I do not eat clean 100% of the time. What I can say is that I do eat a lot cleaner than I ever used to. A big part of why that is, is because I didn't know what eating clean meant and what the benefits of it were. I am a medical professional who completely ignored what I learned in school when it came to my own nutrition. I will admit it (it happens when you get so busy taking care of others). :) Christelyn played a big part in influencing a lot of the food choices I make today and I have done a lot of research on 'clean eating' myself. I had to learn how to fuel my body based on different factors: my body type, my training schedule, the time I had to make my food, etc. My point is that this is something I had to learn even with what I learned in school to get my degree. Also, a lot of the information out there could be blanket statements that don't always work for everyone when you take into consideration your specific body type, amount of activity you do daily, cultural food preferences, etc.
I am in my 30's and no one really taught me how to eat right when I was younger. The changes I made to my diet occurred within the last two years; it took almost three decades to figure it out. I want to change this for the next generation and I know kids learn best by example which is a big reason why I switched things up as well. But I want them to be more prepared and more aware than I was. For example, for my kids, they now know WHY brown rice and wheat bread is a better choice than white rice and white bread. They also know why I read the food labels on everything. My youngest will make another food choice or check with me if he sees a food that is red. We try not to do red dye (or artificial coloring) in our food. He is six years old. So proud of him. I say that a bit jokingly but seriously, I never knew about any of this at his age.
It is a little challenging to try to explain what is a good food choice to our six year old sometimes. And even more challenging to even younger kids. I try to suggest they try to think about the ingredients in the food or try to read the food label. If they see big strange words in the ingredients list on the label, it probably has preservatives and there might be better choices. We encourage trying to keep things natural and unprocessed vs. counting calories or fat content. We preach to them that if you are staying away from chemicals, artificial coloring and preservatives/additives then you are probably left with foods that mostly are fruits, vegetables, and protein which are foods we like to stick to.
Another thing we've been working on is navigating the big box grocery stores. Sometimes I feel that the way that grocery stores are set up is a big marketing scheme. Typically, everyone needs staples like protein or eggs or milk. Time and time again, these items are located in the BACK of the store so that you have to go through looooong aisles of processed foods, greatly increasing the chance of you making an impulse buy of something not so healthy. It's almost not fair. And even more so for our kids who are oblivious to marketing schemes. If we just try to make them aware of what is really going on, perhaps they will take this information with them later on in life when they have to go food shopping on their own for themselves or for their own families and make better food choices.
The next time you go to the grocery store, just keep this in mind and see if it is the same with your store. What I tell my kids is that we try to (mostly) put in our cart, foods that are located around the perimeter of the store. Typically, the pastas, chips, cereals, cookies, crackers, canned soups (aka the processed foods) are in the middle of the store. Along the perimeter as you go around at my local store, there is the produce section, meat section, milk/eggs, etc.: non-processed foods.
Like I mentioned earlier, I don't eat 100% clean and neither do my kids. But I can say that my kids will know how to make good food choices and know how to navigate a huge grocery store smartly, to make good decisions on what they choose. It's not that we forbid them not to go down the cereal aisle but they are aware of how stores will try to trick people into purchasing certain things (putting sugary cereals at kid eye level. Not fair I tell you!! lol). Perhaps they will take this information into consideration in the future when they are on their own. Will they choose to eat clean ALL the time? Probably not. But I am satisfied with the fact that they have the knowledge to make a good choice because I know that my husband and I have given them tools to do so.
My oldest kid is 15. I cannot be with him 24/7. He goes out with his friends and has to make food choices on his own. He is used to eating pretty healthy here at home. But there was this one time where he was out for the day and had fast food the entire day. Breakfast, lunch and dinner. He then told me that he felt gross and just "really greasy inside" when he came home. He learned a good lesson that day. If you don't make good food choices and you disrespect your body by eating overly processed foods, you are going to feel like crap. I think something clicked in his mind that day and he hopefully has gotten a better idea of why we are all about choosing foods wisely.
We have a new Fit Mama of the Week coming up later this week! We are so excited to share her story with you guys because she also will further discuss how her family tries to eat clean. She has some great ideas to hopefully inspire and help you guys get started! Stay tuned!
