Dirty Dozen plus 2

Some of you have been asking what to REALLY buy organic and what you can pass on.  This is a good starting point.  Remember everything in baby steps.  Try to just buy a few organics if you haven't bought any before, or try to up your amount if you are currently already purchasing organic!!! :)

Food should be our MEDICINE!!!

Baby Steps to Change....

 

We should all be taking baby steps in changing anything in our lives because they are small and easy to achieve!

Changing the way you eat is not a small task.  Trust me I know this!!  I don’t know everything but this I do know.  I for one am the instant gratification type of girl.  I want it when I want it and I want it NOW.  If I want to be 15lbs lighter it better happen overnight or I will not be satisfied.  Have you guessed that I have been disappointed in the past?  Having to wait to accomplish something has never been strength of mine.  So when I got my diagnosis of Gluten Intolerance with the likely hood of Celiac I was disappointed and relieved at the same time.  I knew that I would finally find relief in the symptoms that I had been suffering from.  I knew that I would finally get my hands back to near normal.

I jumped head first into my “cave man” diet to rid my body of the toxins that were overcoming me.  It was an all or nothing and I had to eliminate it all cold turkey.  No more chai tea in the morning or grains of any kind, milk, and Gosh forbid no CHEESE.  I mean are you kidding me???  But the results were amazing!  Did I see an improvement instantly?  NO WAY, ok well I felt a difference in about a week but it still wasn’t instant.  Would it have been easier to do it slowly?  Of COURSE!!! 

So what I am trying to say is start SLOW.  We all have bad habits of eating.  Too much sugar, too much fat, too much snacking, too many carbs, even too much protein.  I always took one step, one baby step at a time.  Right now our family eats 90% gluten free with myself and Dani being completely gluten free!  We have removed red dye and other artificial dyes from our kids diets when it is in our power to do so.  Do I let my kids have “treats” on special occasions?  Yes, but we also pay the price for it later on.  Making even small changes in your diets can make huge differences.  My challenge to all of you this week is to remove one thing from your children’s and your diets that are unhealthy and replace it with a healthier option or avoid it completely.

Some suggestions:

Eliminate soda pop

Change fruit snacks to dye free

Eliminate Red Dye

Add more fruits and Veggies (make fruit smoothies and add spinach)

Drink only 100% fruit juice

Cut sugary food

Cut snacking or offer a healthy snack instead

Have a meatless dinner night

Eat Gluten Free for one day

Choose Tazo Leaf tea instead of a latte

Post in the comments what you are doing and be accountable for your choice this week!!

A little about my Journey

I have to say thank you to Tracy Tignino for kicking me in the butt to actually start this blog in the first place.  For years now I have had friends, Seema Kauffman, encouraging me to write down my ideas, recipes and information on food, allergies and healthy habits.  I guess I have just been scared to actually take the plunge. So here I am writing my first blog!I have so much to say and many things that I would like to talk about.  I am going to start by interviewing a few people that have taken the first steps into healthier eating and what their experiences have been like.  Then I would like to take one topic or question a week and discuss it.
 Please add your email to follow my blog and submit questions!!!!
I went to NIU and have my Bachelor's in Nutritional Sciences.  We as a family started slowly by removing the red dye out of our diet.  Not to say we don't let our kids have the occasional red dye filled sucker for those parties, but at our house we try to keep it out.  Unfortunately that means a lot of candy, cereal and snacks are eliminated. 
We are also GLUTEN FREE!  I am a Celiac, I suffered for over 30 years with symptoms such as headaches, stomach aches, irritability, fatigue, bloating and HORRIBLE eczema, which is actually called dermatitis herpetiformis!  I know it sounds disgusting; actually it is SOOOO itchy that I would run my hands under scalding water just to make the itching stop for a few minutes!  I had been to many doctors, specialists, neurologists and dermatologists in my lifetime, being told I have migraines, too much stress, need more exercise, and the range of explanations went on and on.  I felt like no one was listening to me.  I can’t tell you how many steroid creams I had for my hands which nothing worked.  It wasn’t until I went to a chiropractor and he suggested I take a blood test that would tell me if I had gluten intolerance that I actually found help.  My chiropractor checked for my levels on IgA and IgG Antigliadin Antibodies (AGA) and of course I came out high.  Needless to say as soon as I went gluten free 90% of my symptoms went away!  My daughter is also gluten intolerant. Although I have never had her officially diagnosed she becomes VERY itchy!!  It also transforms her into my crazy child!  So we removed the gluten from her diet and she was back to her mostly loving little girl.  My son has allergies to tree nuts, peanuts, shellfish and pumpkin (yes, pumpkin, no carving over at the Barnett house).  And my middle daughter has a dairy intolerance.  So needless to say I have put my education to good use.  One of my best friends Molly DiCanio also has a son who is extremely allergic to many different foods and I have always admired her in the way she has handled it and wondered why this is happening to so many of our kids.
I am very passionate about many subjects related to nutrition and I just want to help anyone with whatever struggles they maybe having with food, allergies and menus! 

JUST ASK and I will help you CUT THE CRAP!!

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