I've decided to give up junk and convenience foods for Lent. That is, as much as is humanly possible given my cooking skills, energy levels and bad habits. But we eat way too much junk and it definitely adversely affects both our physical and mental health. Lent is 2.5 weeks away and this is going to take a bit of planning. Some guiding principles I've been mulling about:
1) Focus on not wasting food. I waste an awful lot of food. This is bad in so many ways. Wasting food so carelessly is being ungrateful for God's bounty and blessings and it is disrespectful to all those who are hungry in the world. It wastes resources. By focusing on not wasting food I will be forced to become more intentional in my attitude towards food, shopping, cooking, health and this is a sacrifice for me. I am not naturally good at this sort of thing and it takes a lot of energy and effort on my part.
2) We'll save money by not wasting food and by cooking more things at home - and that money can go to the poor and the local food bank.
3) Serving my family by feeding them healthfully and frugally is a way of serving others; putting others before myself.
4) I want to be prayerful in my duties to my family. I am not currently. I am rushed and distracted most of the time. I will be forced to slow down and focus instead of jumping from pet project to pet project, like I normally do. As St. Theresa of Avila once said: God is in the pots and pans. I want to intentionally find Him there.
5) I know I react to certain foods, MSG and chocolate, for example. I have been reading up on the effects of processed food and it really worries me that perhaps Sean's issues are based in diet. We tried a gluten free/casein free diet last year. It didn't seem to do anything, but I have to admit we started eating more processed foods as a result. I don't really know how diet might effect Sean but he definitely has peculiar and very strong likes and dislikes. I wonder if all this processed food is responsible for chemical brain imbalance. I don't know, but videos like this one make me wonder and make me think I should at least take some steps towards cooking in a more healthy way. As is my usual habit, I have made efforts in fits and starts. But I do things so haphazardly and so carelessly at times. I want to make a solid effort this time.
One of the major issues for me is finding time to do so much cooking. That is intimidating me. So over the next couple of weeks, I am going to try to find time to:
- make bread at home. Something that will be good for sandwiches and that everyone, mostly Sean, will happily eat.
- make yogurt at home - Sean likes those drinkable yogurts in his lunch and I'd like to find a way to make them from scratch instead of buying those little bottles.
- continue to make chicken broth at home - I do this now but very inconsistently and a lot of times I forget to freeze it. It only lasts about a week in the fridge, so if I don't think of it and use it up it goes bad.
- continue to make the slow cooker oatmeal but do it 2x a week instead of just on Fridays.
- Sean needs lots of interesting snacks to nibble on. That's where we tend to really junk out. I need to focus on more nutritious snacks and have them readily available.
We are still going to eat breakfast out on Sunday mornings. I think I will still get bagels on Saturday mornings. And while we won't order pizza out, I can make it on a weekly basis.
I am way behind here! While I suppose there are times when diet could be a trigger for issues like Sean and Hannah's my suspicion is that if it was a factor there would be other physical symptoms that would point in that direction (no evidence for this, just a hunch. I have got to a fairly good point with cooking and eating healthily with only a very limited amount of time for food preparation. I simply don't have time to cook everything from scratch but find it is possible to buy healthy "convenience" foods by checking ingredients and reading labels carefully. I take short cuts in buying some pre-prepared ingredients - prewashed salads, frozen chopped garlic, pre-chopped vegetables, for example. I buy bread (usually wholemeal or mixed grain) and yoghurt, but avoid any with too many added ingredients. For drinking yoghurt you could try mixing bought natural yoghurt with milk and fruit juice, or adding fruit and blending it to make a kind of runny, yoghurt smoothie. I'm trying to get back to blogging and I think I may write some quick and easy healthy eating posts. I just did an Immediate Books meme but lost my comment when I tried to add one to your post!
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