Picky Eaters and Whole 30

My life lately has been stressed when it comes to meal times.  I loathe feeding my girls because they are the pickiest eaters!  I know all kids and toddlers are picky, but my toddler refuses ALL FRUITS AND VEGETABLES. I am not kidding. I put a banana, strawberry or blueberry on her plate and she throws it on the floor.  Let's not even talk about putting a pea on her plate.  So right now I can only get them down via smoothies.  My 3 year old is a little bit better, but she still only wants to eat cereal, granola bars and cheese.

AND, I have become a monster mommy lately because I have decided to do a food detox for my body. If you haven't heard of it, it's called the Whole 30.  You basically eat only fruits, vegetables and natural meats (hormone free, grass fed, antibiotic free). That means no sugar (not even honey), no dairy, no grains, no alcohol and no beans. I know, call me crazy!  You can eat healthy fats like avocados and nuts, and you don't have to count any calories.  No calorie counting, yay!

So my whole life right now has evolved around this and it has been eye opening to say the least!  I decided to do it because I have a huge sugar and carb addiction, and I want to teach my kids better habits. I always have to have something sweet before I go to bed, and if I was trying to be good, then I thought a bowl of honey cheerioes was considered a good alternative before bed! Hello carbs.  I heard of these crazy people doing sugar busters diets and I thought there was no way I could give it up.  But I feel like I had reached the breaking point and with small children loving sweets too, I needed to do something to help change our family's habits!

I figured cutting out all of it, no substitutions or points systems, would help me stick to it, and believe it or not, it has. I am on Day 20 of my 30 days and it's been an amazing journey!

The book, It Starts with Food, is eye opening.  It's amazing to learn how much our diet affects our health, I mean we all know we are what we eat, but it's the little things we don't think about.  This diet makes you basically cut out all foods that cause inflammation in our bodies, which are causing an increase in autoimmune disorders as well as causing us to feel low energy, poor sleep, disrupting hormones, etc..  One of the amazing success stories was about a man who had asthma his whole life, and then started this diet and was able to go for a run for the first time without an inhaler!  Amazing, right?  My sister has an autoimmune disease and we are doing this together for support and she may even do a Whole 60 to help determine her triggers.

I also know this will help me long term think about what I put in my mouth from now on and for my children.  They recommend after you finish to first reintroduce dairy, then gluten foods, then non-gluten foods, etc so you can see which ones cause any triggers.  I feel like I am sleeping much better (if only I would go to bed sooner though) and I do have more energy in the afternoons.

My poor kids have had to put up with a few mood swings, as I have found I can not skip a meal and need to eat as soon as I get hungry!  But I've learned I need to start working on their diet and taking more time to focus on what goes in their mouths. I have fallen into that lazy pattern where I just give my kids whatever they will eat because I'm lucky if I can get anything down their throats.  Putting veggies on their plates every.single.day only to have them go uneaten, sigh, is hard work and you just want to give up.  There may be a big battle ahead for us, but I need to focus on giving them more healthy choices.  "You don't want this, then no soup for you!" Just kidding.   I know there will be a lot of choice giving and limit setting, but giving in lately to whatever they want to eat to avoid a tantrum is also not healthy either.  Sigh.  I'll let you know how it goes, wish me luck!