The Day I (Tried) to Eat Like my Kids

A few years ago, I remember reading an article in a parenting magazine about a mom who tried to eat what her kids ate (for a day? a week? I honestly can't remember.) For the duration of this experiment, her diet consisted of things like macaroni and cheese, chicken nuggets, and goldfish crackers.

Strangely enough, she basically concluded that this was a horrible diet- for her --- with little (if any?) mention of the fact, that maybe it wasn't so great for her kids either.

At the time, I remember thinking that if I ate like my kids, I'd be much better off. 

Here's why: I feed my kids better than I feed myself. Yep. I'm pretty much a hypocrite. I was even worse when I first read the article. I've gotten much better thank to having gestational diabetes during most of my 4th pregnancy, and also due to the fact that I cut out wheat about 8 months ago.

But still, I will insist that my kids snack on carrots and apples while secretly inhaling a handful of chocolate chips.

I feed my kids a high protein, low sugar breakfast, while enjoying my own breakfast of champions: coffee.

I don't really eat a lot of "junk food," because I don't have it in the house… but I don't regularly eat all of the good foods that I insist that my kids eat either.

While some days, I do pretty well, other days I simply graze until dinner time.

Since I'm all about experiments lately, I decided to do another: I would to try to eat like my kids all day long.

Breakfast

I've always had a hard time eating first thing in the morning.

However, since my kids eat as soon as they wake up- on this day, I did too. I had a slight advantage because my kids had a snow day which meant that breakfast started at a little later than usual.

First up- a smoothie (banana, frozen organic strawberries and blueberries-from Aldi, almond milk, and chia.) I have always insisted that I just couldn't handle all that sweetness in the morning. Not only did I drink it, no problem, but I really enjoyed it!

Next, my kids had their standard "egg-toast" with guacamole. Since I don't eat bread, I had two eggs, guac, and some blackberries.

However, my resident smoothie-faced theif ate most of my berries…

Snack

On days that he doesn't go to preschool, my 4 year old asks for food all morning. For the past few days, I've reminded him that at school, he doesn't eat until snack-time and is therefore not starving… so, I've done this- and it works... mostly.

Here's how he entertained himself while he waited for snack-time:

When it was finally snack-time, the kids ate crackers (wheat thins) and hummus

And the (almost) 2 year old and I ate veggie chips and hummus because we don't eat wheat…

Also, since the kids have been begging for chocolate, I bought some chocolate almond milk, which I heated up and then topped with whipped up coconut milk and 2 mini marshmallows.

Lunch

For lunch, the kids had apples with cashew butter (the 4 year old wanted apple "donuts" with cashew butter and raisins inside) and turkey and guacamole or ham and mustard sandwiches.

Again, since the baby and I don't eat wheat, I made guacamole and ham quesadillas on corn tortillas. I actually sat down and ate with the kids!

Before nap/ rest time, a few of the kids finished their sandwiches from earlier, so I joined in and finished my son's quesadilla.

Sneaky Snack…

Naptime was a struggle. Normally, this is when I eat. Until nap time, it's go-go-go, and I often forget to eat. I then suddenly realize that I'm starving.

On this day, even though I had been eating all morning, I still wanted to eat.

I gave in and grabbed a bowl of nuts and raisins. I figured that, if the kids had asked, I probably would have allowed them to have some as well. However, since they were all banished to their rooms to give mommy one hour of peace, they couldn't ask ;)

While cleaning the kitchen, I found my hubby's lunchbox with some almonds left in it. I couldn't let them go to waste…

Snack

After rest time, we all sat down to some carrots and hummus. I didn't really want to eat the carrots, nor did the four year old,  but we ate them anyways, because that was the only thing I was serving ;)

We got an awesome surprise gift of a dehydrator for Christmas!! We used it for the first time today because it takes me forever to try to new things. (Which was stupid because it was so easy!)

After our carrots, our fruit leather (which I made way too thin) and our dried pineapple were done, so we ate all of the fruit leather and three and a half trays of dried pineapple.

Dinner

My daughter and I were supposed to go to a knitting class at 6:00, and dinner wasn't ready yet, so we both downed some salad with turkey before we left. I was in a such a hurry, I forgot to take a picture until I was done…

However, the class was, to the huge disappointment of my daughter, cancelled- so we joined everyone else for chicken legs cooked with bacon, sweet potatoes and broccoli.

Don't let the tiny plate fool you. The large dishes were still in the dishwasher because the (almost) 2 year old restarted it about 5 times today, so we had to use the little ones. I did only have one chicken leg (not my favorite part of the chicken) but I ate at least 3 times the amount of veggies shown.

Takeaways:

1) We would not survive around here without apples, guacamole and hummus.

2) I can eat and enjoy breakfast. I just need to make an effort to do so.

3) I like smoothies… even first thing in the morning.

4) This experiment made me think about food all day, which made me think that I was hungry all day. It was really hard not to just grab something whenever I wanted to.

5) When I ate like my kids, I drank more water! I usually don't realize that I'm thirsty until evening.

6) I need to sit down and eat with my kids more often (not just at dinner)

7) I didn't want to eat carrots--- but I ate them anyways because I didn't have a choice.

8) When my kids say they are "starving," they may be hungry, or they may be bored. I'm still not sure if I was really as hungry as I thought I was yesterday, or if I just wanted food all day because I knew I couldn't have it.

8) It would be good for me to eat like my kids more often…

Do you eat like your kids?

If you did, would it be a good thing or a bad thing??

This post is linked up to What I Ate Wednesday and since I ended up with so many pictures, I'm joining Jessica in (not quite) "Wordless" Wednesday.