Week Six Information

Making It Easy for Mom
I'm just a mom on a budget, trying to keep my family healthy.  

The grocery list and meals will come out on Saturday.  

My Kids

"There is no such thing as an essential carbohydrate."  Gary Taubes

It's not easy to diet.  In fact people hate dieting!  So why do we do it?  Is the obesity epidemic really a result of too many calories?  Or perhaps are the calories we are eating so void of nutrition it is causing us to overeat?  What is the definition of insanity?  According to Albert Einstein it's, "Doing the same thing over and over again, and expecting different results."  Here's an idea for you...

Start eating real food that is full of essential minerals, vitamins and nutrients, to lose weight and feel great. If we eat food that balances our blood sugar and doesn't cause a our insulin to spike, we can eat as much of it as we need to feel satiated, without having to worry about gaining weight.   

I recently listened to a fascinating podcast of the idea that our genes that control weight are turned on in utero.  The theory is that if while your mother is pregnant, she doesn't get the proper nutrition, then your genes that help you to survive in famine are turned on.  Once they are turned on they can't turn off.  If then when you are born, you are fed a diet high in sugar (think all processed carbs here), then you are going to be obese because your genes are telling you to eat eat and eat to get the proper nutrition.  And diets high in processed foods don't offer nutrition.  So you keep eating.  And the cycle goes round and round.  But you can stop that genetic cycle by eating real food.  

In Canada, the nutritional standards  for babies and their first foods were just revised.  No more recommendations to hold off on all those typical foods related to allergies.  Steak and eggs is being advised as a first real food meal.  I know you are thinking, that's crazy, but maybe not.  When both my kids were babies, we were living in Bogota, Colombia.  There was not iron fortified baby cereal readily available.  Babies ate real food.  My babies first foods were meat, eggs, avocados, and many exotic fruits.  I did not have the luxury of jarred foods.  And guess what?  I do believe that is a large part of the reason my kids eat real food.  Now Canada has caught on too.  Eating patterns are established in a family as the family's eating culture.  What is your family's eating culture?

Try my menu for a week.  Perhaps balancing your blood sugar and eliminating processed foods, will help you to look and feel great!  

Book Recommendation:  Why We Get Fat, and What to Do About It
Taubes, Gary (2011).  Why We Get Fat, and What to Do About It. New York, New York:  Anchor Books. 

"We don't get fat because we overeat; we overeat because we're getting fat."  Gary Taubes

Taubes places the blame for our obesity epidemic on the types of food we are eating not the amount.  Giving multiple examples of indigenous cultures being exposed to a Western diet and finding themselves obese, he suggests that the whole notion of "calories in, calories out" is wrong.  Have scientists ever been wrong before?  Taubes presents research that proves his theory that weight gain is related to insulin secretion.  If we are secreting too much insulin, we are telling our bodies to store fat.  Which leads Tubes to show that if we can lower our insulin secretions, then we can lose weight.  How do we do that?  Well, simply by changing our diet.  Guiding the readers with many examples, Taubes teaches us that we need to stop eating processed foods (because they spike your insulin), and return to real foods.  If you have found yourself in that insane cycle of weight gain, dieting through calorie restriction, only to go back to gaining weight after the diet, I highly suggest you read this book.  

Web Article Recommendation:  
Most of our processed food contain high fructose corn syrup. Why?  Because there is an overabundance of it and big food industry found a new way to use (and PROFIT from) what would otherwise have been waste.  So if most processed foods are made with HFCS, it must be fine, right?  Well, read this article, and decide for yourself.  

Something my kids have taught me this week:  I received a notice that my daughter's class will be handing out Easter eggs filled with candy, and we parents need to bring each child an egg filled with candy.  I bet you all already know my view on candy for celebrations, so no need for me to get into that.  However, my daughter was so excited about it.  She wants to feel a part of her classroom celebration too.  But I secretly inside am cringing at the idea of toxic plastic eggs filled with HFCS candies that are artificially colored.  Instead of just buying the cheap, gross candy at the store, I placed an order at The Natural Candy Store.  While the prices are a bit more expensive, you are getting fair trade, organic, HFCS-less, naturally colored candies.  And guess what?  We have used these candies for our kids in the past, and they taste great too!  They even have non-toxic, biodegradable eggs. Perhaps you can help your kids this Easter to celebrate American style, with some healthier options.

Brain Power Idea:  Family Joke Book

Laughing is amazing for you.  Do you and your family do it enough?  My husband is, without a doubt, the funniest person I know.  His clever humor has passed on to the kids, and they love to make jokes and laugh.  I am constantly surprised at how my son is now able to create jokes that are also clever.  

Here is an example, we were in the bath and he asked why you could see through tupperware.  I told him it was transparent, or see through.  Later that night he said, "Mom, what do you call a parent you can see through?  Transparent."  And that was the day the family joke book was born.  My four year old also has thought of some jokes.  The best part about all this, it that the kids are training their brains to pay attention to details and synthesize these details into something new.  Maybe you could start a family joke book too.  

Methods to get your kids to eat new foods: I received a question asking about how to get your kids to try new veggies.  The key word here is try because once they have tried them, about 10-13 times, they will eat them because they like them.  They might not like every veggie, but they will find some to be delicious.  I have found that giving the raw version of the fruit or veggies is the tastiest, and let's be honest, easier to prepare.  On top of that, the raw version is almost always the most nutritious way to eat veggies and fruits.  Okay, drumroll please...I bribe my kids.  Isn't that what all good parents do?  Here is strategy five of six. 

Method 5:  I call it "The next thing that will go into your mouth" strategy:  It is what it says.  I put the plate into the fridge if they don't want to eat it.  Then, when the next meal comes, guess what, you are eating what you didn't finish.  This helps me to stay completely calm with my strong willed child.  She gets her way and I get mine.  When the plate comes out at the next meal, she knows I am not going to budge and she is hungry, so it's a lot easier to get her to try something.  Pavlov said, "Hunger is the best sauce."  You will only have to do this a few times before your kids start trying to make a deal with you.  I accept deals of, "Mom if I taste it, then can I be done?"  Absolutely!  Remember the "they will like it after 10-13 times of trying it" rule here.