Healthy eating: Easy and stress-free
Health starts with what you eat
In my household, it is very important to me to know that my family eats well and learns to eat healthily. Health starts with what you eat, but it also has a lot to do with what goes into your body and what you use on it (like body creams or beauty products). The things we see, the thoughts we have, the things we hear every day also influence our health.
My eating philosophy
For many years, I’ve been interested in what I feed my family. I’ve read over quite a few diet types and diet philosophies: Veganism, vegetarianism, the Keto diet, Paleo diet, etc. I find all of these fascinating, but my philosophy is simpler: eat as little processed foods as possible, prepare as many meals as you can at home, include plenty of vegetables in your diet, and don’t forget to regularly include homemade ferments in your meals.
My kids and eating healthy at home
Two of my kids are teenagers, and as many of you who have teenage kids will know, this phase has quite a few stressful moments… I will never forget the time when they stopped coming home for lunch, when they started staying at school and go for lunch with their classmates. I was terrified and I’m not lying to you! Just the thought of them eating anything that their heart desired when they were not at home: junk food, sugar, soda, etc… even though I spent a few years singing the song “Healthy eating is important” to them! They would still come home with a bellyache sometimes, complaining… When I saw them, they would tell me all the things they ate, without me even having to ask!
I concluded that I can’t control them. I would say the same thing all the time: eat vegetables, drink water, don’t eat so much sugar, and my kids knew this very well but at the end of the day, it is still up to them to decide for themselves. Now, I still worry about what they eat, but I can’t control everything! So I decided to keep cooking healthy food at home, I try to give them homemade ferments regularly and remind them how important it is to drink water.
My youngest daughter asks me for tacos with sauerkraut, she loves them, because she knows they are good for her! When she isn’t feeling too well, coming down with a cold for example, she asks me to make them for her. My two teenage kids on the other hand, as part of their teenage rebellion, run away and try to avoid anything deemed “healthy!” One good thing is that they do finish their salads during lunchtime and I hide some sauerkraut juice in the salad dressing that I make! Shhh, don’t tell them 🙂
My kids like hamburgers too, so I hide the liver in the meat. They love granola and yogurt, so I make my own granola, add a little dark chocolate, and sometimes I also make my yogurt or buy a natural yogurt rich in Bifidus bacteria.
Here’s a list of a few tricks I do at home to eat healthy with ease and no stress:
- Sauerkraut juice can be added to salad dressing. I mix some apple cider vinegar with the sauerkraut juice, lots of olive oil and some salt.
- Make your burger meat. I usually make 2/3 ground beef and 1/3 liver. I liquefy the liver and then mix it with salt, onion and the ground beef. You don’t even need to add an egg!
- Make your granola. Mix oats, nuts, seeds and some other gluten-free cereal (that’s my preference, but you can add wheat if you want). You can do it the way I would and put it in a fancy container so the kids don’t know it’s homemade. You can read all about my famous granola recipe here.
- Put homemade ferments on everything you can. As examples I recommend the marble cake with milk kefir, pancakes with kefir, smoothies with banana and kefir milk, in short, don’t hesitate to get creative. They won’t even realize that what they are eating is healthy!
At the end of the day I think that as a mother, I am just a guide, especially now, with my children growing up. I have decided to lead by example. I show them what they should eat. I know that even if they deny it, they are still learning. I accept that they will not always listen to me every time or in the moment, but I will still give them love: which is my most important task after all.
What about you? Share with us what tricks and tips you use to eat healthily and stress-free?
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