Fueling my Family

Recently, it seems I've been running across all kinds of articles emphasizing that what we eat affects our health far more than we know.  While I'm not quite ready to go to major extremes, we're trying to take small steps to ensure that our Anni (and any other future little ones) will have the hang of the healthy thing early on.  Luckily, we were both raised in homes where health is highly valued (my momma's a nurse and Daniel's dad is a doctor), so we know a lot of the right things to do - we just have to do it :).  Despite any hassle it might cause, I'm really starting to see that the health of our family is far more important than convenience.

Fruits and veggies: I definitely inherited the fruit gene from my mom.  If I could... that's pretty much the majority of what I would eat.  On the other side, veggies are a slow process.  Corn is easy... but I'm still working on becoming a good salad eater like the husband.  On the flip side, I like to stir-fry veggies into things which Daniel will very sweetly eat, but I'd like to find even yummier ways of getting vegetables into our diet.

Whole grains: Yep, we're doing it.  We've eaten wheat bread since we got married, but now I'm making sure it's 100% whole grain.  We had started the switch to brown rice and whole grain pasta when I got pregnant last year... but any food changes (and really most food choices) got put on hold for 7.5 months of nausea.  But... we're getting back on the wagon.  Wish us luck!

Homemade Baby food:  We've been doing this from the start of Miss Nugget's adventures into solid food and I love it!  This way I know exactly what's going into her tummy... call me a control freak, but it feels good and it's so easy!  My sister, Katie, even ground us rice (and I think barley and one other grain) to use for the cereal base of things.

Less junk food: We aren't ginormous junk food eaters... but we do like our desserts :).  We gave up our nightly ice cream a couple of months back and opted for the "Sundays and special days" route.  I have to admit this one is hard for me.  I am a huge snacker, so I've been working on finding yummy but not quite as bad for me snacks (a favorite is and always has been celery with peanut butter).  We also don't drink pop, which I think helps a lot.  (Ok, we do drink 7up when we're sick... just can't give up that comfort!)

And while I've always cooked most of our meals, I'm trying to do it more and more from scratch to eliminate hidden sodium, HFCS and other such things that we're probably better off without.  I'd like to work on buying more of our food locally, but haven't gotten that worked in yet.  There's a permanent farmer's market next to Target... so maybe the next time I'm not rushed (ha!) I'll check it out :).

So, there you have it.  Our little fore into the healthy eating world.  What do you do to help your family stay healthy?