food choices: reconnecting with our food

There has been alot on my mind lately about my food choices. Before I met my husband, I was on a quest to lose weight and become a better version of me.  It worked and I was happy! Now as I realize I am only about ten pounds less then I was at my heaviest, it is not working for me.  I am turning into an emotional eater again, and I am taking my whole family down with me.  We have made half hearted attempts the last year or so, but NOW IS THE TIME!  

I know what I need to do, it is just getting it done with the family in tow. 

1.  Breakfast with a protien
2.  Move
3.  Journaling
4.  Recognizing eating patterns
5.  Eating mostly whole foods with high nutritional value
6.  Sitting down to eat a meal

Breakfast with a protien gets your body going.  I spent alot of years not eating breakfast and feeling lousy.  Eating sugar for breakfast just made me feel lousy later on in the afternoon when the sugar wore off.  I know this, but at times I get busy with the kiddos and I forget to eat breakfast. on a side note cheese is not considered a protien food; it is a fat.  (I made that mistake for a while).

Before I married and had the responsibility of raising these three wonderful children I was walking at least two miles each morning.  I was working hard at my job and I was  feeling good.  But three children that close together being pregnant and feeling lousy gave me a good excuse to sit about and not get the walking in. We walk our Andrew to school each day if the weather is nice.  But with the kids sometimes we wander so slowly that it isn't much excercise at all. 

Journaling helped me to be aware of what I was eating.  I am a picker.  If there is food out on the counter, I am picking at it. My husband asked the other day why I dish up the food from the counter and then sit down to eat it.  I told him that this is just the way that I do. He grew up in a family where they ate family style where everyone sat down and passed the platters of food around the table. The kids aren't really big enough to pass the plate around and dish their own food. I'm thinking that maybe we should start that in our family, but I am a picker, I end up picking and adding just one spoonful more until I have eaten more servings than I should. 

When I was single I was on a journey of healthy, but not always yummy foods. I still continued into the begining of our marriage There were several things early on that Gregg said something like "That was Ok, but I wouldn't care to eat it again!" Then I was pregnant and snacking took over.  If I didn't snack all day I felt awful.  Cooking was really a chore. Three pregnancies in a row and three children in four years has really changed me.  I cook differently now. I cook to please their taste buds.  We eat alot of "kid freindly" foods. I often cook foods that may not be as healthy, but I know they will eat it. I also like to please my husbands taste buds too.  

We sit down to dinner at night together, but during the day I find myself picking and foraging around for food. I am eating breakfast an hour or two after the kids and they are ready for lunch when I am not.  Lunch seems to be grab and go for me.  I know that when I sit down and eat a meal my brain remembers that and it resets itself.  I found that I could snack throughout the day and my brain would say "I haven't eaten".  If I sit down and eat a meal then my brain says "oh yeah I had luch it was ______"

Having the courage to make changes can be hard.  I find myself not wanting to fight the battle of new foods with the kids. I think that I will not pick that battle right now.  But I will pick the battle of eating breakfast with a protien and sitting down for luch. I think that playtime with the kids and more walking than just the 6 blocks to school is a good starting place.