One more time....let me climb up onto this soapbox and have my say....
Wait. Am I prepared? Let me go through my checklist....be patient please.
Knowledge - Check
Opinion - Check
Support - Check
Confidence - Check
Wine - Check, Check, Check
Notes --- wait, I don't have notes...this is a fly by the seat of my pants infomercial.
My family and I have sllloowwwlllyyy, but surely, been creeping our way into the more organic, more healthy foods. I suppose it actually STARTED when we decided to breastfeed all of our children as a way to save both money and trips to the pediatrician. But, we didn't move much further on the "health kick" until much more recently. I think about 4 years ago, as a stay at home mom with 2 kids, I realized that the snacks and foods I was putting into my children directly related to their moods and health. I was chugging along, thinking that I was doing it all "right" when I realized that snacks in my house included: gummies, pop tarts, rice krispie treats, and other artificially sugar filled foods! SCREECH!!
WTF was I thinking?!?! If I could go back, I would bitch slap my own ass for my
less than healthy SHITTY way of thinking.
As soon as I realized how fucked up my thought process was by actually giving into the demands of my then 7 and 1 year old at the grocery store, I started cracking down. Not just on the kids, but on the family as a whole. By God, I was going to make sure MY KIDS had baby teeth to lose rather than have them rot out of their heads. I was going to have kids that were hopped up on natural fructose instead of
High Fructose Corn Syrup (which is, by the way, applying to the government to have its name changed to "Corn Sugar" to make it sound better). From that day forward, I vowed that fruits and fresh veggies would be filling our cupboards and shelves instead. And I did just that. (OK, with the VERY occasional sugar snack....I have to have good bribing tools for certain chores!) I felt good about that choice.
We lived that way for another few months before I started what I call the "SNACK TRAY" in our house. It is a tray of simple, healthy foods that is available from 11AM on in the house. I usually fill it with fresh fruits, cheeses, veggies, breads, and meats for the kids to munch on all day instead of me getting up and down a GAZILLION times a day to get snacks for them. (Ugh, I was spending probably 60% of my day in the fucking kitchen debating snack choices.) Now, I simply make up the "Snack Tray" and when the whines and whimpers of "Mom, I'm huuunnnggrryy" start inching in, I direct them to the "Snack Tray" and continue whatever I was doing! What a God-send this idea has been!!
A couple of years ago, I started re-evaluating some of the foods that I was purchasing at our local grocery store. The one thing that hit my radar as a SIMPLE, but EASY change was: Eggs. Changing to Cage Free Chicken Eggs seemed like a good idea. After a few more weeks, I re-evaluated and decided to take it a step further and purchased local, Cage Free, Vegetarian Fed Brown Chicken Eggs. No one noticed the change, but
I did! So, while I was spending a bit more cash for the little brown eggs that "seemed" no different to the family, I was thrilled with the satisfaction that I was getting from feeding my family a "better" food...oh, and I was helping to keep those ugly ass chickens out of those cramped prison cell cages, which no life should have to endure no matter how ugly. :)
Again, I waited a bit longer and did some more research, and decided to start slowly replacing our ground beef with ground chicken and ground turkey. A small step, but a good one! At first I didn't tell the kids that I was swapping and they were a little suspicious because the taste wasn't exactly the same, but in just a few weeks they were enjoying it and even started asking what I did differently because dinner tasted BETTER! YAY! So now, I don't buy any ground beef and I am happy to see a little less red meat in our diet.
This brings us to the current change that my family and I are making. After MUCH research by my husband and a little encouragement, we are officially making the change to local, grass fed livestock foods. The cheeses are now raw milk cheeses, the eggs are the same type but are super local, and the meats are fresh and not from animals that have been mistreated or fed hormones or other artificial products. The animals that we get our food from are kept outside, they eat what God intended for them to eat...grass products, and they live happier, less stressful lives which in turn produces a better food product in the end.
Yes, it is more expensive and we are very lucky to be able to make this choice for our family, but what it really means is prioritizing our food choices for our family over other things that cost money. And with a child that has an
Autism Spectrum Disorder, we feel that feeding him foods that are free of the extra artificial products can only be helpful in keeping his body healthy which helps his brain better deal with the day to day struggles that he has! Please feel free to read more on
Autism Spectrum Disorder Diets here.
So, while I am completely on board this crazy train of healthy eating and fair, humane treatment of animals (no matter how damn ugly they are or how much they stink), don't think that my family and I don't enjoy an occasional fast food meal or frozen chicken nuggets and french fries from the freezer. In my opinion, it is not about a 100% change, but more of a nice
balance of the products we put into our body. It would be an unrealistic expectation for me to think my family would ever eat ONLY these wonderful items on the Grass Fed Diet that I have been speaking about. Hell no. I would be
kidding killing myself if I didn't have my coffee, wine, and Ben & Jerry's Ice Cream!! :-) So, with that being said...I am looking forward to my raw milk cheese and wine tonight before dinner!! Hee Hee!
