Reflections on healthy eating

(Disclaimer: I just finished writing this post and as I re-read it I realized it is the second grocery related post I've done in less than six months. I may be more obsessed with food than I thought!)

A little more than a year ago I decided to completely revamp the way my family had been eating. During my husband's deployment I admittedly was in total survival mode and we pretty much subsisted on convenience foods and drive-through fare. When Hubby returned we were going through so much transition we decided that it would be a good time to throw a diet overhaul into the mix. Around that time I read a book entitled "Death By Supermarket" that detailed all of the evils currently pervading the American diet--all those high fat, high sugar, highly processed foods. I determined that we needed to make serious changes.

I went though my pantry and got rid of everything that contained high-fructose corn syrup, MSG or hydrogenated oil. We used organic ketchup, drank Talking Rain unsweetened flavored water instead of soda, and became connoisseurs of all things Kashi. We traded our Goldfish crackers for Annie's Organic Cheddar Bunnies and banished white bread from the house. I made granola bars from scratch with rolled oats and organic brown rice krispies. We ate nitrate free ham and bought only natural non-antibiotic chicken. The only fruit snacks in the pantry were raisins.

I wasn't a total treat Nazi. We still celebrated holidays with the usual goodies and we still indulged in an occasional Saturday night pizza, but for the most part, we approached eating with a more healthful whole-food kind of attitude. And we generally enjoyed it. But like many good things in life--even things that are good for us--they don't always last.

Which is the whole reason I'm bringing this up now.

Over the past year as we have made a major career change and altered our finanial situation dramatically, reality has set in and we've pretty much lost all of our organic enthusiasm. As much as I liked the idea of feeding my kids ketchup without corn syrup in it, I could no longer bring myself to pay more than twice as much for it. And we decided that whether they be Goldfish or Cheddar Bunnies, expensive snack crackers just weren't going to make it on to the shopping list at all anymore.

The other day as I watched my purchases travel down the converyer belt at the grocery store I had to laugh at myself. The person I was a year ago would have been horrified at what I was buying--hot dogs (yucky I know, but one 67 cent package can be lunch for two kids for a few days), corn flakes (totally processed and full of carbs, but I can get generic for a little more than a dollar a box sometimes),and Capri Suns (full of sugar and empty calories, but when I no longer want to pay for school lunch I NEED something for the lunchbox and they are so much cheaper than the real juice ones--evil, I know).

So I am no longer the super healthy, organic mommy that I once aspired to be but there are several traits I picked up that I've been able to carry over to our now leaner times. Such as: if you cut out the Doritos and Oreos then you can still afford the fresh vegetables, pancakes made from scratch taste much better and only take about five minutes longer than a mix, and my kids will actually pick wheat bread over white when given the choice. So I guess I haven't abandoned my ideals altogether.


(Oh, but all bets are off when pregnancy cravings kick it. Bring on the Ruffles!)