Oh, I love the subject of eating (and health too, of course)!
First I think you have to make eating (what you eat, how you eat, who you eat....oh, I mean who you eat
with!) one of the most important things in your life. Think about it- there is so much unnecessary consumer junk that we're all constantly being told we need, need, need, we've got to have- all this stuff that keeps us running on the big treadmill of more, more, more, faster, faster, faster, and ultimately only filling the world with so much...stuff. Well, eating is something we HAVE to do- its one of the few 'consumerist' things that we can and should embrace and get enthusiastic about! Of course by that I don't mean wantonly eat any and all things that cross our paths... I mean give this activity the attention and passion and time it deserves! Make meals the most important parts of your day (and that of your family's), not just something quickly grabbed and scarfed down, but something you sit down and enjoy. The more real pleasure you take in eating, the more conscious you become of what you're eating and how you're eating, and then you get more pleasure, and so on.
But to get back on track-
Start with these two great books:
What to Eat by Marion Nestle and
Real Food by Nina Planck. They both put it all in brilliant perspective and (particularly
What to Eat) will change the way you make your way through the supermarket. Both of these books will go a long way in helping you develop your own dietary 'intuition' and build your independence from food marketing. (and to keep this NY relevant- Nestle teaches at NYU and spends a lot of time around Ithaca and Planck ran the NYC Greenmarkets for a while)
I'm not big on cook books, but I did get one from the library recently that is great- actually its less of a "cookbook" in terms of recipes, and more of a general 'how to cook' kind of book. I tend to just wing it and make stuff up, while my significant other usually follows recipes- our 'success rate' I'd say is about equal. Oh, the book.
Appetite by Nigel Slater. Michael Pollan's books are also great food/health related reading.
Another thing to do is join a CSA (community supported agriculture), also often called a 'farm share.' There are loads of them in NY state. You subscribe at the beginning of the season, usually in May sometime, and once a week until November you get a load of locally grown produce. You're eating fresh and in season (and usually organic), and it kind of 'forces' you to eat stuff you might not otherwise. There's a bit of a mystery as to exactly what you'll get each week, which is a little fun. One place to go to find out more is-
http://www.localharvest.org/
OK, here is the absolute hardest one, but I really, really believe it might be the most important thing you can do for yourself and your family if you want to eat healthily (as well as have more time to exercise, etc.)- get rid of your TV. Instead of sitting in front of the television, make eating dinner the centerpiece of every evening- the preparing, the eating, the talking, the cleaning up afterward. Its hard at first if you're not used to cooking every night- you know, you come home from work, you're tired.... But if you stick to it and make it a habit it can easily become the best part of every day. The funny thing is that the longer you do it, the more likely you are to be disappointed when you do go out to eat, etc. You find yourself thinking, "I'm paying WHAT for this? We make better stuff every night at home! Heck, I don't even know what's in this stuff they're serving us!" Still, it is fun to go out...... But really, I can't think of anything that may be better for a family's health than getting rid of the TV (maybe splurge and buy a projector that hooks up to your computer and use that to watch DVDs on). You'll also be protecting your kids, however slightly, from the barrage of advertizing pointedly directed at them. Yeah, it's probably the hardest thing to even consider though, getting rid of the TV...
The exercise thing is a tough one, and I feel so bad for people 'trapped' in the suburbs where you have to get in your car to do just about anything. Do your best to find a good route to walk. Walking the same one or two routes all year is amazing- you really get a feel for the changes in nature going on around you. And walking is just generally good for one's well-being (better than pumping up and down on some contraption in a 'climate controlled' flourescent-lit workout room!). I think it was Andre Malroux or somebody who said he'd "never encountered a problem he couldn't 'walk' his way out of." Also, if you have enough of a yard, consider a garden- two birds with one stone- healthy food AND exercise! Another interesting book I came across recently is called
Edible Forest Gardening, by Dave Jacke. A little dry sometimes, but it's pretty much about planting suburban yards for maximum food yield and minimal overall effort (hmm, which kind of negates the exercise part......).
Oh, and back to the eating thing... get the kids involved in food and preparing meals as soon as they show the slightest interest! One of many, many great things I remember about when I was a kid is my brother, sister and I 'helping' my mother in the kitchen all the time. But one of the best things was that maybe once a year- I think it was about when she decided the cabinets needed a purge and the kitchen needed a good cleaning- she'd let us loose in the kitchen to try ANYTHING! Any spice, any ingredient, and any weird thing way in the back of the cupboard. Taste, sift, mix, combine in whatever way we thought we might like to try with whatever tools. Of course the final results were truly disgusting and I don't think anything ever made it to the oven, but it was so much fun and we got to learn a lot about what things taste like individually, and what might go together (or NOT!), as well as what all the various kitchen tools could do (I think almost everything we had was manual then, so it was safe). Then we all 'helped' clean up the disaster area.
But good luck! Look at it all as fun, because it should be. And after all that typing I'M HUNGRY!
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healthy eating/exercise
They eat very healthy foods..people don't know how I do it...I do have snacks in the house but if they really want chips, candy etc they have to eat a serving of fruit first. After that, the amount of junk they originally wanted drops to nearly nothing because they are already full. They will eat any veggie that's put in front of them so, we are following a healthy lifestyle. I think that they key to this is when they were toddlers they recieved way more veggies that meat so they developed a strong liking to them and I made their baby food myself.
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