Fruits & veggies...Staying stocked up

Staying stocked up

The F&V (fruit and veggie) tracker is working like magic!   As one reader commented,

" I particularly like the intrinsic motivation that kids get from "keeping score" on a chart. Makes for less "motivating" required from mom. :) ”

 A picture is worth is thousand words.  David won the gold medal this week:  

By branching out on the variety of F&V we are eating, we are able to increase our overall intake.  Baby carrots are convenient, but trying to fill up the tracker solely with carrots will quickly lead to burn out.

Not very long ago I fell into the rut at dinnertime of resorting to tossing the cellophane bag of spinach leaves and the bag of baby carrots next to the main course on the island for our vegetable almost every night.  It was the easiest way to "prepare"  a veggie for dinner.  Our children will need spinach aversion therapy as adults!  Just to complete the task of eating the spinach, Jimmy would wad up a handful of spinach and pack it into his mouth.  After several chews, he would flash a big smile, teeth smothered in green mush & flecks of chewed up spinach.  Monkey see, monkey do... the younger siblings followed suit.   Hel-looo mother, it's time to switch the veggie menu!

Celery and red bell pepper strips are a new addition to our repertoire and are easy to pack in lunches.  Finding tasty celery can be a gamble, however.  Sometimes it is delicious yet other times horribly bitter.  So far so good on the Costco 4 pack of celery hearts and 6 pack of red peppers.  Single serving peanut butter packets are convenient and tasty for dipping a variety of fruits & veggies (including carrots). 

Today, my purchases in the produce section have taken an interesting turn.  A few oranges and apples are no longer sufficient.  I now am buying F&V in bulk just to keep us stocked up - oranges by the box, 6 pack of hearts of Romaine lettuce, 3 bunches of bananas at a time. Fortunately, none of it is going to waste so far!  We are actually fighting over the pears so as to grab one before they disappear.  Eating more F&V may mean an extra trip to the store, but that's a fair trade-off in my mind.  

Is this just a passing phase, a F&V honeymoon?  Will the children lose steam or burn out on eating the same veggies? Will I be able to squeeze in a trip to the store to keep us adequately stocked?

I realize that not all children take to eating a variety of F&V.  We have one adult child who likes a narrow range of fruits and veggies.  Forcing or manipulating a child to eat is a counter productive strategy.  What does work is being a good role model, patience, and time.  Scientists tell us that children's taste buds are more sensitive to bitter taste, which accounts for the increase of veggie consumption that often occurs as children mature into adulthood.  I tell myself their taste buds will eventually mature.  In the meantime, a "no thank you bite"  (try one bite and then say "no thank you" if one does not care to eat any more) helps their taste buds become familiar with the flavor.  It also teaches them to politely decline beyond one bite rather than make a disrespectful "Eeewwww yuck" response.

A helpful website at http://sacredappetite.com offers concrete solutions to return to harmonious family meals at the table, without battles or pressure.  The author's goal is to teach children to enjoy what’s good for them, not just get them to eat it. 

My short-term goal is to stay stocked up on a variety of F&V.  Next, I want to make the F&V offering at meals as appealing as is within my power.  If the veggies look good, smell good, and taste good, we're more likely to achieve the long-term goal of creating positive eating experiences that form the foundation for lasting habits. 

One step at a time, we are working on building habits to eat well for a lifetime.

Fruits & Veggies... Getting a baseline

Getting a Baseline

Paying attention to the fruits and veggies that my children eat often takes a back seat to the urgent millions of other things on the radar in my role as parent.   Author Stephen Covey (The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People) coined this the "tyranny of the urgent".  Urgent means it requires immediate attention as in, "Quick!  Get in the car we should have left 5 minutes ago for soccer practice!"

On the other hand, eating fruits and vegetables is not an urgent matter.  Not packing veggies in my children's lunch today will unlikely cause much of an immediate impact.  However, there may be negative effects down the road as there is overwhelming evidence that eating adequate fruits and veggies helps protect us against major diseases such as obesity, diabetes, cancer, high blood pressure, heart disease, and stroke.  Therefore, although important, it is not urgent that we make sure we are eating adequate fruits and veggies.  Important matters that are not urgent require more initiative, more pro-activity.  How am I going to make this non-urgent activity of eating adequate fruits and veggies begin to get some traction?

 

To get started, I need to learn how far short we are falling with eating adequate fruits and veggies.  The current recommendation is to eat at least 5 servings but ideally closer to 10 servings per day of fruits and veggies. To get a sense of how many fruits and veggies we eat, our family agreed to begin tracking this week.  At dinner, I asked everyone if they would be willing to keep track of how many fruits and veggies they eat for one week.  Although no one jumped up and down with joy, they at least did not moan and groan. 

 

So, after dinner, I pulled out  this free on-line tracker  www.pps.k12.pa.us, and I printed the following:

 

• The tracker - front page (one for each person)
• What counts as a serving size - page 3 (one copy to share)

Using a marker I modified the tracker pictured here.  Under each day of the week, I added an "F" (for fruit) above the left column of 5 circles, and a "V" (for veggies) above the right column of 5 circles.  We used an orange marker to fill in a fruit circle for every serving we ate, and a green marker to fill in a veggie circle for every serving we ate.  There is a fruit and veggie tracking app at http://munch5aday.com/, but I prefer the colorful paper and pen method.

Although at this point we are simply gathering data to develop a baseline, I am pleasantly surprised at how the simple act of paying attention to a behavior provides it's own built-in motivator.  Without even mentioning a peep about any "should"s  (i.e., "we should eat more fruits and veggies"), the children are already in healthy competition to eat enough fruits and veggies to color in all the fruit & veggie "bubbles".   When trying to determine how much salad David ate, he had the great idea to measure the salad with a measuring cup the next day so we aren't guessing what constitutes a serving size.  ;-)

I want to be a good example and do all that is within my power to set my children up to be of healthy mind and body, now and in the future.  This can be done by teaching them what is an adequate amount of fruits and veggies to eat each day, and how to do it.   For now, we are just collecting information for a baseline.  No judgment, no pressure.  Just data collection.  From this baseline, the next step will be to track our progress as we find ways to increase our intake of fruit and veggies.

 

 

Clear the way...Habits can be hard to break

Habits can be hard to break  

If someone did a motion study of me, it would reveal that I am a creature of habit.

Habits can be a good thing.  Life is more efficient- I know exactly what to buy at the grocery store. It's freeing- I don't have to spend much time thinking through all the infinite minutia of life. However, every once in a while it is good to examine whether my habits are helping me to be the best healthy me, or not. That is my aim with going dairy-free this Lent... to find out what's best for me. In doing so, I am totally messing with well worn patterns of daily life.  Sometimes changing things up can feel like a long overdue breath of fresh air.  Other times it can feel disruptive, foreign, time consuming, and draining.

When it comes to eating habits, it's super easy to get stuck in a rut and not even realize it. To get out of that deeply grooved rut requires some creative behavior modification tricks.  Getting myself off of dairy foods hasn't been easy.  First, I had to deal with the lure of those yummy foods so beloved to this Wisconsin cheese-head.  I have been on a mission to discover what to eat or drink in place of them.  I will spare the details for now and get straight to the "take-away's" I discovered about trying to cut out foods I was hooked on.

1. Have a very specific goal

My goal is "no dairy during Lent".  A specific time frame reassures me that this isn't forever.  I can decide after 6 weeks whether to continue with it or not.  I established from the beginning where the line will be drawn.  No cow-based milk in my coffee or in my post-exercise protein drink.  No ice cream.  No cheese. 

 

2.  Know the reason why

In the face of temptation, it helps to ask myself, "WHY am I doing this?" (What's motivating me?)  It is easier to say NO to something when I have a bigger YES calling me.  My bigger YES is my health.  Specifically being able to answer the question-  does dairy-free eating help my digestion, bloating, and general health of mind & body?  Knowing the reason why strengthens my ability to make the behavior change.

3.  Change my thoughts

As our thoughts go, so our actions follow.  It's like a chain reaction.

• First, there's a trigger.  For example, John (with the best of intentions) buys a carton of my favorite flavor of ice cream (French salted caramel) for our family Sunday dessert night.
• Second, I automatically think: "I would LOVE to eat a bowl of this ice cream; John bought it just for me; what will it hurt?  I'll just start back on dairy-free tomorrow."
• Lastly, those particular thoughts could lead me to cave in and eat the ice cream.

Blazing new trails...

To break the chain that would lead to me eating the ice cream, I must interrupt with a more helpful thought that's going to give me a different behavior outcome.  I insert a "but" statement that goes like this: "I will really enjoy eating my favorite ice cream, BUT doing so will mess up my experiment to determine how my body reacts to dairy-free."  The amazing thing is that by changing our thoughts time and time again, we are actually retraining our brain. Scientists say we have the ability to make new neural pathways.  With practice, we are literally changing the make-up of our brain.  It's kind of like forging a new path through dense forest.  The more I take the new path, the easier it becomes to take this route over time. 

4.  Take baby steps that are doable

I was dreading life without cheese-smothered pizza.  After all, what's pizza without cheese?  The big test came on home-made pizza night, a once-a-week affair in our family.  I've seen a few creative ideas for cheese-free pizza. I have toyed with the idea of making a dairy-free, wheat-free "paleo" pizza (http://paleodietlifestyle.com/paleo-pizza/). But I had been procrastinating with putting it on the menu because it felt too overwhelming to try something new.  All I had in me was the ability to take one small step to adjust our usual pizza to make it cheese-free.  So, I sautéed whatever veggies were on hand (onions, red & yellow peppers, mushrooms).  Next, I piled the veggies along with some sliced olives & arugula greens onto the cheese-free half of one of the pizzas.  The result: the flavor was out of this world!  John tasted the pizza and thought I had fallen off my dairy-free experiment. He didn't even realize this delicious, veggie-laden pizza was cheese-free!  One small step, and voila!

5.  It's OK to put my health first

In the busyness of life, it's common (especially for women) to fall into the trap of taking care of everyone else...except themselves.   Important note to self:  When I take care of myself, I am better able to take care of those around me (think oxygen mask on an airplane).  Getting adequate nutrition is important to me.  So I spent some time experimenting with cow's milk replacement along with researching the nutritional aspect of dairy versus non-dairy eating.  After trying different non-milk ways to make a protein drink, I was a bit dismayed with the results.  But I pushed on.  I then reached my most exciting discovery.  Unsweetened almond milk is delicious and most satisfying whirred in the Vitamix with 1/2 frozen banana, a few ice cubes and a scoop of chocolate protein powder.  I was thrilled to learn that one cup of almond milk provides more calcium than what I was getting through all the dairy products I had previously been consuming in one day (with far less fat and carbohydrates).  Doing something for me helped me find a cow's milk alternative that is delicious and nutritious for my body.

6. Clear out, if possible, the temptations

I poured my carton of lactose-free whole milk down the drain so I wouldn't be tempted to use it in my coffee.  I'm surprised by my dislike for black coffee given that I drank it black for many years.  It is almost not worth drinking.  I miss the creamy smoothness.  So far, the best "cream" I've found in place of whole lactose-free milk is a dairy free coconut milk beverage.  It will have to do for three more weeks. But who's counting?

Reflecting on the past few weeks, experimenting with a dairy-free diet has not been easy.  The good news is that my dairy-free path is becoming more well-trodden.  Perhaps the brain neurons are forming new pathways. I feel more confident that I will be able to keep my resolve to be dairy-free through Lent.  Is it worth it?  It doesn't always feel like it in the moment, but I repeatedly tell myself it will be in the long run. These new habits are not an end.  Rather they are the means to an end.  They will help me to determine what feels best, what is best for my body and health.

Moving forward, I will continue to break old habits to help clear the way and make room for goodness.  My next focus for the month of March will be "Bring on the Fruits & Vegetables!"

Clear the way... Finding what's best for me

 Finding what's best for me

As I clear the way to make room for the valuable food that fuels my mind & body, sometimes it can be tricky knowing what to clear out of my diet and what to keep.  The process may encompass more than just clearing out the obvious "junk food".

Part of the challenge in knowing what to clear out is that diet/nutrition is a hotly debated subject with strong-held opinions & recommendations.  The deeper I dig into the information, the more I get bombarded with mixed messages about what  to eat.  I feel caught in the middle of a war between the government agencies, renowned researchers, film producers, and professional & lay "experts" in the field.  It can be very confusing.  Plant-based? wheat-free? dairy-free? Mediterranean? low fat?               

My gluten-free month that I did a few summers ago reminded me of how important it is to experiment with food and be the expert of my own body.  That experiment led me to transition over to more of a gluten-free eating style. This was a valuable experience.  It seems there is no one-size-fits-all when it comes to diet recommendations.  So, I decided it's time to experiment with going dairy-free to find out what's best for me.  

Why dairy-free?  I have this growing, gnawing sense that maybe the dairy I consume isn't really necessary, and furthermore may not even be all that good for me.  A few of the sources that support "the other side" of the dairy debate shed light on the potential negative effects of dairy.

• http://thepaleodiet.com/paleo-diet-faq/
• http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dr-mark-hyman/dairy-free-dairy-6-reason_b_558876.html
• http://www.thepaleomom.com/2012/10/the-great-dairy-debate.html 

I'm feeling torn.  The pro-dairy message from government agencies has a stronghold on me.  It's so...well, American-  to have a milk mustache.  Plus, I was born and raised in the Dairy State.  I'm a "cheese head".  Could I break path?  Should I break path? 

Up to this point, I haven't been able to get myself to give up the dairy products that I eat daily and love so much- cheese, milk and yogurt.  But this year as Lent approached, I felt ready to sacrifice and give dairy-free a try.  It won't be easy. 

Here are the dairy products I'm really hooked on:

• my 1/4 cup cottage cheese as part of my morning ritual along with 1/2 cup of cranberry juice, before I enjoy my morning cup of coffee
• my post work-out 12 oz of 1% lactose-free milk mixed with a scoop of chocolate whey protein powder
• cheese - all shapes, types, flavors- are a daily part of either lunch and/or dinner meal
• a splash of whole lactose-free milk to lighten my coffee
• our Sunday family dessert night (ice cream)

Questions looming in my mind

• What will I use in place of these dairy "anchors" in my diet?
• How will my choice to go dairy-free impact my family?
• Will I get adequate nutrients, especially calcium & Vitamin D for preventing osteoporosis?
• Will I have to drink my coffee black?!

Obviously, I have some things to explore, figure out, and questions to answer.  All I know right now is that I'm off all dairy for the 40 days of Lent until Easter Sunday.  This experiment will be my way of helping to determine if dairy is best for me, or not.  I'll never really know until I live without it and then try living with it.  Here we go...

 

Clear the way... the potato chip story

The potato chip story

 

Clearing the way to make room for goodness is an enormous topic and can take effort putting into practice.  For some people, clearing out the junk food is best done in one fell swoop.  For our family, I choose to make gradual changes over time (years) in baby steps.  There's no question that having fat/sugar/salt laden foods in our home make it really challenging to eat well.  I don't think anyone is immune to the addicting nature of some of these foods.  If they're there, we'll eat them.  Case in point.....

 

Upon arriving back into town after a gal's weekend road trip up north with my sister Ann, we stopped by the grocery store to pick up a few items for dinner.  We were a bit road worn from all our travel and fun. 

 

"I need some Ranch potato chips" Ann told me as I quickly ran in for just a few items.  Mind you, Ann is health conscious but she had a hankering for some potato chips.  "Sure, anything for you sis."  I was completely overwhelmed as I scanned the enormous section of potato chips, pulling out my reading glasses to scour the ingredient list.  I knew I wanted to avoid the worst culprits - hydrogenated fats and MSG.  I was hoping to find a list of ingredients that was fairly short and somewhat whole foods-ish.  Who was I fooling?  Did I really expect to find whole foods in a potato chip aisle?  I also glanced at the fat and calorie content.  Wow.  I knew I wouldn't be doing anyone a favor by bringing them into our home.  Torn, I wanted to honor Ann's request, but I simply could not bring myself to place a bag of potato chips in my basket.  I proceeded on to get the other few items.

 

I had barely opened the car door when Ann curiously asked, "What kind of chips did you get?"  Grimacing, I confessed that I didn't buy any potato chips.  "You what?!", she yelled at me in disbelief (in a sisterly way).  Back at home, we made do without our potato chips. 

 

A few months later, a Christmas package arrived from Ann.  It contained a cookie tin labeled, "For happy hour".  We curiously opened it up, and there in front of our eyes was a tin filled to the brim with....Ranch potato chips.  Ha ha ha!  No food label information to deter me this time, we dug in as we played our family's favorite board game, Rummikub.  Yet, the competition of the game paled in comparison to the real battle over who got the most potato chips.

The Lay's slogan is spot on: "No one can eat just one."  The food manufacturers add a perfect blend of fat/sugar/salt to create a true party in our mouth.  These foods are scientifically designed to be highly desired by our taste buds.  Scientists are learning that the wiring of some people's brains may make them more susceptible to these additives in foods.

When our taste buds are used to having chips around, who would chose carrots?  We can set ourselves up for greater success in eating well by keeping the "trigger" foods out of reach.

Mile by mile, life's a trial.

Inch by inch, life's a cinch.

I want to clear the way, inch by inch, to make room for the goodness.

 

Clear the way... Kiddie foods

Kiddie foods

In the early years of bringing up children, I fell prey to the advertising of "kiddie" foods- artificially flavored & colored, processed "fun" shaped forms which often provide little to no nutritional value.  Wanting to do what was best for our preschool-age daughter who was a picky eater and "falling off the growth chart", I desperately followed the well-intentioned advice of friends, loved ones and medical professionals to "give her anything she'll eat".  That I did.  Not just her, but all 3 of the kids at the time.  Jimmy didn't mind so much (see picture). 

Jimmy discovers how to "unlock" Oreos (1994)

After enduring an overnight stay in the hospital for growth hormone testing, it turns out my daughter's body was simply getting realigned with her genetic code to grow at the 5th percentile instead of the 50th.  Reflecting back I wonder, if it weren't for that precipitating event would I have still succumbed to all the "kiddie" junk food?  There sure is a lot of pressure to do so.  It's the American way.

I read a superb article in the living section of the Oregonian the other day, "French parents don't make life all about children".  In her two books, author Pamela Druckerman discusses some of the differences she has noticed from living in both the French and the American culture.

1. Starting from a very young age, French kids mostly eat the same foods as their parents. There are no "kid" foods.

2. French parents teach kids how to wait and entertain themselves simply by making them wait and entertain themselves. 

Excellent points!  Our kids grow up learning to use food as a way to pass the time, to entertain themselves, to eat just for fun, and maybe even to help their "boo-boo" feel better.

Last weekend, a soccer dad was reading the label of his 2 year old nephew's kiddie food package (I think it was Pirate's Booty).  Kudos to him for examining a food label.  "Well", he declared, "there's nothing really bad in it, but nor is there anything good in it."  Precisely.  I couldn't have summed it up better.

I put food into 3 categories:

   1. negative (potentially harmful to one's health)
   2. neutral (nothing bad, nothing good)
   3. valuable (unprocessed, whole foods- chocked with natural nutrients)

The foods that I want in my home are the ones that have something good in them - the valuable stuff that my mind and body thrive beautifully on.

Over the years I have gradually stopped buying the kiddie foods.  When they're not in the house, they're simply not there to eat, plain as that.  Same goes for any of the fat, sugar, and salt-laden foods (I'll save the addicting potato chip story for my next post). 

We still have one lingering item from the pre-school "give her whatever she'll eat" approach.  That is Ovaltine, the chocolate mix for milk.  At this point I'm just buying it out of sheer habit. The kids add it to their milk for a quick breakfast or snack because it's there and they've always done it.  I decided I'm done buying it.  No need for it.  It's nothing but sugar and some chemicals.  Oh, but wait-  the label claims it has "10 vitamins and...". No, I'm not falling for that advertising gimmick anymore.  When it runs out, it's gone.  I could throw it out, but I'll just let it run out.  The next time I use my preprinted Winco grocery list, Ovaltine will be intentionally absent.  I'm closing the door to an unhealthy choice, which opens the door to make the healthy choice the easy choice.  One step towards making room for goodness.

Welcome to The Eating Well Project!

Two events -- actually reading two books recommended by my sister Ann -- were my kick-in-the-pants to really get me on the path to start writing this blog.  In 9 Things You Simply Must Do to Succeed in Love and Life, Dr. Henry Cloud helped boost me with a shot  of "I can do this!" by taking it one small step at a time toward my goal of someday writing a book.  The Happiness Project by Gretchen Rubin, inspired the format for my baby step to begin writing.  That is, a blog that is a year-long exercise in learning and experimenting with (in my case) making it doable, and enjoyable, to nourish myself and my family well.

On a deeper level, my reason for writing this blog has to do with my core values- health, family, faith, growth, happiness.  So much of our emotional & physical well-being is dependent on our nutrition and how we fuel our body.  The ill effects that our food supply and eating habits can have on us are staggering.  The obesity and diabetes statistics are reaching near epidemic levels with each passing day.   What does this mean for our future health? Not only ourselves but the health of our children and grandchildren?  I ask myself, why not do all I can to set us up for success, and be the best we can be?

• to feel good & want to get out of bed to start the day
• to have the energy and focus throughout the day to have a positive impact on the world around us
• to be of healthy disposition

Yet eating well is not easy.  It can feel really mundane and frustrating at times, almost a battle.  John & I are coming up on our 25th wedding anniversary this August.  I was reflecting the other day on the fact that I've prepared dinner (for the most part) on average 6 days/week, 52 weeks/year, for nearly 25 years.  That's a lot of meals.  7800 in fact.  I want to put some zest back into it!  Make it more fun to feed my family well!  And do a good job of it!  I want to pour myself into it, figure it out so that it will become habit - not just for me to eat well, but for everyone in my family to eat well, feel well, live well.  In a way that works best for each of us.

My plan is over the course of one year to achieve specific goal(s) set forth each month.  At the end of the year, I will have become better at feeding my family well in a way that I don't have to think it through each time, yet not have it be so rote that it's boring.  I will prepare my children for the future -  to have the ability to feed themselves well whether they're under our own roof or not-  be they at school, over at a friend's, off to college, married and beyond. 

I promise to be kind to myself.  A good reminder from author Gretchen Rubin is, "Perfection never happens in real life. We always have to do the best we can with what we have. And that's okay."  We're each in a unique place, trying to do our best.

Here is my outline of the topics I plan to cover throughout the year.  I may adjust as I see fit.  This blog is the story of my experience- what I try, what I learn.  It reflects my particular situation, values, and interests.  I hope that sharing my experiences will help you think about your own eating experience, and inspire you to try some different things on your own, to eat well, feel well, live well.  Let's enjoy the ride!  

   February         -Clear the way to make room for goodness

   March             -Bring on the fruits & veggies

   April                -Begin with a plan: breakfast & lunch

   May                -What's for dinner? I've got to get those recipes organized

   June               -Who's cooking dinner?

   July                -Liberate myself & put the cookbook away

   August            -Regroup for the school year

   September      -Ramping up for the Girlfriends Half Marathon

   October           -Share thy food

   November        -Engineer my environment

   December       -Simplicity of the season

   January           -Year in review

  

Launching on February 13, 2013