Baby Steps to Better Eating

I've been a slacker about my family's diet for the past several years. I think it began with the incapacitating sickness of pregnancy #3. Yeah, I'm pretty sure that is when giving the kids a bowl of cold cereal for dinner while I curled up green-faced on the couch became acceptable.

With the first two, as soon as the pregnancies ended, I could not wait to get back to my "regular" eating habits. Vegetables become strangely intolerable to me when I'm expecting and I remember scarfing down salads even in the hospital, hours after my deliveries saying, "When has a salad ever tasted SO good?" And, feeling amazed and grateful for my returned ability to eat one.

For, some reason, after baby #3, it was more like, "Hmmm . . . I guess I just like junk food now." And, somehow we slipped from my first two kids thinking that a squirt of honey in a warmed glass of milk was a "hot chocolate," granola bars were "candy bars," and water was the beverage of choice to a steady diet of real hot chocolates, real candy and not so infrequent visits to the evil empire, McDonald's.

I've had a wake-up call. I'm so thankful that somehow, I was able to realize that my values about good nutrition are emblazoned in my core. What am I doing? Why am I feeding myself and my family garbage?

It's a culmination of research over the years finally being put into action. For one thing, I came across Layne, a gal I knew during the days at USU. She and her family are living on a rural piece of land, milking their own goats, raising their own meat, growing vegetables, making their own soap and otherwise doing things that are good for their health and the environment.

Reading about this flipped a switch inside of me. And, after Photoguy helped me to realize that we aren't going to move to our own mini-farm, I began to see that there are many things that I can do without being quite that drastic.

So, I begin down this journey to see what I find. I began with an inventory. First to go: Pink syrup in the milk. I believe in my core that red dye is one of the worst things we can consume. Further inspection revealed that Ovaltine also has red, yellow and blue dye. Goodbye Ovaltine, hello honey in warm milk. My kids haven't balked one bit.

That was easy, but then came the fishy crackers. How can we live without fishy crackers? Those will have to stay around for a bit longer while I give it some thought.

I've ordered a yogurt maker, which I'm very, very excited about (more to come on this). And, today, the kids and I drove out to have a look-see at Johnny's Dairy. We've been buying this brand of milk for a few years. For one thing, it's local. For another, it tastes so much better than most milk. In a bold maneuver, I picked up a gallon of raw milk -- completely unpasteurized and non-homogenized. The kind where you have to mix in the cream before you drink it. Pretty exciting stuff!

Next on my list of business is finding grass-fed beef. I found out today, it may not be so easy. It's not sold in any stores in the area (that's the verdict for now). I could probably buy a quarter from a farm, but, that would most likely require me to buy a larger freezer. Or, I can have it shipped from Missouri. More to come on this.

Photoguy promised to help me fence the backyard and finally plant a garden. I've planted two completely unsuccessful gardens since we've been married. Three is the charm, right?