As many of you know, a couple of months ago our family made a decision together to go off of all PROCESSED and REFINED carbohydrates. This means refined and processed flours, sugars etc. It’s kind of like Whole30, but a little less restrictive since we eat dairy, legumes etc. Basically, we’re choosing to eat foods that can be found in nature, as God made them.
I’ll be honest….I didn’t know if we were going to be able to do it! Especially the kids. I was a little shocked when they decided they wanted to join in. I mean, what 10 and 12 year old make the deliberate decision to give up sweets and candies?! Yes, we all get “cheat” days, but the number of days are pretty limited! I’m SO PROUD of Sam and McKenna Kate for choosing to do something so difficult!
I’ll be honest…the first two weeks were harder than I thought it would be. We would all get a little frustrated when we would go to the store and realize how much of our favorite foods we couldn’t eat! We have a list of ingredients that are “not allowed,” so everything we purchased had to pass the “ingredient test.” It was truly eye-opening to realize how many foods you assume are healthy enough actually didn’t pass the ingredient test. Almost EVERYTHING has sugar or flour in it! WOW!
After getting through the first couple of weeks, we slowly figured out what we could/couldn’t eat and it got a lot easier! For example, we love salads in our house, but so many dressings have loads of added sugars! Primal Kitchen is our favorite brand for salad dressings and our fridge is full of it! It’s small discoveries like this that made the lifestyle transition a lot easier! We also noticed that our sugar cravings went away after 1-2 weeks! Wow… it’s been so fascinating to realize how addictive sugar really is! Cutting it out was extremely difficult at first, but now we love berries and other fruit as our sweet treats! I like to view it as “nature’s dessert!”
Since making this lifestyle change in our family, we’ve realized that we really can make a lot of yummy dishes… but many times it requires quite a bit of preparation. While that’s fine for dinner, I was having a hard time keeping up with it when the kids would have 5 minutes after school to change, grab a snack and run to their sports practice, music lesson etc. Just like many families, we have a busy lifestyle so we needed snacks the kids could easily grab and take with them on their way to their next activities!
It’s something I’ve been struggling with for a while, so I finally decided to create a snack station for Sam and McKenna Kate! They were SO excited when I told them they were going to have a mini fridge that was all theirs, filled with lots of snack options that they could eat as much of as they wanted : )
True to my nature…I had to “cute-ify” it!! Giggle : ) I was inspired when I saw these adorable fruit and veggie framed prints from Drew Barrymore’s Kid’s Decor line at Walmart and went from there! The prints fit perfectly in our little snack nook, and I grabbed a few plates and tumblers as well so the kids could easily grab their snacks and drinks and head out the door! Adding a letter board and a little “veggie arrangement” as the finishing touch, I think the snack nook turned out absolutely adorable!
I see beautifully organized fridges on Pinterest ALL THE TIME!! Color coated and oh so pretty, I dream of having my entire fridge organized like that. (Who doesn’t?!) But it’s quite a daunting task….so I decided to try a mini-version first in the kid’s snack fridge! Giggle : ) I grabbed a few organizing containers from Walmart and realized it actually wasn’t as difficult as I thought it would be to organize the fridge! Yay! : )
As you can see…some of the items you can find in it include:
- Lots of fruit (they love strawberries, grapes, apples, tangerines, raspberries, blueberries)
- Vegetables (carrot sticks, avocado, broccoli)
- Hard boiled eggs
- Organic apple sauce (no sugar added)
- Plain greek yogurt – they like to add fruit on top (make sure there’s no added sugars and no artificial sweeteners)
- Cheese sticks
- Water bottles
- Sparkling Water
Now my kids have a fridge in our home where they know they can eat whatever they want and everything is easily accessible and healthy! I have a feeling the after-school rush is going to be a whole lot easier moving forward! : )
I’ve linked everything for you to shop! Simply click on the photos below!
Hugs… Jennifer
Thank you to Walmart for sponsoring today’s post. I hand-selected each item shown here and purchased it with my own money to share with you today : )
Thats a Great Idea absolutely adorable, trying to eat that way as well!!