getting our healthy on

I'm always researching health trends and ways to eat right so that not only I benefit, but my girls and Brett, too. So far, we are pretty on board with the paleo way of eating, as you have probably heard me talk about or blog about. Paleo seems to take a lot of prep work because you need to eat lots of vegetables. It's also a spendy way of eating because one is encouraged to buy high quality meat (like grass-fed beef) and fresh fruits and vegetables. It's a low-carb way of eating. No bread, cereal, oatmeal, grains, refined sugar. Many paleo eaters cut out dairy. I do not. I am also on the fence about grains. I know there is lots of evidence that shows it's not as heart-healthy as we originally thought, and that too many carbs can lead to weight gain, etc., but humans have been eating grains for thousands of years, and it feels weird to just cast it off. Others argue that grains are not the same as they were generations ago - that it's not as quality or beneficial, or something. (Clearly I need to research this further. Maybe I'll check out Wheat Belly).

I discovered a registered dietician online who calls herself Dietician Cassie. I have found her site to be SO helpful in terms of rethinking so much of what we've been taught about nutrition and the SAD (Standard American Diet). She argues we should eat PFC meals which are comprised of the three macronutrients: protein, fat, and carbohydrates. Protein includes eggs, high quality meat and fish; good sources of healthy fats would include full fat dairy (whole milk, heavy cream in lieu of half-and-half or low-fat milk; full-fat yogurt), avocados, olive oil, coconut oil, butter (yep!), and nuts; healthy carbohydrates include many kinds of vegetables and fruits. She advises to cut refined sugar completely out of your diet as sugar is the most damaging thing you can put into your body - it turns into fat, it is an inflammatory to many, it makes you crash, feel sluggish, etc. She, along with many other paleo proponents, look down on calorie-counting and eating low-fat foods because many low-fat foods are high in sugar and other chemicals to make up for the unappetizing taste. Instead of counting calories, they want you to eat nutrient-dense foods made up of proteins, fats, and carbohydrates rather than justifying eating an unhealthy/junk food diet just because you fall within your calorie limit for the day. If you focus on eating clean - whole, real foods, your body will be nourished and healthy, and there won't be a need to count calories (not to mention feeling deprived and hungry all the time). I'm probably not explaining this very well, so please go to Cassie's site and do some reading on there.

As someone with a major sweet tooth, I am struggling with the thought of giving up sugar, but I know it would be so good for me. I'm trying to figure out how to go about doing this. I don't think I would give it up indefinitely, but I don't know how to just scale back a little. I am slowly giving up my Quaker Real Medleys oatmeal which is pretty sweet, although I don't think there is added sugar. I only buy Larabars now, which have no added sugar - they are sweet from the dates alone. I'm trying to eat eggs in the morning, and eventually, I want to add vegetables to accompany the eggs, but sometimes I feel nauseated eating vegetables at certain times of the day like in the morning. Even some vegetables make me nauseous like cucumbers. It's so annoying because I know they're good for me, but sometimes I just cannot stomach eating salad. I have been putting heavy whipping cream into my coffee in place of half-and-half, and seriously, it is so good and fulfilling, that I can't imagine going back to half-and-half. I wish Caribou and Starbucks had heavy cream out with the milk and half-and-half as an option!

I haven't given up whole wheat bread yet. Often I get ravenously hungry due to breastfeeding, and I need something quick that will fill me up like natural peanut butter on whole wheat toast. I really struggle finding a whole wheat bread that doesn't have a bunch of ingredients I don't want, though. :(

I want Stella to eat well, and this has been a bit of a challenge. Okay, a big challenge. She flat out hates vegetables. I try putting spinach and carrots in smoothies for her, and she usually only takes a few sips of it. Last week I purchased three items from the dietician's store for Stella: a chewable multivitamin, a chewable probiotic, and Dynamic Greens. While we work through these picky eating years of childhood, I feel a little better knowing she can kind of fill in nutritional gaps with the multivitamin, and get some good bacteria in her gut from the probiotic. The Dynamic Greens I bought her is the berry kind, and it has more than 50 super foods in it that are ground up into a powder. The good thing about Dynamic Greens is that it is made from REAL food - not chemicals. It has a little bit of the all-natural sweetener Stevia in it.

The Multigenics brand vitamins and probiotics are pharmaceutical-grade high-quality supplements, so a little pricey, but worth it, in my opinion.

I will never be perfect at eating right, but I do feel a responsibility to nourish my body in healthy ways, and make sure I'm looking out for the nutritional welfare of my husband and kids. I also believe that sugar addiction is a very real thing. People joke about it, but it's true. You can be addicted to sugar. If you have a propensity for sweets, try going a week or even a day without getting your "fix", and you may arrive to the same conclusion.

More on this later as nutrition and food is so interesting to me... :)