Food.

Michelle asked about food and the boys. I was totally positive that I had written about how we eat now, and how we ate when they moved in, but, in retrospect, I think I’m remembering talking about it with some of my classmates recently. I couldn’t find anything in my blog archives, so if this is a repeat, please skip this post and move along in your RSS feeds! :)

A few years before we adopted, Coffee and I both made a concerted effort to clean up our eating habits. It’s not that we don’t like crappy, unhealthy foods – it’s just that there were SO many benefits to eating healthier stuff. The benefits ranged from the ol “feeling and looking better” to “it’s actually cheaper” to everything in between. I lost a lovely chunk of weight and I can definitely say that my taste buds shifted significantly toward healthier foods. I’ve always loved to cook, too, so it was a nice bonus to spend more time in the kitchen whenever possible.

When the boys moved in, I naively assumed we’d just keep eating that way. Spicy foods! Healthy! Occasional indulgences of unhealthy foods! Fiber!

Oh, man, I was WRONG.

When the boys moved into our house, I had forgotten that our meals were healthier. I had forgotten that we didn’t eat the way the majority of other families do. We weren’t vegans, or even vegetarians, or any sort of specialty-food people (like, say a specific diet for hypertension or diabetes or anything else requiring attention to balance) but we ate really well.

And so, the boys moved in and were shocked. I was shocked too.

There were meals where kid(s) refused to eat.

There were meals where kid(s) cried – flat out cried.

There were meals where kid(s) glared at me.

And it didn’t get any better.

The boys wanted pre-packaged foods: pizza pops and pogos and microwaveable foods and macaroni and cheese.. they couldn’t recognize certain vegetables – literally had no idea what they were or why they sat on the dinner plate AT ALL. They offered to “just eat cereal” in place of most of the meals I made.

They refused to try anything new. They scowled. They called everything “too spicy” (which we later learned meant “too much flavour” and wasn’t referring to heat). They wouldn’t eat vegetable soup or pasta sauce with any visible colour beyond red (because it might contain a vegetable!).

I cried. I ranted to Coffee (and my friends on WNET and elsewhere). I looked into all of those “sneak vegetables into your kids’ diet” books.

Meals sucked.

So we stopped eating healthy. We bought greasy fish sticks and we melted cheese into pasta. We ate meat burgers instead of veggie/lentil burgers. We ate hotdogs. We bought Kraft Dinner.

I gained a lot of weight from the combination of stress and greasy food. I hated meals. I felt my toes curl at the idea that the little people at the table were eating so poorly.

But the boys needed to adjust to so many other things – new home, new routines, new parents, new school, new clothes, new bedrooms, new toys. And the hour-long cry-fest every day was one thing that we, the adults, could put aside for a while.

But it pained me. Oh god, it pained me.

After a few months we started shifting – reaaaaaaaaaally slowly – to healthier food. From white pasta to whole wheat. From plain red sauce to sauce-with-added-fiber. From greasy fish sticks to breaded. It took at least six months to get to the little shifts.

The kids barely noticed. We said things like, “Oh, this kind was on SALE so we figured it wouldn’t hurt to try it, right?” and they scarfed down the food.

As they made progress (in the sense of not making gagging noises, crying or freaking out) we started to add in new foods. Veggies. Stir fries with real vegetables. Still light on the seasonings and with lots of sugary sauce whenever possible.

In the past few months I’ve really noticed how far they’ve come, however. We regularly eat curries and hummus and stir fries and fish – not fish sticks, but fillets – and roasted root veggies (like beets! carrots! onions! garlic cloves!) and our pasta always has added veggies. No one complains anymore. We serve up lentils and spinach and I cannot recall the last time we ate hot dogs (though Maymo picked out pogos for his birthday meal).

They no longer ask for “Lunchables” for school and, instead, take sandwiches and dried apricots and yogurts and apple sauce. And yes, cookies or pudding cups, too (we’re not THAT mean!)

We eat pizza – either frozen or take-out – once per week. The kids pick one meal per week (and it’s almost always healthy – usually fish fillets and veggies). The rest are healthy and full of veggies and fiber and goodness.

Maymo recently pondered what “white bread tastes like” and asked if he could “try it sometime”.

Middle One has remarked a few times on how much he likes broccoli and stir fry. Last night he uttered the words, “I LOVE hummus, Mom!” when I plunked the container down on the table (coincidentally, I love making hummus!)

Oldest One eats cottage cheese for his after-school snack. Drinks milk more often than pop. Asks for fish regularly and has, on occasion, commented on how healthy our family eats when compared to his friends’ families or his classmates’.

It’s stunning.

It took FOREVER.. but now that I can watch Maymo scoop up a big serving of lentil Daal without a complaint? Worth it. TOTALLY worth it. Baby steps away from the crappy food and tiny – so small it can’t be noticed – steps toward the good. Watching him pop cloves of roasted garlic into his mouth? Cram it full of dates? YES!

(Michelle, or anyone else, feel free to ask questions if I didn’t cover everything you wanted to know or were curious about!)