Moderation

I tend to be pretty holistic and natural minded. I've spent the last few year dabbling in herbs and homeopathy and I more like to turn to my homeopathics then to tylenol for my children's fevers or teething pain. My friends come to me to blend them up some herbs for tea for whatever ails them in pregnancy or breastfeeding. I have an extensive collection of essential oils that I use for everything from cleaning to body aches and colds to swelling and many more common (and not so common) uses. I try to live as green as possible. We recycle. We buy from, and donate to, thrift stores. You'd be amazed at the number of people who I meet who assume I also eat a saintly vegan organic diet. So not true. There are many days that I wish that I did but is reality my diet is far from that. Some days I'd be ashamed to admit the eating habits of our family, it's far from perfect, it's....HUMAN.

Voila, this is our fridge

(I'm posting a picture for the time simple fact that this is the cleanest my fridge has been in a long time and I am darn proud of it)

My confessions

There is always a bottle of Coke open in my fridge. This stuff is seriously not fit for human consumption but I am seriously adicted to it. I'm ashamed to say I used to be able to go through a 2 litre bottle a day and now it takes a week so that is great progress. Imagine the calories that I am saving now. It's a little pleasure to get my day going that I won't be giving up any time soon. Some people have their coffee. I have my glass of coke.

My kids have super sweet breakfast cereal a couple times a week. Their favourite being Lucky Charms which is just about as bad as it gets. Sweet cereal with Sweet marshmallows (and you thought my coke was bad).

My kids have had McDonald's and beg to go to McDonald's EVERYTIME we get in the car. We don't go weekly and we don't even go monthly but my kids are obsessed, totally obsessed, with McDonalds. We have to listen to them beg to go there everytime we get in the car. It doesn't help that there seems to be a McD's on EVERY street corner.

We eat meat at least once a day, If not Mike begins to throw "fits". I love lentils and make some pretty nifty vegetarian dishes that Mike won't touch with a 10 foot pole. Let's just say he's a meat eater. I could live without the stuff but then I got pregnant for the first time and since then I've always craved the stuff especially of the red variety *shudders*.

There's always something baked in our fridge. My son loves to bake and I want to foster his interests, so we bake. A LOT. Mike is rarely home and usually only has a bite of whatever we've made and I don't quite have that control (and I don't want him to think his baking is bad, right?) so I've grown a little tummy.

We buy a loaf of sliced white bread every week. Mike has the same aversion to whole wheat as he does to lentils. I manage to make a homemade loaf of multi-grain or vaious seeds for myself but much admit that sometimes a white bread sandwhich is so comforting. Kind of reminds you of eating those ham and cheese sandwiches dad after day in grade 1.

We don't eat near enough organic. Money is an issue for us. We dream of the day when we can eat organic but right now there's only a select few things we buy organic.

We eat hotdog (regularly) in summer. Nothing is better and quicker then a hotdog on the girll in summer. What can I say?

What we Do

Eat our fair share of veggies. Most days I usually end up stir frying a bunch of veggies and usually meat for one of out meals or I make a big vegetable soup. I'm a big fan of vegetables and am likely to eat vegetable stirfry for breakfast if we have left overs. Our favorites are brocoli, red peppers, tomatoes, carrots, brussel sprouts.

Try to cook mostly from scratch. We try not to buy prepared meals (frozen or otherwise). Our meals end up healthier and cost less. We try to avoid as many preservatives as possible. I've started making our own preserves in the fall as well. I feel very domesticated.

Avoid feeding dairy to our kids. We also rarely drink milk ourselves. Many people will find this weird but I am of the strong belief that cow milk is for baby cows and not for humans. When we think of the antibiotics and hormones that are added to the milk I think it's a recipe for disaster. My son was a mess as an toddler. Not gaining weight. Terrible rashes on his arms. Horrible gastro stuff. Immune suppression (evident on blood tests at that). He was tested for EVERYTHING. He was below the 3rd % on the weight charts and then we cut out milk completely and totally and now he is right there at average. Both kids get an alternating schedule of soy, rice and almond based products (we are slightly weary of soy).

Always have nuts on hand, These are our super foods. Although they can be highly caloric they are packed with healthy oils and protein. A nice energy pick up and the kids love them.

Anyways, I believe in moderation and for to most part I am happy with the choices that we make (except for the sugar cereal for breakfast *tsk tsk* and the fact that the kids are McDonald's obsessed but that not my fault...it's there's for putting slides in their restaurants....what a HORRIBLE marketing scheme). I'd love to eat more organic but we just aren't there yet. I'd love to have 3 vegetarian days a week but it isn't going to happen with my man. I'd love to have a green drink every morning (I'm a little obsessed with Kris Carr since I saw her documentary on TLC. I however, need more moderation then that, much more moderation then that.

I'm think a green drink for breakfast might be nice though.