Certainly, our diets are better than most Americans but lately I have felt like we've been getting a little lazy. Buying more processed foods and relying on simple staples like PB and J more often than I think appropriate.
That, combined with the discovery that my body fat level is almost 28% despite almost daily exercise and fairly healthy eating (BMI of 21.4). 28% is considered normal but I would prefer to be considered "athletic" which means you need a body fat of less than 25%. I also have just recently weaned Carson which sometimes leads to weight gain for woman which I do not want. (The other two times I weaned babies I was pregnant so didn't worry about gaining weight.)
Anyway, that sent me back to reading about healthy eating again. As an experiment I put Victor and I on a strict Paleo diet (no grains, legumes, dairy, or sugar/sweeteners). If you choose to live by the Paleo diet there is room for cheat meals, but 8 days of that was enough for me. I also read the book "Bringing Up Bebe" which talks about child-rearing, including eating, in France.
Combining ideas from the books on Real Food, Paleo diet, and French ideals I have come up with the following Food Rules for our house....
1) Start every meal with fruits and vegetables. Offer this first before the rest of the meal for fruits/veggies are viewed as more than a side or optional item.
2) Offer a source of protein at every meal. I do think the emphasis on lean proteins in the Paleo diet regarding weight maintenance is fairly accurate.
3) Limit snacks to fruits, vegetables, nuts (Erik is allergic), plain yogurt, and cheese.
4) Get picky about grains. I will not be buying any cereals, tortillas, crackers, chips, or bread (limited). We will stick to brown rice, quinoa, couscous, and whole grain noodles.**
5) Limit sugar to occasional home-baked desserts (1-2 batches of cookies or muffins or a cake per month). No artificial sweeteners.
6) Eat organic dairy products/produce, free-range eggs, and grass fed meat when practical and affordable.
7) Limit alcohol to 1-2 servings a week.
8) Allow flexibility when at school (will send lunches with Erik next year), social gatherings, and vacations.
I am planning to print these Food Rules out and hang them up in our kitchen reminding us not to get lazy!
What do you think about our Food Rules?! I am curious what "rules" you have in your house? If any?
** I don't think a limited amount grains are bad for you BUT I think it is SO easy to replace fruits, veggies, and proteins with grains. If the grains in the USA weren't fortified with nutrients there would be many, many people with serious vitamin deficiencies (Beri Beri and other diseases) because grains don't have vitamins in them. So many Americans get the majority of their calories from grains, and not always whole grains. Think how easy it would be... cereal for breakfast, chips for a snack, sandwich for lunch, crackers for a snack, pizza for dinner, cake for dessert. Probably a pretty common menu for a lot of my neighbors. I will supplement the kids diets with a daily vitamin in case they don't get everything from their fruits and veggies but I am guessing the vitamins they get in their diets will be much higher than most, even without a lot of fortified cereal grains. If you decide to read more you will find a lot of info about "anti-nutrients" in grain products. I think eating them in moderation is fine but don't want grains to be the foundation to our diet.
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For me, I try to center everything around veggies, with some fruits (for breakfast with yogurt and seeds, and 1/4 c of homemade granola on work or ski days only). There is quite a bit of protein in beans and quinoa, and brown rice too, so I don't worry overly much about eating meat or fish, just when it seems appropriate. If my body would tolerate it, I'd eat vegetarian almost all the time. I love my desserts, so I'm not giving them up anytime soon,.but they are always homemade and often whole-grain. I'm not too fussed about my body fat percentage or BMI; I am suspicious of all nutritional research, especially those. I am happiest and have the most energy when I eat mostly fruits n veggies, with some nuts. Mmm! There is a Whole Food Workshop offered by Beauty That Moves author Heather - there is a 2 for 1 deal, want to take it with me and split the cost?
I focus on health 95% of the time. Decreasing my body fat is completely 100% about vanity!! Haha! I won't obsess too much but I would love to have more muscle definition/decreased body fat!
So funny, I have been reading all about Paleo this summer and had just finished reading Bringing Up Bebe a few weeks ago, so reading this post felt almost like I was writing it! Ever since Abby was diagnosed with celiac, I have been reading about all grains and how the phytic whatever (sp?) is hard on the gut and often concluding that I should keep all grains out of her diet (and the rest of the family) to the extent that I can... It is hard and expensive and I am also flexible about this. We do make some GF pasta (Tinkayada) and cook quinoa once and a while. For myself, I am trying to completely eliminate dairy (haven't been 100%) but have not done so for the rest of the family (still give them yogurt and cheese). We usually have smoothies for breakfast (kale, frozen blueberries, water, frozen bananas, fresh squeezed lime- we call it the "Purple Dinosaur")...if there is time, some eggs with that. For lunch I generally start them with salad and then usually leftover meat from the night before and fruit, possibly cheese for them, with water, and then dinner is usually meat and veggies with fruit for dessert. Of course I veer from this for variety and depending on what we have available...I always make my own treats for the girls when we go to parties since there are always treats at parties/social gatherings which certainly happen frequently enough and I don't want them to feel deprived- it is usually a GF version of what the host is having, often grain free if I can (using nut butter or almond flour or coconut flour). We do still make pizza once and a while at home too. School is tough- not so much lunch because I pack their lunch, but kids are offered treats as rewards, each kid brings junk in on their birthday and special person day (which accounts for about 48 days of school when there are 24 kids in a class) and almost always it is processed sugar, wheat, corn, and soy in different configurations, which some artifical dyes thrown in there..this is a big pet peeve of mine with school. Plus all the school wide celebrations and fundraisers...junk. I am attempting to work with a few other parents to try to change that culture. You'll have to let me know the environment at your local school once you experience it. Thanks for sharing your experiences- miss you- wish you were here....
Oh, and I failed to mention that when I spoke to Abby's dietician at Childrens about 6 months after she was diagnosed with celiac (she was assigned a dietician who educates families with celiac children), I questioned the need for other GF grains after reading about their digestability and concerns about how we prepare grains and she was insistent that she needs grains. I asked her to explain why she needs grains, what would she be missing if I compensated with more veggies, and she just seemed surprised by the question and all she could do is respond by printing me out the government's food pyramid and reiterating what our lovely government recommends. I considered sending her a whole bunch of info on how the government's recommendation have been politically influenced and dissecting each grain for what nutrients they offer and how if substituting with vegetables, which offer greater % of each nutrient, how the vegetables were nutritionally superior on almost if not all nutrients that a grain offers, but then I lost stamina and wasn't sure it was worth it. We just have never gone back since. It wasn't that I was sure that grains are bad for everyone, I just wanted an explanation for why my daughter would need them and what exactly she'd be missing if we avoided them altogether. I love reading about nutrition, but the experience totally turned my off to the desire to one day go back to school to become a Dietician. No way I want to simply regurgitate our government's recommendations. Oh and after reading Bringing Up Bebe, I am so jealous of the French's food culture, especialy for raising children!
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