Day One

Well, I have decided after much debate that I would start a blog.  I don't really need another thing to do (that may shock some to hear those words from me), but I think it is something I need to do.  There are several things that I want to get out and debate and I think this will be the best place for it.  I plan to give you an over view of my discoveries so that they may be a benefit to others.

So, for a little background information.  I have been married to my wonderful husband Shane for 10 years.  It hasn't always been easy especially with my stubbornness, but we have made it this far and have no intentions to quit any time soon.  I have 4 absolutely wonderful children.  Ashton is 9, Taylor is 7, Lance will be 4 in a week and Jett is 17 months.  I homeschool during the day and am a photographer whenever time allows.  I love crafting all kinds of things and would just create all day long if I could!

I now have stopped having children and am ready to get myself and house on track to good health.  I really want to make sure that my children don't have to struggle or worry about their health.  I started this journey to better health over a year ago starting with a visit to Christina at Bright Futures Chiropractic in Kalona, IA.  I have read many books and watched many films.  In due time I will share them with you.

Some people can just go and throw out all the crap in their cupboards and start new the next day, but I am not able to do that with this program.  I call this a program for lack of a better word.  I guess it could be a system, but never a diet.  A diet is something you do for a little bit to get to a goal, but this is to change the way you eat forever.  I am going to share what products I love and what works for my family to slowly convert them to good food.  If you try and change everything at once you will be met with a bunch of resistance.  If you change one thing at a time, the transition is WAY easier!!  This will be about my many, many steps to make things easier.

I have changed many things so far and am working mostly off a 'Clean Eating' plan.  Clean eating is basically the premise that you eat good whole foods with very little to no processing.  There are many cookbooks out by Tosca and I have one of them that helped me to start on my journey.  You can also join the facebook Clean Eating page and  you can google all kinds of recipes.  When I need a good recipe for something I google; clean eating lasagne recipe.  The amount available is awesome.

I wondered how to get started on it all and so here is what I have figured so far.  Step 1>  Start working towards getting everyone in your family to eat 5-6 mini meals a day.  This is tough for me.  Where I come from we make a pizza and that is your supper.  The whole supper, not part of it.  We never at a salad with a slice or things like that.  Lasagna, chili, spaghetti, all those are what we had, just a big bowl of that and nothing else.  Now to try and convert everyone to eating mini meals that are balanced is a big step.

Step 2> Read labels and teach your kids how to do it.  My kids like to see what is in their food.  Our first major mission is to get rid of High Fructose Corn Syrup.  Did you know that it is even in the loaves of bread that you buy in the store?  Why?  I have never used it when I make homemade bread!  This is a mission that we are pretty diligent about.  Now, we did just have Halloween and my kids do have treats.  I seriously limit the amount of crap that they have and have decided that at the end of 1 month what ever is left will be thrown away.

I can really tell when my kids are eating right because their behavior will mirror that.  My husband even came home the other day and noted how rambunctious there were being.  He asked me what was going on and I said that they each had one small pixi stick about 6 hours before he saw them.  I could still see small effects the next day.  This has been the case on several occasions when I let them have too much.

Although there will be pitfalls and we don't always follow all of our rules we are making progress.  We did eat at Wendy's last night and no, I didn't eat the salad!  I made Kraft Macaroni & Cheese (yes, not a bit of healthy, but for some reason my kids love it) and I used unsweetened Almond milk.  Blue Diamond Almond milk is the only one that I will EVER purchase.  I have tried many and won't buy anything else.  I use the vanilla sweetened for cereal and things, word of warning, it is pretty sweet though.  We have tried the chocolate, but don't care for it.  The prices on this are best at the New Pioneer Co-Op.  I tend to shop at the one in Coralville, but they both are great.  We also purchase their Peanut Butter that you can grind right in the store, what a great job for my son.

I will tell you how I see things I hope you add your comments.  I am only writing things from my point of view, so never take offense as I mean none.  I hope to share products with you and tips to make things go easier.  Please ask questions if you have any.  I will also share some of my favorite recipes too.

So now that this is Day 1 of my Blog I will say I am out of bread from the store.  Now this to most of you just means that I should go get more, but to me it is a chance to change things.  I plan to not buy bread at the store ever again.  Yes, my goal with the help of my new book is to never buy bread again.  Let's see if we can do it!  I have so much to say, but this is already getting longer than I wanted it to.  Tomorrow I will have more to share.

Thank you,
Angi