day 148 - daddio weighs in

i've been bumped. chris is in the hizouse.  

but i do have a song to play as you read ...of course:)

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I feel obligated to speak up for all those dads/husbands out there who are wondering where all their delicious Oreo’s and Coca Cola's have gone to now that their wives have jumped on board of this whole healthy eating thing.  

Let me tell you the story of how I went from eating like an unsupervised 12 yr old at a food court to a now healthier and happier father of three.

About 4 months ago my lovely wife began talking about changing the way we eat as a family.  You know, same old story "you eat like crap, stop eating all the ice cream, Cheetos, Coke, etc etc".   Now I took this to mean she was going to adjust some of the food that the kids were eating and not have any impact on my wonderful eating habits. 

However, to my surprise (seriously, this was shocking), when I returned home from a long day at the salt mines, I found a dozen bags of groceries laying on the floor of the kitchen. I figured Lindsey had just gone shopping and hadn’t had a chance to put it all away yet.  Well, that was not the case at all.  She had gone through our fridge and pantry and removed all the good stuff which apparently are also all the unhealthy, fattening,  and worst of the worst food.

Along the timeline of events this is about the time that I completely lost my sh*t.

What did she mean she was going to throw away hundreds and hundreds of dollars of perfectly good and many un opened items????  From here we had a “heated discussion” about throwing away all this food, what was her plan, and of course how was I suppose to survive without my bowls of Peanut M&M’s.  Seriously,  almost my entire food intake used to be fast food/pizza/coke/snack foods/ice cream/ on and on.

Now, much like every other father I would do anything for my kids, so I agreed to the plan of cutting out artificial flavors/colors and eventually gluten.  This is VERY important fellas.  If you don’t get on board there is NO way this is going to work.  If you keep a stash of goodies hidden with the plans to have a little safety net that the kids won’t find…you are absolutely wrong.  Just like trying to hide presents before xmas or a birthday, the kids will always sniff them out. 

So I jumped in with both feet and supported my wife and her plans to cut out the evil foods. 

As a guy that only ate vegetables when it came time for corn on the cob a few times in the summer, this food switcheroo was a BIG step.

The most difficult part wasn’t telling the kids they had to eat what was being served, but rather that “I” had to eat everything to be the good role model at the dinner table.  This will be your own flashback to when your own parents forced you to finish all the food on your plate and you powered down that broccoli just to get done and go play. Well, this is coming full circle because now because you have to do it again and eat it without making any sour faces or the kids will pick up on it and see that if dad thinks the food sucks than they shouldn’t have to eat it either.

I’ve made a few comments about the “new” foods not being as tasty as the “old” foods use to be.  However, I’m very luck that my wife enjoys to cook and has somehow learned how to make some wonderful tasting meals with completely different ingredients. For example, she use to make this out of this world lasagna with a ton of meat, cheeses, and what seemed to be a little touch of magic dust (yes, it’s that good).   She made lasagna a few weeks ago but with the ingredients completely different from before (squash, gluten free) and it was pretty darn close to her original.  I’m not saying you will like all the food, but I will say that once your wife gets in her cooking groove and finds the right recipes you’ll survive.

A key reason for this food transformation was to eat healthier foods. I don’t mean healthier in the weight loss sense, but rather to eat foods that are better for us to put in our bodies. This was brought on by my wife searching for ways to help our children with their progress in school and a remedy for some physical traits (itchy feet, rashes, facial tics).

After a little over 4 months, we have seen amazing changes with kids where they sit still in school, pay closer attention, and have shown more patience in learning a new lesson.  All of which have led to better marks from their teachers.  Our oldest used to have some “tics” where he would blink or rolls his eyes...  These have all but disappeared.

Now if you are skeptical (as I was) about how simply changing foods will magically make your kids smarter, I completely understand.  BUT how about this for another reason to get on board with eating healthier foods: YOU will lose weight and feel better!  As I mentioned before, I ate like a college freshman with a 40 year old metabolism who sits at a desk all day.  By embracing this new food game plan it will support her on this journey, improve the overall health of your kids AND it will aid you in shedding some of those pounds that we super dads all struggle to keep off.  Honestly, think about it.  By removing all the devil foods (yes, I still dream about bags of Cheetos) from the pantry you simply aren’t able to eat them.  I’m not doing the grocery shopping so if my wife isn’t buying all that crap, there isn’t a way for it to get in the house where I of course will eat it all.

So much like most things, your wife nags you about (yeah honey I said it)... just roll with it, and you’ll be better off for it.

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you and me together baby.  

so happy you're in the mullies with me loverboy...to the end of the world.

you, me and the kiddos.

let's fly.

ps

now go back up and watch the video...it's pretty darn sweet and all tingly-fied.  

i just knew it would find a home in a mullies post:) 

we're loving watching the seats fill in.

we saved one for you...

so go grab a cow bell already... we need more COW BELL!!!!