Or is it Raising Children As Foodies?

Since undertaking the monumental task of fixing my blood sugar issues we’ve done quite a bit of reevaluating the foods we buy and serve our children. It’s been a long journey, actually – it started about 4 years ago when I went to a Wholistic Health Counselor for the first time. But it’s been a slow going process, one that I teeter and then totter to either side of the fence.

No more.

In order for me to stay healthy I must be firmly planted on “the other” side of the fence. The weird side, the difficult side, the side that cares if my kids are eating organic cheerios or not. It matters to me, it has to. And we just plain don’t eat cereal, at all anymore.

You can imagine the conversations we have in the grocery store when our 5 year old asks us if we can buy some Captain Crunch? Maybe Fruit Loops? Or her absolute favorite “Cheesy Chips” also known as Dorito’s.

There are a lot of No’s. No we cannot, no we don’t eat those things, how about apples instead? Strawberries? Let’s look for some asparagus.

I’m not a nazi, but for a while I had to be because if it was in the house I would eat it. There is no tricking me into thinking it’s there “for someone else” – it was there for me. It was staring at me and the temptation of “things I can’t have” was greater than any kind of will-power I possessed. So, I was a nazi, we did not have it in the house at all … I HAD to get better.

This is coming to a point. I promise.

Lots of time has passed since the nazi stage of my fight with sugar and we’re happy to announce that come this spring I’ll be redoing a blood test that will confirm what we already know. I have my blood sugar issues under control, once and for all.

I still cannot eat the foods I had to eliminate on a regular basis and I probably never will but I can have some here and there and my body knows how to regulate it. Did you read that??!

I NEVER THOUGHT I WAS GOING TO GET HERE. I DOUBTED IT FROM THE VERY BEGINNING!

Folks, here’s my proclamation. God is good.

So this has changed a lot of the way our family functions around a dinner table and this past week we got to bring Jessica’s birthday treat to school so I asked her what she’d like to bring to the class.

Her words: “Mom, I think the other kids would really like brownies, but I really want carrots.”

Pride. Full of it. I love that girl. I love that she knows the difference and cares about it. I love that she cares for herself.

Push came to shove and when we went to buy the treat, we ended up with Dorito’s … but carrots were still served and I love hearing how she regularly asks why the snacks at school have so much sugar? Don’t you know, it’s not very good for you.