Mum 2 Mum: The Year of Positive Eating

ByChristie Burnett

I had one of those BIG birthdays this week. The one that starts with a 4 and ends with an 0! I am not sure if it can be described as a mid-life crisis but turning 40 has me examining my health and lifestyle and wanting to do better for my family. Though to be honest, this self-examination really started around the time that I was medically defined as having a “geriatric” pregnancy!?! I want to be alive and well when my children graduate, get married, have children…or not, whatever they choose. As an older parent I feel a keen sense of responsibility for my health and well being, I have been thinking a lot about exercise and the quality of our diet. I want to make changes.

I want to get us outside and moving more as a family (but that is the subject of a future post) and I want us to eat better. Nothing too radical I don’t think, I like to think of it more as sensible.  I want to become more educated about and conscious of food additives and move towards more homemade options where I can. I want us to eat a whole lot less numbers and less sugar. I want to explore alternative grains to those wheat or gluten based options that have previously dominated our diet. I want us to eat fish more regularly (maybe even catching it ourselves from time to time) and to continue to eat lots of fresh fruit, vegetables, meat and eggs. A sort of a back to basics, whole foods approach if you like.

If that is not enough, I also want to learn to be smarter with my time in the kitchen, and I want to find joy in preparing food (something I have always struggled with) – whether it be mamabaking with friends or involving my girls in the kitchen.

Part of my plan is to be more thoughtful and detailed in my menu planning (planning breakfasts, lunches and snacks – not just dinners), as well as getting back into batch cooking and finding more recipes for my slow cooker, and I want to be braver when it comes to baking both bread and snacks (I started today with some pizza rolls from scratch, and they taste good!)

I would love your help as I embark on what I am thinking of as the year of positive eating (as I am hoping the year will be enough time for us to develop new habits that lead to ongoing, positive change). I would love your suggestions for recipes, blog or websites, or Pinterest boards which promote simple, healthy eating and/or homemade and freezer friendly suggestions. I would love you to link up your top 1 0r 2 suggestions in the comments below (any more than two links in a comment might be marked as spam but don’t worry as I will fish them out as soon as I have a chance). Where do you go for healthy eating inspiration?

P.S. This week I am talking about keeping kids healthy as they start daycare (or preschool or kindergarten) over at Dettol’s Mission for Health. Be sure to check it out.

Christie Burnett is a teacher, presenter, writer and the mother of two. She created Childhood 101 as a place for teachers and parents to access engaging, high quality learning ideas.

19 Comments

  1. My research on healthier eating has led me to a Paleo way of living. I slowly cut processed foods, dairy (other than eggs and organic yogurt with tons of probiotics), gluten and other foods out of my diet and feel amazing! I, an ex-vegetarian who used to eat tons of soy (had no idea how bad it is for you), eat tons of meat, vegatables (no white/red potatoes, corn or beans), seeds, cook with coconut oil, use almond meal/flour, raw honey, snack on Lara bars or make smoothies. My favorite website so far for Paleo has been paleomg.com. The blueberry pumpkin dark chocolate chip bread is amazing! I just got into “Primal Cuisine” a Paleo book from the library, and it’s fantastic! My son has texture/sensory issues and won’t eat anything that isn’t crunchy, but I try to make sure he doesn’t have anything with canola or vegatable oil. soy or corn products. GMO’s aren’t often labeled here but I try my best to avoid them. Hope this helps!

    1. Thank you for the website suggestion, Jen, I am interested to read more. Is your whole family eating this way or just you?

  2. In early 2010 I got so incensed about LCM marketing that I did a year of “muesli bar challenge” recipes – a weekly recipe for lunch box baking that was healthy, seasonal, easy, and (most important of all) reviewed by a batch of school age reviewers as being preferable to a supermarket muesli bar. It was a fun challenge, for me and for the reviewers, and I won every week. You find the set at http://witcheskitchen.com.au/category/uncategorized/baking-recipes/

    1. What a great challenge, Linda. Thank you so much for sharing, these recipes sound perfect for getting me baking to fill school lunchboxes 🙂

  3. Anne at Domesblissity had this post on her Thrifty Thursday link up which I thought was a fabulous way to plan meals!

    honeedsacape.com/2012/11/crockpot-freezer-cooking/

  4. I get a lot of my meal ideas from MamaBake: http://mamabake.com

    Not all of the recipes on this site are healthy, though many are, but they are almost all freezable due to the bulk baking nature of the movement. I LOVE their newsletters, always heaps of great inspiration for meals and snacks and even the odd naughty treat.

  5. This is actually meant for athletes but its been so great for the whole family.

    Thanks for all you share. You’ve been such an inspiration and source of help.

  6. Jodie Van Der Zwan says:

    I recently came across this blog/website – you may have already found it. The ladies that run the website are Mums who wanted to provide others with some nutritious but quick and easy recipes for babies and children.
    http://onehandedcooks.com.au/

  7. Annette Higgins says:

    Chicken Cattorie is simply mushrooms, tomate paste (large jar), chicken and olives in a slow-cooker simply made tastes delicious

  8. No links, but out whole family try to eat a relatively high fibre, & lowish sugar diets. (And I count juice and highly processed carbs as sugar.) The high fibre is fantastic as an anti-inflammatory for my husband’s back.

  9. We try and healthy eat as much as possible. Those growing bodies need lots of good things to keep them healthy and well.

  10. I have been thinking many of the same thoughts after turning the big 40 at the end of last year! Don’t you love that term geriatric pregnancy…i nearly dies when i heard that! We are pretty careful withadditives and numbers here as i have found it makes a big difference to my older daughter over the years. Have you read the ‘FedUp’ series by Sue Dengate? Symply too Good to be True recipe books found in the newsagent have lots of easy healthy recipes based on family favourites…even Daddy will follow those cookbooks!
    I have a slimming pinterest board as well as one for healthy recipes you might find some inspiration on…http://pinterest.com/MumMusingMayhem/slimming/ and http://pinterest.com/MumMusingMayhem/sensational-slimming-eats/
    Good luck on your new journey…look forward to reading more!

  12. Pingback: Mum 2 Mum: The Year of Positive Eating | Healthier Eating Tips

  13. Happy Birthday Christie!!
    I’m dropping by without any links to share , but I just wanted to say we had to change to an additive-free diet after little Mel was diagnosed with food intolerances at 3yrs and it has changed our whole way of cooking and eating – and shopping. Like you, cooking from scratch is still a huge challenge for me, but one that I keep pursuing because ultimately it’s better for all of us. I started with the basics, (like bread-making) and build up from there. Yesterday I made chickpea and veggie patties that were a. healthy 2. delicious. 3 additive-free and 4. used up the assortment of getting to their use-by date veggies in our fridge. Everyone loved them, and I learned how to make a new recipe while not wasting the food we had in the fridge. Win!
    Whatever motivates you to start a wholefood journey (health, the big 40!) it’s worth it.
    xx

  14. I too am really trying to improve the variety of tasty, healthy and quick foods I have in my repertoire. One blog that has been hugely helpful is http://www.pickyeaterblog.com it has truly mouthwatering (veggie only) recipes with foolproof instructions and details about the calorie content. Good luck and keep us posted 😀

  15. Hello Christie,

    I’ve been blogging my health journey again this year and although I want to lose some kilos [which is not necessarily what you want to do], the most important thing for me & my family is to swap out some things and replace with healthier things. Definitely a lifestyle change and taking the year to do it properly. I have set up a Pinterest board for it with lots of recipes & have new posts each Monday on a different topic. Maybe you can find something here that that will help.

    I’m very interested in Paleo, reducing sugar & wheat & also making myself rather than buying processed foods. I just made a yummy organic spelt pizza crust and yesterday made my own tomato paste & tomato passata to use in bolognese.
    Anyway, congratulations on turning 40 & all the best for your journey. Kate xo

    http://katemason.blogs.com/kate/living-to-100-kates-52-weeks-of-finding-a-healthier-me-you.html

    katemason.blogs.com

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