A Healthier Way to Eat and Eating Wars with Gavin

 Drinking Green Smoothies

A year ago I was part of a Biggest Loser contest with some friends.  Counting calories (a big eye opener) and increasing the amount I exercise and how I exercised (I stopped running and did Insanity), started our family on a new way of living.  During the last week of the competition, I shot up from fourth place to first getting back to my pre-Gavin weight (even with adoption you can gain weight!)  Over this last year we have slowly made changes to our diet to become a healthier family eating the right types of food.  The result? I don't worry about counting calories any more and I probably only weigh myself once a week.  I also haven't put the time into exercise as intensely as I did during the competition, but I can maintain my weight without a problem and probably have lost a little more.  Also, I get to hear comments like, "Can I have the green soup (cilantro soup with tons of veggies hidden in it) for lunch?"  Because we eat a lot of vegetables (and because Dallin is great about trying different kinds of food), he loves his vegetables (Gavin is a whole other story.)

Our change in our diet started with Green Smoothies.  We drink these almost every day (Gavin drinks them every day since he is a super picky eater so the smoothies become his main nutrition.)  In 20 minutes a day, I can feel like a great mom knowing my kids are getting so much nutrition.

We have also slowly started adding other foods to our diet getting rid of less healthy options.  We eat less meat and dairy (Gavin has an intolerance to dairy and so we started drinking almond milk), a ton more vegetables, a variety of different types of grains, and more nuts and seeds.

Lately we have been eating a lot of soups because Dallin loves soups, I can hide a lot of vegetables in them, and I can puree them so that I have a chance of Gavin trying it.

Tonight we had Butternut Squash Quinoa Stew.  Before you get scared away from this recipe, let me tell you, it was really good and...Gavin ate it.  This means something. I replaced the chicken with some Great Northern Beans and chopped the spinach with my food processor so that it was really tiny making it more kid friendly.  For Gavin I blended the soup in my Blendtec making it as smooth as possible so that he couldn't just spit out the vegetables.  Soups are great for Gavin because I can give him a piece of a roll and when he goes to put it in his mouth, I move quickly to put the spoon of soup in instead.  After he eats the soup, he gets the piece of the roll (Gavin could eat bread and cheese all the time.)  Gavin is a pretty smart kid though, so as soon as he sees the spoon of soup, he covers his mouth or hides his face.  The trick then it to make him smile so that I can then get the soup into his mouth.  The thing is though, if Gavin hates the soup, he will spit it out spraying me or make himself choke so that he throws up.  (Before you think my soups are just gross, Dallin is downing his soup and asking for more.) You can't motivate Gavin with the promise of dessert to eat either.  Nothing motivates him when it comes to eating.  He always wants the roll I'm offering, but if he hates the soup, he won't care about the roll.  I swear he would choose to starve if I let him.  So tonight was a success because he swallowed the soup.  He swallowed 8 bites.  Zane and I were in shock.  We gave him some apple crisp for dessert though and he fed it to me instead.  He is picky about his desserts too.