be hard. no more lean cuisines for me, damnit! sad face
-in five months, Joel will be able to drink milk. not just my milk. not just formula, but real big boy milk! we need to decide what milk he will drink, since he's not going to drink cow's milk. Murad and I drink almond milk, but I need to see if it's okay for a toddler? I really have no clue what I'm doing in this whole food thing. It's like I went from not caring about what I put into my mouth at all, to caring way too much. I went from cooking casseroles to experimenting, especially with veggies (I love it when my husband turns his nose up at a dish and then ends up loving it!)I also kinda feel like I've stepped back in time. think the 1800's. ugh. Anyways, we hope to make gradual changes over the next five months that will affect our little family for the rest of our lives.
Can you tell I secretly love all this? I complain, but I love it all.I love food. I love creating foods for my family and letting the house smell good from my cooking. I love being a mom and creating a nurturing environment for my little boy. His smile and giggles remind me that I'm living my dream come true.
I know this feeling. The love you feel from cooking your family a healthy (smell good) meal! The reminders of why the hard work is worth it! And certainly the "living in the 1800's" part. I know how that pendulum swings. I took the same journey (am still taking it, in fact) you speak of here. It's like first we cut out HFCS, the we only ate wheat bread and ground turkey as opposed to the alternatives, then we cut out all pop and juice. Then it was bye-bye cow's milk, velveeta, and everything else that's chemically enhanced. Oh, then it was organic everything. Then we only ate local and fresh and in season. And then we got slammed with the bajillion allergies where we learned to cook with a ton of different flours and make our own bread/tortillas and just about everything from scratch. We even learned how to make a mock tomato sauce. And now that we've come down off of our allergy cooking, we are incorporating a few "bad" things on occasion. We still steer clear of McD's (because I know that's where Mak got the food-born bacteria that put her in the hospital), but I'll occasionally get tater tots and a vanilla coke from Sonic as special treat for the kids. Fortunately, it costs too much for a family of 7 to eat out much--so I guess that helps us to stay away from that junk. Our one fault right now that I want to focus on in the new year is pizza. We rely on it too much. On the flip side of having a family of 7 and the cost of eating out being too much, we can also get pizza really cheap. And for those nights when there is way too much going on in the Copeland house, we rely on that good stuff too much! Anyway, happy cooking. I totally get where you're coming from :)
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