Too much Sugar!!

This time of year it is so hard to cut out sugar, especially with so many goodies to bake, school parties and cadies from Santa!  But I am really proud of us as a family.  So far we have been really good about not taking in too much, and a few of us have had to pay the price (with upset tummies) when overindulging.  I think that lesson has been learned the hard way!

I am trying to be realistic in our approach to limiting sugars.  I know that there will be slip ups.  I know that we are not going to cut out 100% of sugars, but we can definently try to cut out 80 - 90% and mostly artifical, corn syrups, and processed sugars.  Maybe I am wrong but, I don't mind so much the natural sugars, like those in juice, fruits, etc.

And let me tell ya, it is SO hard to find cereal with little to no sugar!!  J & I spent a good 20 minutes in the cereal aisle at Soopers the other day and could only find 1 brand, plain Shredded Wheat, with NO artificial or natural sugars.

Found a great book!!

I had a free night recently with NO kids!!  YAY!!  :-)  I decided to spend it at Barnes & Noble with a cup of coffee & taking my time looking through the books.  Specifically I was looking for books on ADD/ADHD and was hoping to find Dr. Sears' ADD book.  Instead what I found was The Eat-Clean Diet for Families & Kids.  I have got to say that it has been a while since I have been so impressed with a "diet/cookbook". After skimming through and reading several sections I decided I definitely needed to buy it.  Everything inside spoke to me and reassured me that what we are doing is right.

"Eating Clean is treating your body right. It is eating the way nature intended. "
The Eat-Clean Diet

It's a lifestyle change not a diet!

So we have recently started implementing some new rules in our house, starting with what we eat.  Initially we had been calling it a diet but it really is a change in lifestyle.  To me a diet is something you will be doing for a short amount of time until you meet your goal.  Where a change in lifestyle is more permanent. 

What brought about this change, you ask!?  Well #1 has been diagnosed with ADD and rather than dope him up on medication we have decided to start with what we put into our bodies and use medications as a last resort.  


This is week one of our endeavor.  We decided to start with cutting out dairy for a week and seeing if there are any adverse reactions once we add it back in.  We are also cutting back quite a bit on the amount of sugar we eat on a daily basis.  You never really realize how much sugar is added to every day foods until you start looking for it!  As we move forward we will be making several more changes including eliminating food dyes, additives and processed foods.  We will also be adding nutritional supplements and more fresh fruits & vegetables do our meals among other things. 

I will try to keep adding weekly updates on how our changes are going and what we are eliminating/adding next.  If you have any good resources I would love to know about them!!