Saturday, January 28, 2012

All In The Family

I'm going to take a break from my "What Lies Beneath" series today. I have a few more already in mind that I need to write, but we are going to go with something a little lighter in nature today. Today I'm writing about how this surgery is going to affect not just me, but my family.

I decided early on that I won't be making separate meals for myself and my family once I get past the liquid and soft food stages. That's why I'm so glad I've found blogs like The World According to Eggface, where I can find great recipes that even my kids are excited about. But today some of the reality started to set in when I was at Wal-Mart with my 13 yr old son.



We had a mini lesson in reading nutrition labels today. It started in the dairy department. I told him to grab some 1% milk for him and his sister, and I was going to grab some fat free for myself. (I will buy separate milk just to make sure I have enough on hand for my shakes rather than finding it was all used up on cereal.) He made a nasty face at me as though I had asked him to pick out a gallon of curdled milk or something. "1%!? Why 1%?" he asked. I proceeded to show him the differences between the 2% he had grown up with and the 1%....fewer calories and fat...same vitamins. He seemed impressed and with a shrug of his shoulders he put the 2% back and the 1% into the cart.

On the cereal isle I thought I'd have some problems getting him to choose a healthier cereal. We are talking about a kid that loves any cereal with chocolate or marshmallows in it. I was looking at some of the Special K cereals, checking for fat, calories, fiber, protein, etc. and determined they would be a good choice. I got a berry yogurt flavored one and offered to get him the chocolate Special K....but he chose the Special K Low-fat Granola instead, because it had a "touch of honey." I was shocked, but impressed that he passed on the chocolate one.



We had several of these little moments as we went through the store. I was proud of myself. I did most of my shopping from the perimeter and only hit the isles for things like soup, bread, cereal, and canned tuna. We bough only whole grains when it came to breads and cereals. I even taught Steven to check the ingredients to make sure it says whole wheat as the first ingredient and not enriched flower. He didn't fuss nearly as much as I expected him to about the changes, and in fact seemed to really be trying to be enthusiastic about it.

Now, of all the people in my family, Steven is the only one of us that doesn't "look" like he needs to eat better. He's skinny as a rail. The rest of us can look at cake and gain weight. But I explained to him that it's not just about weight, it's about his heart and his body as a whole, and he was okay with that.

I have a feeling my daughter and husband will be the more challenging members of my family. Don't get me wrong. They both fully support me. And I don't expect either of them to fight me on any of this. But they, like myself, love food. So, I'm going to be working hard to find ways to fix healthy foods that we all like. I'm convinced it's possible! After all, this surgery isn't a quick fix. It's more of a "reset" button that will allow me to relearn how to eat properly. And my family will have to like it or go hungry! LOL

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