{"id":219,"date":"2008-06-13T17:55:11","date_gmt":"2008-06-14T00:55:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/xangelle.com\/dailygrind\/?p=219"},"modified":"2008-06-13T17:55:11","modified_gmt":"2008-06-14T00:55:11","slug":"on-being-unconventional","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/xangelle.com\/dailygrind\/on-being-unconventional\/","title":{"rendered":"On Being Unconventional……"},"content":{"rendered":"

I read this comment on this website the “Happy Foody<\/a>” everytime I check over there and it always gets me thinking.<\/p>\n

“I don’t understand why asking people to eat a well-balanced vegetarian diet is considered drastic, while it is medically conservative to cut people open and put them on cholesterol lowering drugs for the rest of their lives.” – Dean Ornish, MD<\/em><\/p>\n

and then while I was already thinking about that quote again for the umpteeth time, I floated over to “Owlhaven<\/a>” and read this post on “What do we owe our children?<\/a>” It stems from her recently sharing about her family of 9 and sharing some ideas on being frugal and being able to eat well for less.<\/p>\n

She talks about how some have just recently critized her and have insinutated “…..that in keeping our food costs low, I might be somehow depriving my children or feeding them subpar food.<\/em>” She goes on to say, “…I only have to look at a plate of food at an average dinner to know that our diet is varied, healthy, and delicious.<\/em>”<\/p>\n

I think that some of what is said and even not said between the first quote and the second situation summs up a bit of how I end up feeling in regards to our whole way of eating.<\/p>\n

I’m not planning of becoming vegetarian, but I will admit that I’ve been looking into some well balanced vegetarian meal ideas. I’ve thought about doing a vegetarian meal 2 or 3 times a week. As long as it’s balanced, I’d be interested in giving it a try. Not to mention, that it would cut the grocery costs a little bit, and every little bit helps, right?<\/p>\n

I’m not talking about a meal of just lettuce, but of taking into consideration protein, carbs, veggies, oil and finding a good and delicious<\/strong> balance.<\/p>\n

See, we’ve already cut most processed things out of our diet. We mainly eat veggies and fruit with grains and then some lean meats. I don’t buy too much of anything that is boxed or packaged besides things like Almond or Soy milk, and some Brown Rice Pasta from time to time. I don’t buy cookies or snacks for the kids….I make granola bars or popcorn or once in a while I will bake something with honey or brown rice syrup or maple syrup as the sweetner instead of sugar.<\/p>\n

Compared to “normal” North American diets….we eat so bizarre. But going back to that quote from the beginning and just recognizing that TO ME it’s bizarre to think that a diet filled with chemicals and additives and processed food and gallons of sugar and all the other crap that is out there is considered normal. That it’s normal to be on drugs to fix or maintain issues created (in a large part) by our diets….that it’s normal to eat chemically created food so that you can lose weight on a lowfat diet…that it’s normal to eat food that is just not normal ……I can recognize that some would say that we (in our family) eat strangely, but I think that most “normal” choices are strange.<\/p>\n

I know that our choices are unconventional, but to me it makes so much sense.<\/p>\n

I’m not trying to deprive my kids from the “wonders” of life….as in sugar cereal and sugar snacks and pop and everything else out there. I do try to come up with healthy alternatives….Frozen Fruit Juice or Fruit Smoothy Popsicles or Homemade Granola and Granola Bars or Popcorn flavored with spices or Homemade Crackers or Cookies made with ingredients in fairly close to their natural state. You can make Chips and Popcorn balls with honey and nuts…..the possibilities are endless, and the food is healthy for you. I have a HUGE fruit basket and a TON of veggies in the fridge and the kids are allowed to eat whenever they are actually hungry<\/em> (as long as it’s not in the hour before a meal).<\/p>\n

I would however love to deprive them of a life of obesity and diabetes and heart problems, and thyroid problems and fertility issues and any other of the various problems and issues that can be traced back to our diets.<\/p>\n

My kids eat. They eat well and they eat a pretty balanced and varied diet. <\/p>\n

Would they like to eat sugar cereal day in and day out or eat countless boxes of candy and pizza and McDonalds? They probably think they would, but considering that because we don’t eat like that, on the odd occasion when we do cheat, they end up feeling gross and they are starting putting two and two together that the gross feelings are actually tied into the crap food.<\/p>\n

I’m trying to make the best choices for my family and I’m trying to teach my kids to make good healthy choices. It’s a process and one that keeps evolving as we go along and learn new things. I’m surprised at how far we’ve come over the past almost 2 years, and I expect that I’ll be even more surprised at where I’m at in another 2 years…..<\/p>\n

So, Do you eat “healthy”? What is your standard of “healthy” eating? Why are you making the choices that you are making? What prompted you to evaluate your diet? Or have you not really thought about it? <\/p>\n

I’d love to hear what your choices are and why you are making them, and what you think about all this.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I read this comment on this website the “Happy Foody” everytime I check over there and it always gets me thinking. “I don’t understand why asking people to eat a well-balanced vegetarian diet is considered drastic, while it is medically conservative to cut people open and put them on cholesterol lowering drugs for the rest … Continue reading “On Being Unconventional……”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[15,8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-219","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-food","category-health"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/xangelle.com\/dailygrind\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/219","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/xangelle.com\/dailygrind\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/xangelle.com\/dailygrind\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xangelle.com\/dailygrind\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xangelle.com\/dailygrind\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=219"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/xangelle.com\/dailygrind\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/219\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/xangelle.com\/dailygrind\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=219"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xangelle.com\/dailygrind\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=219"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xangelle.com\/dailygrind\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=219"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}