Hello All:) New Here And Need Some Advice & Support!:)

CountryMom03

First off, let me introduce myself a bit:) Im a 35 yr old SAHM to 3 wonderful kids and a very loving and supportive husband:) I have a 13 yr old daughter, a 11 yr old son and another 9 yr old son:) My youngest son was just recently "officially" diagnosed with ADHD combined type. Its something that I knew for awhile but never had the official diagnosis. Since then, I went on a search...I knew I had to help my son some how, but also knew there was no way I was letting them put him on meds. We have decided to go the natural route. That being said...about 8 mnths ago I dug into the internet hard core looking for ideas and such. I found this one group called Feingold. It is a HUGE group of people who have had success at eliminating their childs symptoms by simply eliminating all processed foods, artificial colors, dyes, flavors and also preservatives. I did this and saw amazing results from not just my youngest but my others too! But it didnt completely fix the problems although its helped drastically. Anyways lol...through doing this, it got me digging deeper into food, nutrition etc etc and I was just floored at everything I found. I read a book called "Traditional Foods Are Your Best Medicine" and it just made SO much sense. The more and more I read ingredient labels and read what all are in them, the more and more I have started to despise the food industry and the FDA and all those involved who have their pockets filled by these huge food companies. And dont EVEN get me started on GMO's lol. So..with all this knowledge we have been eating pretty much a non-processed diet for 8 mnths now. There is still stuff I will buy that is processed but it cannot include any of the above ingredients in it or else I wont buy it, it has to be a TRULY all natural product for me to buy it. I also buy organic when I can...some things are such a bit more expensive and I will go ahead and get the organic on those items because I feel safer with them than non-organic. But some things are just WAY too much more expensive for our budget or they just dont carry any in organic so I have to get what they have there. So now we have been doing this for about 8 mnths now. My husband is totally on board and supportive although we had a bit of a conversation over the louisianna hot sauce he loves so much LOL and my boys are totally on board with it and actually enjoy eating healthy things. Then....there is my 13 yr old lovely daughter;)....*sigh* She never was on board and still isnt for the most part and makes her views on it vocal quit often LOL. She loves the new meals I make now and all that but she just cannot get over some of the changes that we made and def doesnt like not being able to eat junk food and junk snacks. I call those toxic snacks and toxic food LOL. I have heard that going non dairy had been successful for ADHD kids and wondered about it but thought better of it and just let it go...if we make a change for my son it will be our whole family because I am not one to say we all can have this, but you cant, etc. And Breads, Pastas, Meats and Dairy are HUGE in my family. I mean seriously, we eat tons of it and love every bit of it lol. So I just didnt think that we could pull that one off, although I was willing to at least give it a try.

THEN...my mother in law showed me that they were having this showing of Forks Over Knifes in our local community theatre last night and asked if me and my husband wanted to come along. I read the pamplet on it and although it didnt say too much I knew this was something that I DEF wanted to go see since it dealt with health and nutrition. So we went last night!:) Most of it was stuff I already knew but some of the research, studies and stuff just BLEW me away!! I knew eating whole foods that hadnt been processed was best and that if you ate anything other that you are putting your life at risk for all those diseases and sickness that the junk they put in food these days causes. BUT I didnt know about meats and dairy! Those two things were new to me. I just sat in aww the whole time. At some point throughout the show I had already had it in my head that we needed to change and do this. Then almost immediately Im thinking....but dairy???? cheese?? butter?? milk?? sour cream Oh my goodness lol, how am I EVER going to give those up??? And even a better question, how will I get the rest of my family on board? Personally I think I can do it. It will take time for me to adjust but I do like greens, salads, onions, tomatoes, etc so I think I will make it especially with all the gained health benefits from it. I very cautiously brought it up to my husband last night afterwards and asked him what he thought about it...and he felt like I did, was nervous and afraid but knew the benefits and is willing to give it a try. The problem with this though is that my husband likes VERY little lol. He despises onions, tomatoes, cucumbers, He hates any kind of berry...sigh...how would I be able to find stuff and meals without using something that he doesnt like? I just dont see it working! lol. Then there is the kids...my two sons me and my husband both agreed that we could bring them over to accept it pretty easily with talking and explaining. My daughter???? ehhh not so much LOL. As my husband said last night...she would move out! And believe me if she could she would. This would totally send her over the edge I believe. I made her give up all the other stuff and she was just trying to come to terms with that and now I may be taking even more away?? geez lol.

Im so sorry this is so long!! I just felt I needed to introduce myself and let you know our story so that maybe you could see where we are and maybe offer some advice and support? I think if and when we do this, it might be best if I do it gradually instead of all at once hard core. I think of all the benefits this could give me and my husband not to mention my kids and it just seems like the right thing to do! But very very scared and nervous and lost at the same time. I honestly know nothing about whole foods plant based diets as far as whats allowed and used and whats not, etc etc

Oh...and btw I am also trying to loose 60 pounds on here! hense me being on MFP LOL;) Thanks for listening!

heathermora11

i am sure many of us are thinking about not just our diets, but our family's too. we don't want our spouses to die young or our kids to develop bad eating patterns. so it makes sense that we would want our families to be "on board"

that said, if your husband REALLY wants to eat meat and hates tomatoes I think it is important that you respect him and his choice and do what you can to be supportive of his needs. so maybe that means making him some lean chicken while you eat a salad. if he sees you lose weight, have more energy and be in a better mood, maybe it will make him a believer.

as far as kids go, i think we just give them the best options we can. if they are willing to eat fruits and veggies, awesome but if they still want a quesadilla every so often, its okay! i do think it is within your right/responsibility as a mom to not provide lots of unhealthy, processed snacks in your home, so maybe you can start there (sounds like you already have!) and choose to not buy cheetos, fruit by the foot, etc.

i think if you have a fridge stocked with cut up fruits and veggies, easy to eat hummus, whole grains, etc. and there isn't a lot of junk that is at their finger tips, your family will start to see that healthy eating is a good thing for everyone!

good luck!
- heather (newbie vegan who is VERY thankful for her supportive husband!)

Dawnhasajeep

And dont EVEN get me started on GMO's lol.

Its as if these words were taken right out of my mouth.

After watching FOK and then showing it to my meat loving husband we both went to a mostly plant base diet. Since October we have had meat a few times. But love our new plant base meals and feel great. I was the same way your hubby is. I never use to eat onion, broccoli, peppers, asparagus, zucchini, squash and a few other things. Now I eat all of them and acualy like them. I still do not like tomatoes thought, maybe someday. Lol I think it took some time for the pressed food to get out of my system and not I can taste the real flavor of things.

My brother was hyperactive ad a boy. My mother took him off processed foods and he would be fine. In high school he was in a few car accidents and at each accident there was a bag of M&M’s. Later in life he was in the USAF and having a hard time in Bootcmap. He took my mom’s advice and would have some M&M’s before training and he would be the first to finish. I hope the new diet will help your son.

Good Luck!

tcunbeliever

If you make the transition slow it will be easier for them to adapt...for my family everyone but me still eats meat...so we are up to about 3 nights a week that are totally meatless for everyone (we started at one and then just increased the number slowly over time)...and then 1 or 2 nights a week we have fish (I do still eat fish)...and then the rest of the nights I will cook whatever veggies/grains along with a meat for the others...we stick to pasture raised meats from local farms (trying to make it as healthy as possible), and I limit the quantity to a reasonable healthy amount (which also helps to offset the slightly higher price per pound). So if we are having pork chops, I simply only cook one chop per person...they get unlimited amounts of the healthy stuff and limited amounts of the animal products...so far it's been working pretty well...few complaints from the kids...no complaints from the husband - he actually skips the meats about half the time they are offered...a lot of things we have just transitioned to plant based alternatives...Nature's Balance instead of butter...vegan sour cream or cream cheese whenever we want those...the kids still drink milk, but for cereal and all the cooking I use almond milk - so yummy, and they never notice the difference...daiya cheeses are just awesome...I would suggest just pick one food to transition every few weeks and just let the routine slowly change...you have a lot of years still to go so it doesn't all have to happen overnight...