Time to take some steps to improve my diet

[annekh23]

I'm coming here to ask for some hints and tips on beginning the journey of improving my and my families diets.

I think we eat ok in the grand scheme of things, but still a long way from optimum and I know that I personally have some bad habits that the rest of the family don't have.

I have 3 children, 6.5, 4.5, and 5 months (exclusively breastfed) and have some health issues myself, narcolepsy, ehlers danlos syndrome, which are permenant then I've had a pretty severe episode of depression that began in the 3rd trimester of pregnancy, so right now life is pretty hard for me, even without being a mum of three!

I cut wheat out of my diet 11 months ago due to suspecting it was contributing to fatigue, it definitely seemed to help and had the unexpected effect of dramatically reducing my pain levels (long story, but it's all related to ehlers danlos syndrome). A side effect of this has been that I eat more chocolate than I used to, because so many treats contain wheat as I cut things out, the chocolate crept in and it's a habit I need to break.

But first, I think breakfast is the meal I could really improve. I'm going to be honest about how my day starts, I'm usually woken by the baby crying, but it takes me time to realise that is what the noise is, my husband usually changes her nappy and hands her to me to nurse, then he gets up with the other kids. I take medication for my narcolepsy, but it kicks in gradually and I basically rely on DH to sort the kids out in the morning, throwing my clothes on at the last minute to take DD to preschool. Somewhere in the midst of that I will grab a couple of bars, which are supposedly fairly natural, but they do contain artifical sweetners. As well as not being great, they are also fairly pricey, so it seems like a good starting point for a change.

When I was pregnant DH used to make me breakfast of rice cakes, spread with jam and sprinkled with feta cheese, but I don't want to ask him to do that for me, so I need ideas of quick and easy wheat free breakfasts. I don't really like milk and may need to give it up, we're still trying to figure out if the baby is sensitive to dairy, so non wheat cereal isn't a good option. I sometimes do oatmeal, or other hot cereal in the slow cooker, but it makes for some scrubbing the next day!

Ideally I'd include some fruit, I'm so bad at getting my 5 a day. I'm prepared to do preparation in advance to make this work, but preparing something every night might get a bit much. Any ideas?

[Magelet]

Not ideal but there are bars availible called lara bars which contain just raw nuts and fruit. Better than one with artificial sweetners or sugar.

Fast, easy ideas for breakfast:
plain yogurt (make sure it has live cultures) with honey, maple syrup, fruit, or molasses if you don't like it unsweetened. (mix it yourself, so that there isn't any crappy stuff in it, some of the fruit yogurts are pretty bad for you). You could mix up a tupperware container of it for each day of the week, once a week in the evening, even rubberband a spoon to each on, and the its as fast as grabbing a bar. (a little harder to eat on the go, but you could eat in the parking lot after you drop DD at preschool).--I remembered you said no milk, I don't know whether cultured dairy, which is easier to digest than milk would work. If not, you could get coconut milk yogurt.

Oatmeal is definitely good. If you can soak it in water with a little acid (vinegar, lemon juice or yogurt) the night before, it is much more digestible and good for you). It also cooks up much faster. Put some dried fruit in it as it cooks, that will help you get more fruits and veggies, and they taste better if they get all nice and plump as you cook it. You can batch cook a week's worth, and then reheat it, so it is very fast. If oatmeal seems boring you could alternate it with rice poridge as well (soaked brown rice (cooked or raw), coconut milk, spices, slowly cooked until its porridgy, with some dried fruit).

It sounds like eggs or bacon or something would be too much for you to make in the morning right now, but they pack an incredible nutritional punch. (and because they contain a fair bit of fat, which has a lot of nutrition per calorie and for its size, you don't have to eat a ton, which is nice for on the go breakfasts). You could boil some eggs in advance, and grab one or two when you head out. (I never liked hard boiled eggs, until I discovered 6 minute eggs. turns out, if you don't over cook them, they're good).


GL mama. you can do it!