Part 2: Our whole foods lifestyle: Feeding My Family Right {Yum, food! With pictures!}

So after the marathon post on WHY we eat the way we do, this post will discuss what we do eat, recipes, and reference my marathon cooking day.

Based on fruits & veg, the staples of our lifestyle.

We try to follow a semi-vegetarian diet, but the goal is always a whole foods diet.  I DO NOT mean the store when I say "whole foods". A whole foods diet is basically removing the processed junk out of your diet & cupboards and replacing it with fresh fruits, vegetables, nuts, whole grains, legumes, etc.  Anything that is shelf-stable, canned, etc would not be included into a whole foods diet.

I say the diet, or lifestyle really, is a goal.  Are we always successful? No, and there are some things I will buy canned, although I try to buy the food that is packaged in tetra packs, recyclable BPA-free plastic, cardboard/paper, or canned in glass. Pasta sauce, crackers, breads, and cereals tend to be the most frequently purchased pre-made things. I also occasionally do beans. I can make beans, but it's such a long process that you need to be home for that sometimes I just need easy.

We start by buying our fruits and veggies organically through our co-op, Annie's Organic Buying Club. I then make my list of staples like organic milk, eggs, cheese, chicken, organic peanut butter & jelly, and 2 kinds of fish (usually salmon & tilapia). If our veggie box doesn't come with apples, carrots, cucumbers, grapes & bananas, then I'll add those to our list to because they are easy on-the-go snacks. We also have replaced canola or vegetable oil {which are often made with soybeans which is the worst offender for GMO aside from anything with corn} with olive oil, real butter, or organic, cold-pressed extra virgin coconut oil.

Freezer meals prepped and ready to be frozen!

Then I look to Onceamonthmom.com. They have become my go-to resource for whole foods recipes. They post new sets of recipes every month. While it is a subscription site, you don't need the subscription to access the recipes. This year I opted for the subscription because I do actually do the once a month freezer cooking method and have for awhile.   The reason is that during the school year, I found that we were eating out far too often because it was either too late to put together a proper meal or I was too tired to do it. Hubby is a basketball coach and during the season, I often feel like a single mom with two littles. I love the fact that I can come home to a crockpot meal or something I've defrosted and just need to nuke that is healthy. Add a salad and some fruit and bam! Instant well-balanced meal. If I were a stay-at-home mom, I'd take these recipes and prepare them fresh for that day.

Back to OAMC, I have found through trial and error that their site is the best all-inclusive site for tips and recipes. {Annie's Organic Buying Club also has a pretty good pinterest site for recipes using their foods, but I haven't had great success with the recipes.} Plus the OAMC moms respond quickly if you have questions or suggestions. I haven't been as thrilled with their vegetarian recipes, but I have less experience with those recipes. And, I can make any of the whole foods recipes vegetarian by subbing quinoa for rice and cutting the meat or subbing beans for the meat.  Any recipe that calls for beef is replaced with chicken or fish or one of the vegetarian options.

We try to do a couple of meatless days during the week and then when eating meat, we try to go light on the meat and heavy on the veg. Our goal is to set a table full of color where fruit AND veggies take the predominate place.

Again, note the word GOAL. Do we always succeed? No. But I feel as long as I'm actively trying to feed them right, the sum is equal to the parts.  6 bad meals this month + 24 whole foods meals = success in my book.

#2's lunch: Salmon, quinoa, avocado, and roasted broccoli.
Almost all are leftovers from the night before.

We then send the leftovers from dinner as lunch for #2. #1 actually loves the school lunch (yuck!), but I am refusing to let #2 eat the school lunch until at least 18 months old. Sometimes we send lunch meat, but I'm super particular that we buy specific organic brands that I have researched. Deli meat often has a lot of processed junk in it and even has gluten. Why meat needs gluten, I'm not sure. Why it needs to be combined with parts of the animal I would never eat, I'm not sure either. Lunch meat in general is one thing that I'm on the fence about, but we have it and we eat it, just not frequently.



I've had several people ask how we get our kids to eat so well.  My response? It's two-fold. First, we are not a restaurant so I don't offer to make a pb&j when #1 refuses to eat like 3 year olds do. Second, we are all eating the same foods, so we are modeling what we expect. My kids eat salad. My kids eat salmon. My kids eat real food. They are required to take 2 bites.  If they get hungry later and they didn't finish dinner, guess what is offered? Dinner.

Don't get me wrong, I don't think I'm a better mom than anyone out there. I do this because I'm freaked out about our food supply and how I can best feed my children for their short & long term health.

We do love our cookies though! Recently, instead of buying shelf-stable ones stocked with preservatives and GMOs and other chemically-laden items, we have been making our cookies. Yes, they are sweet, but I know WHAT they are made with and that there are no preservatives in them. I also make a mean homemade granola.

So, is this work?  Absolutely. Unfortunately, our American lifestyle is about ease & convenience, not health. I sometimes hit up 4 places in a week/weekend between our veggie co-op, Target, Publix, and Whole Foods (the store). I spend one day a month cooking ALL.DAY.LONG. I do a ton of research into things as well, but sites like OAMC & EWG.org make the research process shorter.

But it's worth it to be able to feed my family.

What do you working mamas do to feed your families? How about you SAHMs? Recipes? Links?

P.S. A very special shout-out to my SIL who inspired me to write these two posts. I do a lot of Foodbooking and have had several questions about our eating habits and my cooking process. I hope these posts address the why and how. Nothing excites me more to see people making positive life change!

Part 1: Why do we eat a mostly organic whole food diet?

Today, I'm going to deviate from the normal topics of PPD & running to talk about eating. And nutrition. But mostly eating. This will be a two part series.  The first part is about why my family has embarked on a mostly organic, whole foods diet.

Four years ago, when I found I was pregnant with #1, I started to embark on a journey of healthy eating.  We had been eating a typical American diet of processed foods that were easy to prepare as both of us work full time. By the time we would get home from chasing students all day, we were often too exhausted to do much more than pop a frozen meal in the microwave or warm something up on the stove.

It all started with some research I had been doing. I came across some information about Monsanto.  Monsanto is a huge company with questionable ethics. They are one of the biggest producers of GMOs. GMOs are genetically modified organisms, but it typically refers to grains.  Soy, corn, and wheat are some of the most commonly GMO-crops grown right now. These grains are crossbred with pesticides and other chemicals built into them to increase production and reduce crop loss. While the reasoning behind why they are crossbred is great, what is put into the grains isn't. I personally don't want to be eating pesticides. Monsanto claims that their GMOs are safe. The FDA has taken Monsanto-paid scientists' data at their word and approved it for safety here.

However, the EU and Japan refuse to buy our GMO crops. Their take basically comes down to this: pesticides do harm to organisms, so they do harm to us as organisms.

(As a side note, Monsanto also sues conventional farmers for stealing their crops whose fields have been cross-pollinated accidentally due to those pesky bees, birds, and other animals who know no boundaries like fences.)

I wouldn't spoon feed my children or my husband or myself bug spray, so why would I feed them food that was specifically injected with it. Why would I feed them food that was even sprayed with it?

Furthermore, once I realized I was having a daughter (and now we have 2 girls), I started thinking about all of the little girls I've taught who at the age of 8 started getting their menstrual cycle.  I'm not ok with that.  Little girls should be able to be little girls.  They should be able to play legos, climb trees, play tag, and play dolls without having to worry about changing their tampon.  I don't want my little girls to have boys lusting over their bodies at age 8 because they already have a figure. (I don't really want boys lusting over my girls period, but let's be real here.) Girls shouldn't have to be fighting off boys when they are in elementary school.

After more research, I determined that feeding conventional meat was also a concern. Growth hormones are injected into these animals to encourage abnormal size which means more meat for the market which then generates more money for the farmer. Also, they pump these animals full antibiotics whether they need them or not so the prevent sickness.

Studies show that growth hormones have contributed to early onset of puberty and a multitude of many types of cancers.

And it's no secret that antibiotics aren't as effective as they used to be. That's because we are consuming a low level of them almost daily.

(And here's the deal, when I talk about the farmers here, I'm not talking about the small town farmer that you might be envisioning.  Those farms are fast going by the way-side. I know. I grew up in a small farming community. I remember the outrage when the first factory farm installed itself there. I'm talking about the huge factory farms where animals are shoved in every nook and cranny.  Where the whole intention is about making as much money as possible with whatever possible, regardless of how good it is for the consumer.)

Recently, hubby and I watched Forks Over Knives.  This isn't a documentary to scare you away from eating everything, but it was extremely eye opening. They reference the China Study frequently. Reading & watching that research sealed the deal for our food journey.

We had already been purchasing organic milk, eggs, and most of what was on the Dirty Dozen list. We had used our organic co-op for fruits and veg off and on. Forks Over Knives really hit it home to eliminate much of our meat, or greatly reduce the portion size, and up the amount of fresh fruit and veg we were eating. We try to have at least one or two meatless nights and eat quinoa or beans as our protein.

We aren't perfect.  Eating this way can be EXPENSIVE. We do enjoy the occasional burger. We do like bacon. We eat out and I know that isn't organic. We do have McDonald's or Chickfila. We do eat cookies, but usually we make them ourselves with our organic flour, sugar and eggs. We do eat cereal, but it's organic (most of the time, except for those Corn Pops hubby snuck in the other day...) or I make homemade granola. We eat chips.  

We are real people, after all.

Here's the deal though, when I look at what we are MOSTLY eating, what our diet is MOSTLY comprised of, we are eating fresh fruits, legumes, and vegetables with fish and chicken. When I look in my fridge and see it packed with color and then look in my cupboards and see them almost bare without the shelf-stable foods, I rejoice. 

Are we perfect?  No.

But I can go to sleep at night knowing that I'm trying to prevent cancer in all of us and early on-set of puberty for my girls.

What do you do to feed your families? What changes have you made to make sure everyone is eating right?

Here's another nice link that I couldn't find a place to insert about GMOs.

I have "issues" {who doesn't?}

SO, this post started in my head today while running mid-day during nap time. Something I never do, but I didn't get my lazy butt out of bed this morning like every morning the past several days {months}.

I was about three quarters of a mile into my run, the point where the stiffness subsides, your breathing is regulated, and you stop thinking that running in 90,000 degree weather during mid-day in FL was the dumbest idea you've ever had, and it hit me that I hadn't blogged in forever either.

School starting is my biggest excuse.  Juggling everything at the beginning of the year is always difficult and this year there have been several big changes and I have taken on more responsibilities than I have in the past. My second biggest excuse is my running buddy from last year and I "broke up". It was both of our faults, but it didn't end well.  But yeah, excuses nonetheless.

The same excuses that have led me to the point in running that I'm at now.  The point where I'm wondering how the heck I managed to run a minimum of 40 miles a month WHILE exclusively pumping and why I can't seem to get out of bed a full hour later to accomplish a morning run.

I do the all the tricks - I have clothes set out ready to go, I set multiple alarms, I have my running bag ready to grab, my shoes are easy to find (unless a certain 3 year old makes off with them to go running herself).

I just don't get up! 

I silence the alarms and will wake up enough to silently berate myself as I set the alarm I need to wake up to shower.

How pathetic is that?!

I've said before that running was my saving grace last year to help me combat my post-partum anxiety.  I was able to be drug free until I weaned. I wasn't perfect. Meds certainly would have helped in many instances, but I made it.

And I made it because I ran. A lot.

And now, I'm not making it. Too often, I'm having to pop my little chill pills to relax. To not have a panic attack while grading papers.

And I've been cutting out that one thing that naturally helps me make it. The one thing that saves me from my body issues.

So here's to running.  The one thing that saves me from my mind & keeps me sane.

Any other mamas out there with PPD or anxiety issues? How do you deal???