A More Healthy Me

If you haven't watched Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution, you NEED to. I watched all of last season and it was amazingly eye opening. This season started off with quite the episode of shock value. One of the first things that they discussed was how "hamburgers" are made in our country. If you don't know, it's pretty disturbing and you need to find out. I also watched Food Inc. recently and it really educated me as to how the food industry really works in our country. Again, if you haven't watched that movie, I would encourage you to do so.

Jamie Oliver's whole goal is to make America more healthy and he targets our children because they are the future of our nation's health. I completely agree with his methods and his view points. I also feel that as a parent, I have to be a positive example to my children for healthy eating. Things are a lot different now than they were when I was young. My mother always cooked, every night. We didn't have a McDonald's in our town until I was in middle school. We didn't have the convenience of fast food. Now, I don't think twice about picking up a quick dinner for my kids so that I don't have to cook because I'm too tired. I just looked at a recent bank statement and over $60 in the past two weeks have been spent by my husband and myself on convenience foods. So, I am challenging myself to become more healthy.

My kids are actually pretty good eaters. They LOVE green vegetables. Breckin ate 2 whole peppers at his uncle's house the other day! They also ate a bunch of asparagus the other night, by themselves. This is a habit that I want to continue to encourage. I also want them to be more open to trying different foods and I want to be able to provide them with more home cooked meals during the next few weeks.

Finally, I want them to be able to become more active during the day. Right now, it's been unseasonably rainy and cold here in Wyoming and so we haven't been able to go outside and play as much as we would have liked too. We also have concerns about Ashlyn's allergies acting up and affecting her. So, for the rest of this month I want to be able to allow them to be able to have more opportunities to be more active. I know that next month they will have soccer for a half hour, twice a week, but right now they need to do something. I also feel that I could use the cardiovascular activity. So, I want to be able to try to go swimming every week day for the rest of the summer. This is an activity that doesn't put a lot of stress on my body and that I enjoy and I am comfortable with. All in all, for my kids, I want to be a more healthy me. I want to be a good example to them of positive eating habits and how much fun activity can be. I want to instill these good habits in them before they learn how to play video games and sit in front of the TV all day as so many kids now do. When I was young, we never got to sit around and do nothing. My parents kicked us out of the house to play EVERYDAY! I have to say that, although I wished that I could have just "hung out" at home, I'm glad that they made me get some fresh air in my lungs because it helped me enjoy my life!


Source for pic: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jamie_Oliver's_Food_Revolution