When I was growing up we had our own one acre vegetable garden as well as an orchard with apples and peaches. We raised chickens for eggs and eating. Whatever we needed we had right on our farm. We went grocery shopping once a month for things like flour, sugar, etc. We canned a lot of foods for winter and stored them in our cellar. Sounds kind of like Little House on the Prairie. I absolutely loved it!
Jump forward LOTS of years and me marrying a “city” boy. He is not interested in the farm life and that’s okay with me. I would love to do that someday but for now we live in the suburbs and have no garden, no chickens, no fresh anything. I grew up eating tons of fresh veggies and fruits and homemade food. My children have not had that experience and, to be quite honest, I have failed them in this area.
My family has been very sick this past winter. A couple of winters ago we were terribly ill as well. After much research and talking to others I came to the conclusion that it is our diet. We don’t eat horribly and none of us are overweight. But, I buy junk all the time. I don’t force them to eat veggies and fruits. I stopped buying the good stuff because they would tell me they didn’t like it.
Well, that’s all about to change. I am not going to completely revamp our eating and get rid of all junk snacks and ice cream (let’s be honest, that may never happen!). But, I am going to implement some small changes to our diets that will have lasting effects. I hope these changes will be received well and be a positive adventure.
The first small change I am making is no more cereal for breakfast. My boys are going to have a tough time with this one but it needs to be done. Instead of sugary cereal to get our day started, I am going to get up and prepare eggs and toast with fruit (either a banana or an apple). On Sunday afternoons, I am going to make a batch of homemade muffins as well. Every other morning we will have muffins, yogurt, and fruit. I want to add more protein to their mornings to get us through school. They are usually starving about one hour after finishing cereal.
The next small change I will be making is we will all try a new fruit or veggie each week. My boys do not eat very many fruits and veggies. I have one who will try stuff and he actually likes a lot of it. My other two boys don’t even want to try anything new. That is going to change. You don’t know if you like something unless you try it. It will be like an adventure. I am sure I will have one who refuses to try certain things. But, I am hoping he will come around (especially once I start not buying all the junk anymore).
The last small change I am making is homemade food more often. I cook most of our meals at home from scratch. But there are certain things I haven’t tried homemade such as bread, salsa, chicken nuggets, yogurt, etc. I want to know what’s in our food and making it homemade will give me this opportunity.
These changes are not earth-shattering. My goal is to get my family to make better choices when it comes to food. Instead of always choosing the sugary snack or breakfast, they will be able to choose veggies and fruits and homemade goodies. I adore all these things and I want my boys to grow up to love eating better and making healthier choices.
