The word "snob" has such negative connotations, but when it comes to food, there's nothing wrong with being one. It wasn't that long ago that I wasn't so particular about what I put into my mouth. Although I didn't eat fast food often, I did eat it. Wendy's, Burger King, occasionally McDonalds, and sometimes Arby's. Usually, I would deeply regret my choice immediately after I ate. I would always tell people that it's not that I didn't like the food, the food just didn't like ME! It only takes a few times of abusing your body and having it reject those foods before you surrender to your body and stop feeding it junk. While for many people, fast food is convenient, cheap, and highly accessible, diets that consist of alot of fast food are killing us.
In the last several months, I started buying meat that was considered "humane". Free-range chickens, grass-fed beef, cage free eggs. I've also started buying as much organic local produce as I can at local farmers markets, and getting the rest from the "organic" section at my neighborhood grocery store. Where I live, I'm fortunate in that the grocery stores have a large variety of organic items to choose from. I've scoped out the farmer's markets in the area, and even looked into joining a CSA (it's just the driving distance on a weekly basis is a bit far for me to commit to at the moment).
The Single Wife has written about Clean Eating a few times on her blog. I love reading all her posts, but its the ones about food that really got me thinking. Skip the processed foods. If you can't look at the ingredients and pronounce them, there is a problem! The more we get back to eating natural foods instead of GMO's, the healthier we will be. If you haven't seen it yet, Food, Inc. will make you think twice about what you're feeding yourself and your family.
Last week, I took my kids to Panera for lunch. We checked out the menu online (I go there frequently, but the kids had no clue what they had) so they could be prepared when we got there. Two of them chose the kids PB&J, and the other wanted grilled cheese. The kids meals are served with an organic squeezable yogurt, and they have plenty of other things to drink besides soda. Organic milk, lemonade, water, smoothies, or juice. I was pleasantly surprised when they ALL agreed that the food was delicious and tasted better than...McDonalds! Wow! In fact, they have been surprising me all summer. They have been eating more fruit than I can keep in the house. I buy apples, bananas, oranges, peaches, watermelon, grapes...they eat it all. There are some days that I have to tell them "No" because I'm afraid they're going to overeat. One night at dinner I made some free-range grilled chicken, salad, fresh steamed broccoli and brown rice. They came back 2 and 3 times for more. This just proves that kids do like good, wholesome food. They don't have to always have chicken nuggets, cheeseburgers and pizza. Do I treat my kids to the occasional cookie or ice cream? Sure I do. Do I allow myself those same things from time to time? Of course. However, those are looked upon as "treats", not as a part of our everyday diet. As an alternative to those "treats", I buy them organic yogurt. These are the one thing that I have TRIED to develop a taste for, but no matter what brand or flavor I try, I just can't like it. However, the kids all love it. Stonyfield makes a really delicious yogurt and the kids love the Blueberry, Peach and Banana flavors.
What are some of your favorite clean foods?
Tuesday, June 28, 2011
Friday, June 24, 2011
Are we having fun yet?
Most definitely! We had a rocky start to the week...it started off like this:
Saturday, a week ago, I went to pick up the big kids. I arrived and ended up waiting an HOUR for them to finish getting ready before we could leave. No biggie...we had plenty of time, and Tristan was happy so long as he had his Mommy. Once I picked them up, we grabbed our lunch and dinner at Subway, went back to my parents' house and then to the airport. Smooth sailing so far, right? Yeah...until I heard those dreaded words at the airport..."Ground stop in Atlanta". Our flight was seriously delayed. At first, it looked like it would be just for 30 minutes...they let us board the plane, I got all optimistic, and we were excited to leave. Once everybody had boarded and gotten situated, the captain announced that another ground stop for Atlanta had been issued and we wouldn't be permitted to take off again. We sat on the plane for about an hour and a half before we could take off. We had a connecting flight to make in Atlanta, and I was nervous that we would miss it. Once we landed, I was relieved to see that our connecting flight had also been delayed, and wouldn't be departing for another 45 minutes. Big sigh of relief. And then the captain had to open his big mouth again and tell us that although we had landed, our gate was full and we would not be able to deplane for another half hour or so. It ended up being about 50 minutes before we were at the gate and off the plane. My connecting flight departed and the hunt for another flight began. All this was occurring after 10:30 pm. I was TIRED! So were all the kids. I found the gate where a flight to Orlando would be departing around 11:15, and it has already boarded confirmed passengers, and was in the process of putting stand-by passengers on. I needed to get on that plane if I wanted to get home in time to watch Tommy complete the Dad's Day Triathlon the following day. Well, thank you very much, Gina from Delta!! She got us on the plane and we were off...unfortunately we wouldn't arrive in Orlando until nearly 1 am, and the drive home is just over an hour. We were getting home around 2:15 am. The kids went right to their beds and passed out, and Tommy and I followed suit.
Somehow, around 5:30 am, Tommy woke up, got himself ready, and left for the Triathlon. He said he kissed me goodbye, and that I tried to get up to join him and he told me to go back to sleep. I don't remember any of that. I do remember waking up around 8:30 and finding a text from him shortly after that he had already completed it. I was stoked he did so well, but not so stoked that we had all missed it! We went to brunch after he got home, then I spent the rest of the day grocery shopping and letting Tommy catch some rest before we had to go to his boss' house for a picnic.
Right after Tommy woke up from his nap, Karissa had taken Tristan with her into the kitchen. Nothing out of the ordinary when baby-hog junior is around. Less than two minutes later, I heard a blood-curdling cry come from the kitchen. Something happened to the little guy. I ran to the kitchen, hurdled over Jacob who was standing in the doorway. Karissa was already holding him, but he was still crying. She told me that she dropped him. Before you freak out...she had placed him on the kitchen counter and he was sitting up. She thought he would be okay for "just a second" while she turned around to get something (whatever it was, she forgot about what she was getting in all the confusion!). He lunged forward and fell off the counter, straight onto the tile floor. He landed on his back, and the back of his head. He cried for a good bit (as would I have if my head had hit that hard floor). I wasn't really too concerned because he didn't have a knot anywhere on his head that I could see. It wasn't until he vomited twice that I started to panic a little. I thought it would be best if we took him to the ER to get him checked out to ensure he didn' t have a bad head injury or a concussion. So much for that picnic!!
We spent one hour in the ER (yep, just one hour!! quickest ER visit EVER!), then were sent on our way with some piece of mind. Off to the picnic we went anyways...just a little late.
So, that's that tale of our first 24 hours (almost...but not quite) in Florida. I'm happy to report that the rest of the week was somewhat uneventful. So, are we having fun yet?
Saturday, a week ago, I went to pick up the big kids. I arrived and ended up waiting an HOUR for them to finish getting ready before we could leave. No biggie...we had plenty of time, and Tristan was happy so long as he had his Mommy. Once I picked them up, we grabbed our lunch and dinner at Subway, went back to my parents' house and then to the airport. Smooth sailing so far, right? Yeah...until I heard those dreaded words at the airport..."Ground stop in Atlanta". Our flight was seriously delayed. At first, it looked like it would be just for 30 minutes...they let us board the plane, I got all optimistic, and we were excited to leave. Once everybody had boarded and gotten situated, the captain announced that another ground stop for Atlanta had been issued and we wouldn't be permitted to take off again. We sat on the plane for about an hour and a half before we could take off. We had a connecting flight to make in Atlanta, and I was nervous that we would miss it. Once we landed, I was relieved to see that our connecting flight had also been delayed, and wouldn't be departing for another 45 minutes. Big sigh of relief. And then the captain had to open his big mouth again and tell us that although we had landed, our gate was full and we would not be able to deplane for another half hour or so. It ended up being about 50 minutes before we were at the gate and off the plane. My connecting flight departed and the hunt for another flight began. All this was occurring after 10:30 pm. I was TIRED! So were all the kids. I found the gate where a flight to Orlando would be departing around 11:15, and it has already boarded confirmed passengers, and was in the process of putting stand-by passengers on. I needed to get on that plane if I wanted to get home in time to watch Tommy complete the Dad's Day Triathlon the following day. Well, thank you very much, Gina from Delta!! She got us on the plane and we were off...unfortunately we wouldn't arrive in Orlando until nearly 1 am, and the drive home is just over an hour. We were getting home around 2:15 am. The kids went right to their beds and passed out, and Tommy and I followed suit.
Somehow, around 5:30 am, Tommy woke up, got himself ready, and left for the Triathlon. He said he kissed me goodbye, and that I tried to get up to join him and he told me to go back to sleep. I don't remember any of that. I do remember waking up around 8:30 and finding a text from him shortly after that he had already completed it. I was stoked he did so well, but not so stoked that we had all missed it! We went to brunch after he got home, then I spent the rest of the day grocery shopping and letting Tommy catch some rest before we had to go to his boss' house for a picnic.
Right after Tommy woke up from his nap, Karissa had taken Tristan with her into the kitchen. Nothing out of the ordinary when baby-hog junior is around. Less than two minutes later, I heard a blood-curdling cry come from the kitchen. Something happened to the little guy. I ran to the kitchen, hurdled over Jacob who was standing in the doorway. Karissa was already holding him, but he was still crying. She told me that she dropped him. Before you freak out...she had placed him on the kitchen counter and he was sitting up. She thought he would be okay for "just a second" while she turned around to get something (whatever it was, she forgot about what she was getting in all the confusion!). He lunged forward and fell off the counter, straight onto the tile floor. He landed on his back, and the back of his head. He cried for a good bit (as would I have if my head had hit that hard floor). I wasn't really too concerned because he didn't have a knot anywhere on his head that I could see. It wasn't until he vomited twice that I started to panic a little. I thought it would be best if we took him to the ER to get him checked out to ensure he didn' t have a bad head injury or a concussion. So much for that picnic!!
We spent one hour in the ER (yep, just one hour!! quickest ER visit EVER!), then were sent on our way with some piece of mind. Off to the picnic we went anyways...just a little late.
So, that's that tale of our first 24 hours (almost...but not quite) in Florida. I'm happy to report that the rest of the week was somewhat uneventful. So, are we having fun yet?
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