Trying to find a good balance of healthy eating has always been a struggle for me. Although I think that I cook pretty healthy, I have a sweet tooth. It is hard for me to go a day without treating myself to some sort of treat… usually a high carb baked good. I am addicted to sugar. This past summer I lost 8 pounds, but I have gained 4 back, because I just struggle with that battle to resist the sweets. I don’t want to be one of those people who is on a diet my whole life, because those people obviously don’t have success if they have to attempt diets for most of their adult lives.
Now that I am in my early 30s, I am starting to feel like it is a lot easier for me to gain weight. I used to only gain weight if I just totally let go (like on vacations or holidays), but now I find myself starting to gain weight simply when I slip up a little bit. I hear that it just gets worse and worse. So, why do I tell you all of this? Well, because I really want to model good health to my kids but model it without obsessing about my weight all of the time. I want to be in good shape so that I can chase my kids around and incorporate being active into our lifestyle.
I have decided to take a plunge and do the 100 day whole food challenge with my family. For more details, you can visit the site here. The gist of it is that my family will commit to eat whole foods for 100 days (and I am hoping for a life time). No processed foods with more than 5 ingredients. No fast food at all. No refined sugar. No white flour or grains. Because I am seeking balance, there will be exceptions made, especially for my kids.Here are some of the exceptions that we will make:
- Sofia and Gabe both have fall birthdays. On their birthdays, they are welcome to choose any kind of sugar filled cake and whatever they want for dinner. It is their day, so they can have things as they would like.
- When my kids go to other people’s houses, I am not going to be crazy about controlling what they eat. I don’t want to make other people uncomfortable or make my kids feel like they are deprived and feel resentful.
- On Thanksgiving and Christmas day, I will drop the rules. Yes, I will be making a pumpkin cheesecake on Thanksgiving.
- The kids will be allowed to trick or treat and choose 15 pieces of candy to keep and eat.
- We will be cheating a little for the next couple of weeks here and there so that we can eat some of the food that we already have (like yogurt with sugar in it). I can’t afford to waste the food that we have. However, I will not from this time forward not buy anything that breaks the rules (with 95% accuracy).
- On the rule sheet, it says that meat should be organic or at least grass fed. We have grass fed beef, but I won’t be buy ing organic chicken. It is too spendy. I just buy the foster farms frozen chicken breasts from Costco.
This actually isn’t going to be too traumatic for our family as we usually eat mostly whole foods. I can still bake, but with honey, so my sweet eating will have to be more intentional and not just out of bad habits. And because it will have to be more intentional, it will happen less often. I also have some yummy treats that are healthy that pass as dessert. Last night I mixed some frozen bananas and mangos with some filtered coconut milk from tj’s.
Does anyone else want to do the challenge at the same time?
I would love to share some of our successes and struggles as we do this. I would also love to hear tips and your experiences!
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