When I was pregnant with my son 6 years ago, I was convinced that he would only ever eat organic vegetables and never touch junk food of any kind. Then he was born and I tried to breastfeed him exclusively for 3 weeks before finally realizing he was starving because I didn't make enough milk, so I started giving him primarily formula (still nursed on demand for a WHILE though...)
He started eating baby foods, and things were going okay, but somewhere along the line when we tried to feed him regular food we discovered he was incredibly picky. It got to the point where we were afraid he would starve so we would let him eat something less than ideal. The fights, the drama, the ultimatums... it was just too much.
By the time my daughter was eating regular food, I was making something different for them and for us. And since my husband usually doesn't like what I'm eating (when I was on a bodybuilding style diet, or Paleo), then I end up making something different for him as well. It was exhausting.
I meal plan. I grocery shop. I plan things in advance. But usually by the 16th of the month we're back to "What do we eat tonight?"
This all came to a head this past week, when one of my son's teachers pulled me aside and said he is showing signs of juvenile diabetes. She said that her younger brother was diagnosed as a child and had a lot of the same issues: drinking a lot, peeing a lot (he has been having a TON of accidents), looking pale, acting lethargic...
Of course since I had a brother die at age 4 I don't do well with any childhood illness. I made an appointment and took off work to take him to the doctor.
The doctor was encouraging that he probably *doesn't* have diabetes (whew)(but we still have to run tests anyway to rule it out), but she did say that he seemed malnourished and anemic. He is drinking too much milk and filling up on it and that is causing problems. (What is worse is that at some point he began to refuse to drink milk unless it had both chocolate and strawberry flavoring in it).
So this was the last straw for me. Something has to change. It ties in a little to my Whole30 as well because I'm just so tired to cooking something different for everyone. I can try to move us all to a more Paleo style diet, enforce the "eat what we eat or eat nothing" rule (I'm going to need my husband to help with that, which isn't always the case), and see if we can get it together. I also need to find a way to do this on a limited grocery budget, but grocery shopping is the biggest loose cannon in our "budget" (I use that term loosely because every month I try to make a budget, and every month we run out of money by the 19th and I fail and there is never enough...)
So here's my goal/question/challenge: Can I feed a family of 4 a primarily Paleo diet on $500 or less a month? And if so, how the **** do I do that?
Of course, any advice/ideas are welcome. Because I feel like, as someone who knows a lot about health and fitness, I've kind of failed here.
1 comment:
I actually came back to this post to read the comments and was shocked to find none. Then I went to find your email address and couldn't find it because I didn't want to write a big huge personal comment for all to read.
Anyway, I feel equally as frustrated. My youngest 3 eat garbage and I currently cook at least 3 different meals a night. I'm really frustrated as well. Without getting all personal, I just wanted you to know you're not alone.
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