I have always known that planning is very important when eating healthy, especially for a growing family. I find that when I do not plan ahead and think about our food choices, I end up making poor choices. I need to plan healthy and simple snacks that will satisfy my picky crew, and this is a huge challenge for me. I have pretty much got a handle on breakfasts and dinners, but lunch also can be a problem. Lunch is usually a meal I want to be easy to prepare, or something my kids can do on their own. These quick meals have been difficult for me lately.  My boys usually will eat cheese with something for lunch, I usually have leftovers (but my husband often takes those with him for his lunch). Right now I am not eating dairy because my breastfed daughter reacts to it with severe reflux, so I just don’t quite know what to do.
This weekend and next week are going to be intensely busy, and food shopping is in the works, and I just want to be prepared with good nourishing food. I have not been proud of my food choices this week… it started well with a few days of The Maker’s Diet, but I was not getting enough calories, and began snacking (on healthy foods), and somewhere lost my momentum.
I read the book French Women Don’t Get Fat this week, and I really, really enjoyed it. Improve some of her nutritional advice, and use her “French” way of thinking about food, and I think we have a great set up.
I hope everyone is doing well, and less busy than I am right now!
About the Author...
I am a stay at home mom to four beautiful children.
Apr 21st, 2007 at 8:10 am
Erin, It’s a tough one, I agree. Are your kids homeschooled? How about Sally Fallon’sall raw cheesecake for lunch? And you can have eggs since you can’t have cheese at the moment. Just try and avoid Sally’s cheesecake though. Making the thing is an adventure in itself and a chance to help children learn about the science of bacteria. Otherwise I love dosas with home made tomato sauce and salad. Older kids can make themselves. Otherwise, how about a smoothie? Kids love making smoothies. If they’re anything like my girl, you’ll have to hang around to make sure they’re conservative with the honey.
Apr 21st, 2007 at 10:22 am
Yes, my kids are homeschooled. We just had a fun field trip to a state forest and learned how to make paper today. I have never made the all raw cheesecake yet… the dosas sound very simple and good. I am excited to try your tomato sauce recipe. One of my favorite recipe’s from Nourishing Traditions is the waffle recipe.
Isn’t it funny, I have never thought of letting them make their own smoothie! They would love this. Yes, they could empty a whole container of honey in a blink if I’m not looking.
Apr 21st, 2007 at 11:02 am
The best way I’ve found to cope with being too busy for enjoyment is to only do what I really want to do. Have a think about what you’re doing in your days, there may be something that you’re doing to keep up with someone else’s agenda (eg. mother, mother-in-law, church, women’s magazines, commercialism, other’s ideas of what it is to be a perfect mother/wife/woman). Find an extraneous task or ideology and Lop it off. If you can’t find one and you’re living by your standards alone, just lop off those tasks that are least important to you.
Time issues are a tough one. I used to spin out when people first began telling me there is no time, it’s just an illusion. How can that be? I guess practically, the point to that observation of reality is that time does seem to slow down when we’re really into what we’re doing, at least it doesn’t seem to matter any more. So making sure I’m really into what I’m doing and avoiding doing things I’m really not into helps me with time.
Apr 21st, 2007 at 11:23 am
I agree with you. In fact, I am pretty good at cutting back and just doing what it most important when things start to get a little crazy (and they tend to move in that direction, don’t they?). My husband and I committed ourselves to a very challenging musical preformance that will be over next week. We’ve thought about not doing it a number of times, but we both felt impressed that we needed to stick with it. When all is said and done, I will be taking a day to cross off a few things from our lives that just are not meaningful to us anymore, and then live more fully what we really do value. The basics are all that is needed anyway!
I am a strong believer that a lot of depression/anxiety can be relived just by letting go of unwarrented expectations. At least it really helped me in my life.
Apr 21st, 2007 at 11:24 am
Love to know what you cross off when you do.