Other Resources

I wanted to share a few more resources that I have been using to prepare healthy meals.

I started off on the 100 Days of Real Food website and then somehow got on The Nourishing Home website which then links to The Better Mom website. Both of these websites have great information on them.

The Nourishing Home blogger publishes meal plans and I have been printing those and using them to help me plan my meals. I don't follow them exactly because some of the meals I know we won't like but they definitely help with ideas and new recipes. We have like pretty much everything I have made so far.

I do have a disclaimer though - food tastes different when it isn't packed full of sugar. Sugar makes things taste good so they (the food manufacturers) add sugar but the problem is that we become "used to" that level of sugar so they have to add more sugar to things to make them taste yummy again and the cycle continues. So when you all of the sudden start eating things that have no sugar in them, they do taste rather . . . bland. I guess that's a good way to describe it. It is just about retraining your taste buds.

For example, Saturday morning I made banana-nut muffins  . . . from scratch. We had to mash the banana and everything. The kids enjoyed that part =-)  Anyways, the muffins did not taste like the banana-nut muffins that I used to make from the box. They were not bad but they were more bland than the other ones. Just different. 

The girls are doing good with it. Kayla especially wants to eat healthy. Hailey is willing to eat the healthy stuff but then immediately asks for dessert in the form of ice cream or brownies or cookies. Evan is battling me a little bit on it but since we are mean parents and tell him he gets nothing else until he eats his dinner, he is eating it.

Did you know there is such a thing as sugar withdrawal? I am not kidding. I think Hailey is suffering from it because she has always been my sweets girl. I have always thought she is addicted to sugar because she is always asking for it and now that she is just about desperate for a sugary treat, I really think she is going through withdrawals. That's okay, little changes at a time and I will get her off of her sweet tooth.

So far so good this week too. I planned and shopped and have been able to prepare yummy healthy meals and lunches. Although, I do have to say, it is a lot of work. I guess it will get better the more I do it and not seem so overwhelming with time. Hopefully that happens sooner rather than later!