If you're making the transition to whole foods, I'm sure there is some food you have been unable to find a satisfactory replacement for. I'm here today to tell you that that's okay. Go buy one thing you really miss. Seriously! It isn't going to hurt you or your family too badly to have an occasional junky, processed food.
It's tough to convince kids (and sometimes husbands) that the whole food lifestyle is really worth it. Sometimes stress may drive you to madness in the absence of your favorite chocolates. I get it. I really, really do (I'll be honest and tell you that my favorite Russell Stover's S'more Big Bite is sitting in my lap as I write this). I propose that by giving just a little, you can make eating whole foods less stressful for you and help your family feel like they aren't giving up so much.
I accomplish this by allowing each member of my family to 'pick their poison' on our bi-weekly trip to the grocery store. They are given no guidelines as to what to pick. It doesn't have to be an organic whole food. It doesn't even have to have any nutritional value at all. They get to choose one thing they've really, really missed and we buy it (but only a small amount). My poisons have been everything from less-than-whole-food chocolate to that zippy mayonnaise-like substance. My husband typically picks white bread (though the white bread I buy him nearly meets our normal guidelines), some of my kids' favorite cheats are store-bought macaroni and cheese, toaster pastries, and juice boxes that contain little to no real juice.
These foods were not part of my original plan. They certainly don't fit in with the healthier diet that I want to be feeding my family. That's okay, though. We, as in..well..everyone, aren't perfect. That's okay. Embrace it. Be practical. Take a deep breath and let it go.
Eating whole foods can be a lot of work. It can be a very big adjustment. It doesn't have to be miserable, exhausting, or boring, though. If you're working to come up with clever ideas to feed your family food that they love that is actually good for them, you deserve a whole heap of credit. Credit yourself by letting your family eat cake. Cake with white sugar in it. White sugar and white flour if you're really a wild one.
Tell me, what's your poison??
