you ate velveeta and spam? how & why we changed our eating habits

I posted on Facebook today that a big part of why I’m doing this healthy living bundle sale is because I want to empower you. “Empower.” Such an annoying buzz word. Along with “genuine” and “authentic” and “relatable.” I was texting about the way these words are like scraping a fork on a plate for both of us. Ha! Anyway. Back to business. It’s the last few hours for this healthy living bundle I’ve been talking about.

The link to buy is here. Or this fancy button:

Empower. I sobbed the other day in the car after leaving the coop. (natural foods coop.) I had bought organic crackers again!!! I hadn’t yet made my own!!!! Didn’t I pin those recipes? Couldn’t I save my family the money and make the most wholesome delicious crackers in the world? What kind of natural mother was I??? WAAAAAAAAAA

—–reality check! I’m a great mom. And making my own crackers isn’t going to change that. After laughing about this with my sisters and a few girlfriends, I could exhale. I don’t have to do everything from scratch. I don’t have to make crackers. Whew.————

I grew up with a loving mother and father who both worked hard to provide food, shelter in a gorgeous house, plenty of hand-me down clothing, first rate education, amazing trips around the world, and siblings, built in frenemies. But the food. My mother is a baker, not a cook, and it was the 80’s. Food was kinda like science back then.

Cool whip. Jello. Spam. Velveeta cheese. Tastey bread.

*Mom: I was a terribly picky eater. I know you made meatloaf regularly that I refused, along with spaghetti & meatballs. I’m sorry. I hope none of my kids are that wretched.*

Still. This is where I came from. Food was not a health priority. It just wasn’t.

Molly shadowed a chef at the end of high school for a senior project for two weeks. That was fairly life changing. I also read about hormones in milk in high school. That’s when we first made the switch to organic milk. Slowly but surely things changed. Spaghetti sauce from scratch? Yes. Beans that tasted good? Yes. Grains aside from sticky white rice? You betcha.

But I still was a lazy eater. I’d eat grilled cheese and an apple, feeling like it was a pretty balanced diet. I’d separate the onions from the chicken at dinner because I didn’t like the way they tasted. I figured being naturally slender meant I didn’t have to actually eat to be healthy because I looked healthy on the outside. But I wasn’t feeding myself properly. I didn’t really know how and I didn’t know how to know how.

If you know what I mean.

Fast forward to law school. There was the world’s nicest Whole Foods in the town. I tried new things. Quinoa! It was getting real in the Whole Foods parking lot. I cooked for myself and wasn’t show jumping horses like I was in college when I ate nothing but grilled cheese and apples. I realized all that exercise–30 hours+ at the barn per week–had kept me looking slender and strong, but now I actually had to eat right or I wouldn’t be strong anymore.

Then living out in Las Vegas for a year and being engaged? I had to learn how to cook for my man! He was raised with similar unhealthy foods and although he made a mean meat spaghetti, that was about the extent of his culinary abilities. I read cookbooks. I watched youtube videos. I watched the cooking channel. I followed a few food blogs. I wanted to eat and understand how to eat.

Becoming pregnant and realizing just how critical nutrition was for kids was another turning point for me. No longer could I eat & cook healthfully when I felt like it. It had to be most–>all the time. I didn’t go through throwing up for 9 months, nursing exclusively for 6 months, to feed my kid crap. Even crap food that I like the taste of! Especially that kinda of crap (of the dessert variety). I made my own baby food, I made my own toddler food, and I’ve continued to do that through three kids.

Not because I’m better than moms who don’t, just because I really really wanted to. This isn’t a judgment on you, busy & tired mom. I get you. I’m so you too! It’s just been something that was really important to AA and me. Starting our kids out with the right kind of bacteria in the stomach that tells their brain what it craves. Then they can eat cheetos and fudge when they’re older, but not be addicted. Like I am, and like I struggle with.

Longest story ever. But at least it was punctuated with pics of the le bebe?

This ultimate living healthy thing–this is a starter for you. Maybe it will just be one of the books that really grabs you. Maybe it will just be a few recipes that are baby steps for you to eat more healthfully. A cookbook at the used bookstore? That’s definitely at least $10. This bundle is $29, so you could buy three books at the store, or 70 online, for about the same price. I get a percentage of your sale, so that’s nice too. But that’s not why I signed up to promote this.

I signed up for this because I want you to know more than you do now, so you can make or not make your own damn crackers from scratch. So you can not feel helpless in the wave of the natural movement that makes you feel bad, inadequate, and like a crappy mom. So you can say, you know? I’m doing some things organic and from scratch, and others not, because I decided to–not because I didn’t know what my options were.

It expires Tuesday at noon. Check out the full list of titles on my original post. And know I love you even if you don’t even remotely want to buy it 😉