The decline of healthy eating

I used to be a fairly healthy eater. Growing up we almost never ate dessert, there were very few sweets in the house, no pop/soda and I remember drinking my first glass of Kool Aid at a friend's house. We had snacks, just mostly salty stuff, rather than the sweet stuff. There were special treats--ice cream and cake, but it generally was reserved for birthdays and holidays and honestly, I don't ever remember wishing we had more sweet stuff in the house.

One of my college roommates (hi, if you're reading) got me into eating dessert--she is totally into chocolate and really introduced me to the pleasure of enjoying chocolate in all forms. Bad day? A pint of Ben and Jerrys will help. Hard exam? Chocolate mousse cheesecake will right any wrong! We still ate pretty healthy, especially for college students on a limited budget. But we did grocery shop and some simple cooking. When I was in grad school my dad gave me a copy of the Joy of Cooking, which totally changed my life! I didn't want to eat Lipton noodles and canned soup recipes forever, so I splurged on some ingredients and learned how to cook anything that sounded good from the cookbook. I had the smallest kitchen in my apartment. It reminded me of the kitchen in airplanes--it was that small. But I managed to cook a pretty delicious Thanksgiving dinner one year and had many small dinner parties (with fancy drinks of course) with my friends. Cooking was fun! With my new love of cooking came a love for fancy grocery stores with nice ingredients. When I met Bill, he introduced me to the Asian market, which in Chicago meant a stinky, dirty store with really fresh Asian produce and fish, more varieties of tofu, fresh noodles and dried things I couldn't identify. But he also exposed me to lots of Asian food, from sushi to pho to Korean BBQ.

When Bill and I moved to California, we ate SO well. I cooked every night, searching for fun recipes online during down time at work. The availability of produce and seafood in California was great--so fresh and affordable. On weekends, we both cooked and enjoyed trying new wines to go with it all. It was so fun. And yummy. We ate fruit for dessert every night and we always ate stir fried Asian green veggies. We were so healthy! We had so much time on our hands!

Then we had kids. What a difference a few years have made. I still make my best effort to cook nearly every night. I try to cook veggies every night, although we eat a lot more standard veggies like broccoli, spinach and green beans rather than the Asian, fiber-rich, vitamin-packed green leafys. But my recipes are quickies, nothing too exotic, nothing that takes longer than 30 minutes to throw together and most importantly nothing that Lana won't eat. I am bored with what I cook and because I am usually trying to just get it on the table, it doesn't taste as good--I don't have the time to put the "love" into the food. I make a lot of soups b/c Lana will eat them. I make a lot of braised meats b/c they are soft and Lana will eat them. I really can't complain about Lana's eating habits b/c she is not that picky, although there are a few things she will not touch: green beans, potatoes, chicken breast, pork chop or anything remotely spiced/spicy/flavorful.

Not only am I bored with my cooking, but I seriously have some bad eating habits of my own. I eat a lot of frozen crap for lunch. Bill gets the leftovers from the night before and I scavenge from whatever is in the house. Lana eats a lot of it too--mac n cheese, chicken nuggets from the freezer, canned soup. She and I have eaten so many turkey sandwiches (on wheat at least)! I am ashamed at how often I visit a drive thru, usually McDonalds--not good. Drive-thrus are the only viable option when your baby who never sleeps is finally asleep in the carseat and there is no way I am stopping the car and moving the seat even a millimeter. I wish there were more drive thru options--why can't Chipotle be drive thru? (Not that that is any healthier, but it would be yummier). Also, I drink way too much sugar in the form of juice, Vitamin Water and carbonated beverages. I got addicted to Vitamin Water when I was pregnant and I still really like it. Costco has those San Pelligrino sparkling juices that are SO refreshing and SO high in sugar.

Snacks are also a big problem in our house. Lana snacks a lot. So do I. Sometimes out of boredom, I think. Sometimes a few hours after breakfast she will say, "Mom, I need a snack--something unUSUAL" Which means junk. I am like, "You may not have junk at 10am! Your choices are fruit, popcorn, edammame or cheese and crackers." She always picks fruit. Always. This kid easily eats fruit 5 times a day. She eats so much fruit we have to buy it from Costco every week. This week we bought: strawberries, blueberries, navel oranges, grapes, mangoes. That will only last ONE week--Costco sizes people! Its nuts.

I suppose there are worse choices like cookies and candy, but fruit still has sugar. Between the fruit and the juice (which I always dilute 50%) and then the treats like the birthday cupcakes at school (which seem to be like every day) there is still a lot of sugar in her life. It is also getting harder to keep the candy and other goodies away from her. Like at the Valentines Party at school--we were instructed to bring Valentines to exchange with the other students. Every single Valentine (except hers) had candy attached to it. Great. I really needed those 10 pieces of candy to negotiate with her over the next week. I put it away, but she did not let me forget that we had it and that she NEEDED it. She doesn't really dig raw veggies or hummus and I can't entice her with yogurt or string cheese. What are your kids healthy snacks?

So part of me wants to make sure Lana snacks healthy, but sometimes when I look at what I am eating, its like 10 times worse than what she is eating. I have been blessed with the genetics that keep me slim, no matter what I eat, but that doesn't take into account what's going on on the inside. I want to be in better health. I want to exercise so that my scrawny little body has some muscle on it and I don't have these granny legs. I don't want to pick up Lana and go, "Ugh, my back!" I definitely don't want diabetes or heart disease or cancer. I think about this all the time, but then I have no self control when I am hungry and reaching for something I shouldn't. I feel like the girls will learn good habits from me, so I should be better about my choices. I am really going to try. After I finish the brownies my mom made and brought over!