healthy eating

Okay, I am sick and tired of being sick and tired! We have been to the doctor's office more times than I care to count. We have a pharmacy of over the counter and prescription medication, and we are still sick! What is wrong with this picture? Thomas and I have both been losing weight, and we have attributed that to the fact that we rarely eat out anymore. I used to think that my family ate pretty well. But the last week or so I have started paying more attention to food labels. Do you know what kind of garbage is in your food? I have food allergies, so if I try a new food, I read the labels. Even if it is something that I just haven't eaten in a while, I check to make sure that there are no new ingredients, or any ingredients that I have developed an allergy to since I last ate it. I tell you this because I thought last week that I might have a kidney infection. I didn't want to go to the doctor, mainly because I don't have a doctor here yet. So, I figured I could go get some cranberry juice and that might help until I could find a good doctor. I read the labels on over 15 different varieties of cranberry "juice". The ones that were actually made of juice were mostly apple juice, grape juice and pear juice with a smidge of cranberry thrown in. I couldn't believe how much sugar is in this "juice". I can't believe I give this stuff to my kids thinking it's healthy. It's one thing for me to let Hannah have some Kool-Aid. I know it's straight sugar. But so is the dang juice! And then I sat back and looked at the meals that Hannah has eaten lately. Every morning she eats a Pop-Tart for breakfast. And don't even think about trying to swap it out for anything else. She is a creature of habit and will screw up her entire day. Trust me! Then lunch is either chicken nuggets or a turkey sandwich or a hotdog with fruit. Not terrible on non-hotdog days. The nuggets are all white breast meat and are baked not fried. But dinner sure doesn't vary much. She usually ends up with more nuggets, pizza, another turkey sandwich, or hotdog. I make her eat more fruit and some vegetables. But it's like pulling teeth. I know that kids are picky eaters. I always make her try whatever we are having for dinner. But our meals are not much healthier. They are real food, not processed or pre-packaged meals, but we eat way too much meat and not enough fresh vegetables and grains.

So, to connect the dots... I think the reason we are sick all the time is a lack of healthy eating. Well, that is one of the many reasons. I think we are getting ready to try a radically different style of eating in our home. We are going to ease into it; I don't want to shock our digestive systems! But I am going to start baking more our of breads and tortillas. Eventually I want to get my own wheat grinder and grind my own flour, but we'll start off slow at first! :) I have already started planning my vegetable garden for the summer. My goal is to get my family eating and enjoying more vegetables than just canned green beans and frozen corn. I did manage to disguise sweet potatoes enough for Thomas to like it. I substituted sweet potatoes for pumpkin in pumpkin bread. It was really good. Not terribly healthy, but he ate sweet potatoes and he is still alive! Okay, so if anyone has any good recipes for healthy ways to disguise veggies or good recipes for whole grain breads, let me know! Feel free to post them in the comments section. And if anyone else wants any recipes, I'll post reviews on the ones that I try. *Note* Due to food allergies I won't be able to try all of them! :) If you find one here and try it, post a comment with a review or send it to me in an email!