Wow! Already?

So it has been just two full days since I "made the switch." I have to be honest and say that i didn't go cold turkey. I have such a hard time with the idea of all that food going to waste, but I know it's so bad for us. I am struggling with this. But this morning we woke up a little late and instead of making a healthy breakfast, like eggs, toast, and yoghurt, I gave the kids cereal. :/ I know that if the junk was gone, replaced by healthier, more natural foods, we would be making wiser choices. So I planned some meals for the next week and I will be hitting the grocery store and fruit market.

As to the kids behavior...I am already seeing a change!! I am not naive enough to think that it's going to be this easy. They're certainly not going to turn into little angels simply because I feed them nourishing food (wouldn't it be nice, though??). But I had such a good day with my babies today. :) Especially with my son. He is active by nature, downright hyper on sugar, and sometimes unbearably crabby when he's hungry. He was wonderful today! I admitted that I fed them regular cereal this morning, but he asked for a bowl of Kashi cereal (the boy loves it). For lunch, I gave them some chicken from a rotisserie chicken we had purchased, youghurt, an apple, and a banana. Tonight, I made lentil soup with sourdough bread (store-bought sourdough, not authentic). Just for some comparison, Saturday they had Lucky Charms for breakfast, snacked on granola bars, ate Campbell's Chicken Noodle Soup for lunch, with Chicken 'n a Biscuit crackers, snacked later on poptarts, and had leftover pizza for dinner. Admitting how I fed them on Saturday was very hard for me to do just now. I know better than that. And how shocking it was to me that it took them over an hour to fall asleep Saturday night, even though I was constantly yelling at them. :-( They had fought and whined and yelled and sassed me all day long, by 8:00 I had neeeeded them to fall asleep. Today was SO MUCH BETTER. Andrew listened to me, which in turn made me more patient. He was also so much more affectionate. When I would try to talk to him for fighting with his sister or throwing a tantrum, he actually listened and then wanted to hug and cuddle, instead of trying to run away from me and bouncing around the entire time I was talking. I also found it much easier to talk quietly with them, rather than lose my patience and resort to yelling.

It's so hard for me to explain their positive behavior, since you are unaware of the behaviors i am comparing to. I also know that tomorrow could be just like Saturday, even though I am taking them off of sugar and prepackaged foods. Kids are kids, and every day is a surprise. :) But I will keep updating, along with all of the other changes going on.

And as for me, this is harder than I thought it was going to be, but I am not giving up. When you're a child, you rarely get to choose what you are going to eat. As an adult, it's usually the yummy-but-so-bad-for-you stuff that calls your name, and there's no one there to stop you from eating it. When we were growing up, my mom would by 12-packs of coke and we were allowed ONE can per day. I remember the day when i realized that I could have as many cans as i wanted, since I was an adult and had purchased the pop myself. That one can has gradually turned into as many as 6-7 cans per day on a regular basis. It's so bad, my mom once paid me $100 just to go a whole month without Coke (and, of course, I did it!). I love Coca-Cola. I love anything chocolate and full of calories. I've been known to eat at McDonalds 3 times in one day. This is not an easy change for me. But I want to be an example to my children. I want to teach them how to cook healthy, traditional food. I want them to naturally choose healthy eating when they are grown and making their own choices. And I firmly believe that this is something the Lord has layed on my heart.

With all that said, I must be going. I have grocery shopping to do tomorrow, along with sorting through the cupboards. At the least, I'm hiding the temptations. Out of sight, out of mind, right? I hope so!!