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.
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