Photo's

I thought I'd put a couple of photo's of Hayley and her masterpieces up for now as I am in the middle of moving house.  The first one is of celery sticks with cottage cheese and sultana's in them, the second is of Hayley with her very quick morning tea fruit face :)

Finding the right information

I was looking through some of my research papers from around two years ago, catching up on some of the data I lost when my computer crashed, when Hayley started to read over my shoulder about some of the people I have worked with for our book.  At first I thought she was trying not to disturb me but she was whispering something that I couldn't quite make out.  I was on a page where several families that I  have worked with our version of a food pyramid.  I asked her what she was saying and she told me that she was working out in her head what foods are protein and which are Carbohydrates.  I taught Hayley about foods at a very young because she had a weight problem, I can honestly say, I don't believe I would have taught her about food groups and the like if she hadn't.  Which leads me to the question, why aren't we teaching our children about the best foods to eat?  I know we are a long way from knowing all there is to know, we wouldn't have such an out of control society of obese or overweight people is we did.  I find it very hard to stick to a program because I have intense cravings and I know the cause of these cravings is because I when I eat the wrong foods, I crave those foods even more.  I watched a program today about obese children, it broke my heart to see these little ones, wearing adult clothing at five years old, but I saw it on TV so at least its a message and its out there, a step in the right direction.  One of the paediatricians gave one of the children's parents a diagnoses of " insulin resistance" he said her body didn't have the ability to burn fat anymore, so sad.  But they can do something about it, almost the same thing that I did for Hayley and after months of research and rejection for us, the short of it is, I spent everyday scaling down the "starchy carbohydrates" out of our diets and replaced them with "fibrous Carbohydrates" everything was  healthy and a lot of it was arranged on a plate to make it fun.   I really do hope this means that people are finding more and more "helpful" specialists that will listen and not judge or assume that you are doing everything wrong.  As I look through more and more research notes, I am reminded of so many parents I have met and worked with in this struggle.  I know with enough people talking about it, we will find a way to help every parent to gain the knowledge and tools to help their own child to become healthy and happy.  Until next time, stay healthy :)

Festivities over!

Wow, what a relaxed Christmas we had this year, very little cooking and lots of rest and playtime.  I have found that there are a lot of "sometimes" foods at Christmas time in Australia.  With our climate, we usually have a lot of fresh protien like ham off the bone, chicken and seafood, but its the rich condiments we use in potato and pasta salads, then the sauces we have on the tables, not to mention the desserts...although I love fruit cake, Christmas cake takes the humble fruit cake to a whole new level of fat, sugar, carbs etc that should definately only be experienced but once a year.  On our table we had lots of fresh salad with lettuce, onion, tomato, stuffed olives, cheese, pine nuts and a little balsamic vinegar drizzled over the top that makes our table simple yet so delicious.  We have a lot of meat, fish, seafood and eggs over the Christmas break, usually lots of leftovers but it's the cake and desserts that usually leave us with a little bit more to love than we would like.  So it's back to coming up with ways to make our meals low GI yet visually stimulating.  I have been doing some more research over the last weeks that have given me a lot to think about...weight loss is the first thing that I needed to deal with but now I'd like to focus more on the health benefits of food and how foods help or hinder our kids little bodies.  I am amazed at how much Hayley knows about this too as she is a very good listener when I find some new (for us) and exciting information on foods.  Just tonight I am reading about artificial sweetner and how some believe it is causing big problems with our metabolism among other things.  If we are to focus on our health, all sugar should be kept to a minimum as well as highly refined carbohydrates, very important for health and weight loss.  I feel I am a  learner with the information I am finding and I would like to study health and nutrition this year but in the mean time, I try not to believe everything I read, some are a little out there so I think I need a little more evidence.  The foods that we eat are not always the healthiest choices but we need to eat to fit into our individual lifestyles, otherwise, it will be a lot harder to eat healthy if it always feels like we are missing out on something, that's not a nice way to live.

I hope everyone had a safe and happy Christmas and Happy New year, may 2010 be filled with wonderful memories of fun in the kitchen with your littlies :)