Spring Cleaning the Pantry

I've been a running and racing fool this year! I've lost all the baby weight, and have been having a great time sharing a healthy hobby with friends and family. Along with the running, I've been spending a lot of time learning ways to eat cleaner and healthier which means I've been spending some time in my pantry. Reading labels is a very scary adventure.

I will totally admit that I don't make the best choices in terms of grocery shopping. Too often I take the easy way out, I know I have been buying too many convenience foods at Costco. But it wasn't until I really sat and started adding it up that I realized just how much sugar and bad fats my kids were consuming with each Gogurt, pb&j, cereal bar, Lunchable or package of fruit snacks. And by sugar, I mostly mean high fructose corn syrup. It's in EVERYTHING - from spaghetti sauce, salad dressings, yogurt, and tomato ketchup to the more obvious cereals, jelly, cereal bars, fruit snacks, and even some crackers.

Now don't go quoting me on any of this information. This applies to my family only, and my limited understanding of nutrition. None of us - knock wood! - have any health issues, heart problems, or necessary dietary restrictions. Now that I've gotten my disclaimers out of the way, I'm continue my rant post.

I also never realized how much hydrogenated oil is in our food. Hydrogenated oils are BAD oils that have had their chemical structure changed to prolong their shelf life, and can have some very negative effects on our health. They not only raise cholesterol, but hydrogenated oils have been linked to an increase in risks for diabetes, coronary disease, and of course, obesity. Good-bye Skippy peanut butter and margarine - yes, Margarine... All those years of telling us margarine is better for us? Big fat lie.

60-70% of our brain is FAT. So we need good fats - not chemically processed and damaged ones - in our diet to make sure our brains function properly - so we can focus, learn, sleep, even be happy. Omega-3's are crucial - eat more fish, pasture fed chicken eggs, or you can just take a supplement (my kids LOVE their fish gummies!).

There's nothing truly wrong with a little sugar (and by sugar, I mean sugar) or natural oils (olives when squeezed produce OIL, corn when squeezed produces corn meal...). (And hey, butter comes from cream - totally natural! Just don't eat a whole cube of it in one sitting.) It's about making conscious, educated and responsible choices, and not being lazy and taking the easy route. So after getting totally disgusted with myself for letting this go on for so long, I threw away over 50% of what was in our refrigerator and pantry while my husband looked at me like I was nuts.

But then I didn't know what I was going to do next because seriously, I was beginning to think that I should only shop in the outer perimeter of the supermarket - produce, dairy and meats.

Until I went to the first place I could think of that sells reasonably priced healthy foods. Thank you Trader Joe's! I spent over an hour walking through and reading their labels. My dismay turned to absolute joy! With a few very simple substitutions, Kevin can still have all the fun snacks he's always enjoyed WITHOUT a bunch of Big Food HFCS or hydrogenated oils. Gogurts be gone -- Stoneyfield Farm, thank you for jumping on the portable yogurt bandwagon with an organic version! Cereal bars, Kevin's morning obsession, are an easy item to find at TJ's without HFCS. Organic Peanut Butter has always been a PITA to me because you have to refrigerate it and it gets hard, but the one I bought is actually staying quite smooth thus far. Organic pasture fed chicken eggs with DHA/Omega -3's? Check. Whole fat yogurt for the kids? Check. Stevia sweetener for me (I love to sweeten my tea and coffee, but really don't want the calories)? Check. Check. Check. And, of course, lots of fresh fruits and veggies, frozen and dried ones too, perfect snack sized portions of almonds and on and on.... Throw in a few bottles of 2 Buck Chuck, and I realized that it's all going to be okay.

I can feel good about what my kids are eating, and hopefully, it will have some much needed positive behavioral effects on Kevin. He's been such a higgity-fidgity guy lately - not listening, bouncing off the walls, terrible sleeper, etc. Is it age or is it his diet? Well, the diet has been drastically changed, and the first positive side effect is that he is actually eating at mealtimes. Without coersion, without me having to shovel each bite into his mouth. Laura, despite looking quite the opposite, is a completely picky eater lately. She rarely eats a full meal anymore. Like lunch today - she ate her grapes and the sweet potato fries I made, but didn't touch her sandwich. I think it will take a few more days before she gets truly hungry and starts to eat when things are put in front of her.

So along with making day-by-day progress on getting the house Spring cleaned, our bodies and brains are getting Spring cleaned as well. I haven't found anything that feels as good as living clean.