He is all boy.
He tells jokes. About poo.
He farts and burps. On purpose. In my face.
He loves superheros and robots. And his pet dinosaur.
He has scrapes and bumps and bruises. But he is brave.
He roars and growls and makes funny faces.
He thinks Peppa Pig is so last year.
He is all boy.
This Friday, May 17th, is Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution Day, “a global day of action for people to make a stand for good food and essential cooking skills.” So to celebrate that, I figured it’s a perfect time to start sharing a bit about the food revolution happening around our house, one that’s embracing cooking and eating fresh. And, one that’s reducing my stress around putting food on the table.
I’d honestly never paid that much attention to what I ate. But then I read Michael Pollan’s book, The Omnivore’s Dilemma and this book transformed the way I think about food. Our Western society has become so caught up in eating fast, that we’re forgetting how to eat well, instead filling our bodies with chemicals, preservatives, and junk. And we’re passing these habits onto our kids.
While Pollan’s book opened my eyes and made me think twice about everything I eat and where it came from, I still found it difficult to incorporate his ideas into my everyday life. I made small changes like buying organic and local, reading ingredients and avoiding as many processed foods as possible. Cheddar cheese is not naturally bright orange people! But on a daily basis, I was still struggling with what to eat for dinner each night, finding it all too easy to just order a pizza. And I found myself cooking the same things over and over, getting bored, failing to incorporate enough variety and certainly not including five a day. Cooking has never come naturally to me and I’ve never been a “foodie” so I always found it a chore.
But now with a child, I realize that making sure that he (and I) develop good eating habits is one of the most important things I can do for him as a parent. His food education is my responsibility and if I’m not teaching him about healthy food choices, where else is he going to learn? Who else is going to teach him about the importance of eating fresh versus processed food and about eating a variety of foods? And if I don’t lead by example, what kind of message does that send?
When he was first learning to eat solids, I actually found it easier, simply making all of his baby puree from scratch. At this stage, Annabel Karmel was a gift, mapping out his entire meal plan for months. But once he began eating regular foods, I again found myself taking the easy way out, resorting to frozen fish and chips all too often. Fundamentally, I knew I needed to put a wider variety of healthy foods on the table but when pressed, I’d go with the foods I knew he’d eat, fish and chips, cheese sandwich, plain pasta. And I’d find myself sitting around on a Monday morning stressed out because I knew we had nothing to eat in the house and yet I had no plan for what to get at the store or what to cook. Something had to change.
Enter my friend, Laura, who suggested I read French Kids Eat Everything by Karen Le Billon. This book really set things in motion. Le Billon reinforced that kids don’t have to eat junk and that it’s up to me as a parent to make the rules about what kind of food gets put on the table. I find myself repeating one of her key messages, “You don’t have to like everything, but you do have to try it.” And I’m finding the more often he sees something, the more likely he is to try it. Salmon with pesto sauce? Turned his nose up at it the first time, scraping all the pesto off. Now he eats it up and asks for the “green sauce.” Beetroot salad? Who knew he’d eat that? I didn’t until the day I decided to just put some on his plate. There really is no reason why kids can’t eat what adults eat.
I’m not going to sit here and say I only eat healthy foods and never touch junk food. Put a box of Girl Scout Thin Mints in front of me and I will eat the whole thing, in one sitting. I know my weaknesses. My only defense is to keep these things out of the house. If they’re not available, I don’t eat them. This is the same strategy I use with my child. He never asks for sweets and junk food on a daily basis because these things are never in the house. I don’t offer them to him and don’t use sweets as rewards for good behaviour (he’s happier with robots anyway). And when we want a treat in the house, we make something like banana cake or cookies from scratch so I know what’s in them. This doesn’t mean he’s never allowed junk foods like crisps and sweets. It just means I don’t encourage them on a daily basis. I leave the junk for days like when we’re out at Legoland or birthday parties.
As I started down this path of revolutionising what we ate, I actually sat down and wrote a list of what I was trying to accomplish. My key goals were to:
Planning and Organisation.
On another tip from Laura, I found Kacie of A Collection of Passions and her menu planning series. This is where everything I’d been reading about making good food choices finally came together in a practical, actionable form. Her tips on how to get organised and make a monthly meal plan have been like gold. Instead of getting stressed every week because I don’t know what we’re going to eat, I set aside time one day each month to make a plan for the next month. Yes, it takes a chunk of time to do this. But overall, it takes me less time and, more importantly, less stress than having to worry about it weekly. My Monthly Menu Plan for May shows you how I plan this out. I do it once each month and it’s done.
This process also means that I prepare my grocery list for a month at a time. I’ve created my version of a shopping list that works for me and how I shop. I fill this out each month with the food I need to buy each week and, as I’ve already got a list, it’s easy to add things as we run out. I do one bulk purchase each month for all the non-perishable pantry items, then buy the perishables once a week. This system isn’t perfect, I’m finding that meals sometimes have to get shifted around when things come up like unplanned days out with friends. And I also know that I need to make more of an effort planning variety in breakfast, it’s hard to break the cereal habit. But that’s OK though as these first few months are all about experimenting, about trying new things, and about getting more comfortable in the kitchen.
One thing I did at the start of this was invest in a few new cookbooks. Besides the fact that my current collection was uninspiring, the process of converting the recipes from my US cookbooks into metric equivalents was just adding another layer of complexity that I didn’t need in my cooking. And it was destroying my soul.
I’ll save cookbook reviews for another post but I will say that Jamie Oliver’s Ministry of Food is the first cookbook I’ve had that really made cooking accessible and from which I regularly cook. His simple recipes have given me the confidence to try new things. Chicken tikka masala? Never even heard of it a few years ago, much less cook it. Now it’s a staple thanks to Jamie.
Sharing.
It’s important to me that I get my son involved in this process when he’s willing to take time out from his robots. When we shop, I get him to help pick out items from the grocery store, especially the produce. And he helps with small tasks during the cooking. Yes, I can get things done faster and with less mess if he doesn’t help me, but he’s not learning if I do it all myself.
I’m also finding it helpful and inspiring to share in the food revolution with friends, fellow parents who believe as much as I do in eating healthy and helping our kids learn about good food choices. A few of us have started a small dinner group where we cook at each other’s homes once a month, sharing some of our tried and true recipes and expanding our collective cooking repertoire.
When I was pregnant, I was lucky enough to connect with a group of mums in a prenatal class. After the kids were all born, within about a month of each other, we continued to get together as a group about once a week. In those days, it was all about us. We each needed, desperately, the support network of fellow mums to help us navigate the uncharted waters of motherhood. Shoulders to cry on, understanding ears to listen to our troubles and doubts. Three and half years later, I am still grateful everyday for this wonderful group of women I now consider my good friends. We still get together regularly, and I know I’d be lost without them.
But now when we meetup, it’s no longer all about us. It’s about facilitating and watching as our children learn to forge their own relationships and friendships. In the early days, I remember how we’d have a group of eight kids, all lying around on the floor together, but oblivious and unaware of each other’s existence. Now though, I watch as they greet each other with hugs and smiles. They hold hands, run, jump, dance, sing, chat, and play games. He talks about his friends by name, about how he wants to see them and play with them. He wants kisses when they say goodbye. He tells them he’ll miss them.
I know all this means that, one day, I’ll no longer be his preferred playmate. But observing and supporting my son has he develops these friendships on his own, it’s a wonderful thing. And when his little friend tells him, “I love you. You’re so cute” it just makes my heart melt. I’m so grateful he’s making these connections with friends with whom he can share in life’s joy.
This month, I’m pleased as punch that my good and talented friend Laura has joined our little blog circle. Please follow the circle to her blog and see what connections she’s discovered.
On Sunday I ran the first 10K of my 12 month 10K challenge, the Oxford Town and Gown 10K. And, I am so pleased with how this race went. From the beginning, I declared my intentions, positioning myself at the “Sub-60 Minutes” area of the start. I ran this same race two years ago and missed this goal by a couple of minutes. But, this time, I knew I’d been much more focused in my training so really felt like this was achievable.
This race was so much different from the 7K I did at Blenheim Palace couple weeks ago. First, there were a load more people, close to 4000 runners, many that looked way more serious and fit than me. Second, it was a very flat course which my legs and lungs greatly appreciated! The Town and Gown course is a really nice run as they close off many of the main streets in Oxford so you can run through the middle of the city. And, the weather couldn’t have been more perfect, sunny, but not too warm.
I learned so much from the 7K a couple of weeks ago, namely that I needed to pace myself. In the 7K, I started out way too fast and had nothing left at the end, especially considering the hills I had to climb. For the 10K though, I figured out how to set up some intervals on my running gadget of choice, the RunMeter app, to make sure that I ran a slower pace at the start then sped up (making sure that my slowest pace was no slower than 6:00 min/km as my goal was to run in 60 min or less). And this pacing felt so much better. I knew that it was OK to run a little slower in sections and not worry about people passing me because I’d speed up later.
The biggest challenge I found was that it was a crowded race and some of the sections were quite narrow which meant very little room to try to pass people. I’d be trying to pick up the pace and run faster while trying to dodge other runners and traffic cones. Something I’ll get better at navigating as I do more of these races I’m sure.
Over the last kilometer, I definitely turned the pace up as fast as I could and cranked up my power song. I’m so pleased with the result, my chip time was 56:00 and well ahead of my 60 minute goal! Two years ago when I ran this same race I was disappointed with my chip time of 1:01:23 as I didn’t best 60 min. But I knew I hadn’t been training properly. This time though, what a difference a good training plan makes! All those strides, intervals, and circuits, really made a difference. Thank you Julia!!
(Horrible photo from the front facing iPhone camera. But hey, it’s all I had at the finish.)
So with one 10K done and dusted, what’s next in my 12 month challenge? I now have the following races lined up for the next few months:
June: Zest Alpro Challenge 10K, Henley-on-Thames
July: Women’s Running 10K, Nottingham
August: Lacock Abbey 10K, Near Chippenham
September: Prague Grand Prix 2013 10K, Prague
October: BUPA Great South Run, Portsmouth
Why don’t you join me? Sign up for a race or head over to my JustGiving page to donate to my cause, Crohn’s & Colitis UK.
A bit of a cheat this week as I didn’t take this photo, the lovely Amanda of Amanda Caroline Photography was behind the lens instead. But it was just so good, I was compelled to use it this week. It’s a beautiful reminder of a lovely Spring day spent walking around the bluebell woods at Badbury Clump.
