July Challenge – I Doth Protest Too Much
Yesterday, as a part of my July challenge getting my eating under control, I tweeted “Water, not sugar. Water, not sugar. Water, not sugar.” It’s dumb, but I need to remind myself of that occasionally. And by occasionally I mean constantly.
Anyway, Tamar and I ended up having a bit of a discussion about why I even have anything with sugar at home. She said that she has no sugar at home (including plain sugar, though she admits to having honey), and I thought that it was okay for the kids to have some sweets at home once in a while.
At a certain point, though, I realized I was protesting a little too much. I was, perhaps, defending my beloved sugar more than I should. Yes, they’re nominally the kids’ snacks…but lately they’ve really become my snacks. I’m good at enforcing moderation for the kids, but terrible at enforcing it for me.
While I think having no sugar in the house is too extreme for us, we can definitely do better. As Tamar pointed out, “taking that stuff out of the house is…setting a great example for your kids.”
Right now the junk is tucked everywhere around the kitchen and pantry, and I feel like a drug addict who has drugs stashed all over the place. I want to see exactly what we have, so this weekend I’m going to round up all the sweets and move them to a single location in our downstairs pantry. I want to keep some available for the kids to eat sometimes, but I need to be honest that they’re for the kids, not for me. And with just the kids eating them, we won’t need to have so many around.
I like that the kids are learning moderation. Even though she has sugary snacks at home sometimes, my daughter doesn’t buy chocolate milk or cookies at school because she knows they’re not healthy. I could stand to learn it from her, and this will be a good start.
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How about you guys? Do you have sweets in the house? Are you tempted (as in, out of control with them) like I am? How can you do better?
Bill, I forgot to tell you that I also have raisins. So when I am craving something sweet, I will have a handful (or two!) of raisins.:) My main point was that if there is food that you don’t want yourself to eat, then why is it okay for your kids to eat it? And when you say you are going to “round up all the sweets”, it makes it sound like you have quite a bit of items in that category.
I don’t know exactly what type of foods you are referring to when you say “sweets”, that can be anything from a cookie to brownies to chocolate to lollipops and so on. All of those things are nutritionally void, and have no benefit to you and your family. Why not just have a box of Trader Joe’s or WF lollipops and that can be the “treat”? One treat a day. It’s better than a box of cookies or a container of brownies. Less calories too. We have made some big changes in our kitchen in the past six months, but it did not happen overnight. But any change you that make towards healthier, more natural, whole, nutritionally abundant foods will be a great thing for all members for your family, not just you. 
I don’t have a problem with having sugary foods for me or my kids – anything is fine in moderation. My point was that I was arguing a bit too hard about how it’s okay, and I realized that I’ve been fooling myself about who they were for. And that I was actually moderating them for myself.
Also, as for “why not just have a box of lollipops,” I don’t see any difference between that and splitting a 100 calorie pack of cookies between the kids. Except the lollipop ruins their shirts when they’re horsing around with them. LOL
One more thing Bill. You have a Droid, correct? Do you already have the Fooducate app? It’s free, and a great tool for “scoring” grocery store items. Check it out.
I do have a droid, and maybe I’ll check that out. But after years of Weight Watchers (including being a leader) I know what’s healthy. It’s getting myself to follow my own rules that’s the issue. *sigh*
It’s free and if you like it, great. If you don’t, delete it. Everyone I know that has tried it has enjoyed it. You scan the barcode for an item, and gives it a letter grade and explains why it has that grade. I’d be interested to know what grade those 100 calorie packs of cookies has…
Bill, I have also struggled lately with the snacks during my daughters nap time. I’m really good when she’s with me and the only snacks in the house are all natural. BUT, they are still cookies and fruit snacks. Recently, I gave up diet soda and anything with artificail sweeteners. That wiped out a LOT of what I was relying on as someone still a Weight Watcher. We usually have fruit as a snack but sometimes the Annies Bunny snacks win out. If I could just NOT snack on them after my little one is done for a nap we’d be golden!
Jennifer, I know what you mean about the Annie’s products. We used to go through boxes of cheddar bunnies, wheat bunnies, fruit snacks every week. We all enjoyed Annie’s products! Several months ago I stopped buying all of that stuff, because (like you said), it’s still a cookie. It’s still a cracker. It’s still a fruit snack. Annie’s does a great job of making healthy, natural, great tasting… junk food. That’s what it is after all. I feel like those products are just getting our kids addicted to sugar and salt at a young age. I still get plain cheerios, and a few of the Kashi cereals for the kids but no more Annie’s items. I used to get those chocolate bunnies…now those were dangerous!
Again, moderation can mean different things to different people.
Regarding the lollipops vs. a 100 calorie pack of cookies. How many ingredients are in those cookies? And how many are in a “natural” lollipop? I try my best to stay away from processed foods. My real suggestion for a treat for your kids (or anyone in the family) would be an apple (or to bring it up again, a green smoothie with cocoa powder), the lollipop was just a suggestion so you could have one item instead of a group of several items in the broad “sweets” category.
Ok, I’m a bit on the opposite side of the spectrum on this topic. For years, I was a compulsive eater meaning I would forbid myself all the “bad” foods until I fell off the wagon and binged. Then I repented. Wash, rinse, repeat. Only after I dropped the entire struggle and figured out what was going on, it got so much better for me. The key (for me) is to eat, whatever I want, when I’m hungry. I know this sounds crazy, but it’s kept me within 15 pounds, without dieting, restricting, beating myself up, for the past 20 years. The key is “when I’m hungry” b/c SO much time that I was shoveling food in our mouths, it’s b/c I was tired, or stressed, or bored or angry, etc. etc. (this doesn’t mean I don’t have body issues or sometimes “feel fat” –but that’s another story)
Now, we’re pretty healthy eaters overall. I cook almost every night. The kids are allowed fruit “dessert” after dinner on weeknights, ice cream on weekends. I throw away cookies, cakes, candy all the time for going stale or old because, once I realized I could eat it any time I really wanted it, it stopped being an issue to polish something off because “after this, I’ll be good”. I realized there are TONS of sugary stuff I just don’t like and a banana will fill me up even better. And I drink a ton of water b/c I really love it.
Sometimes it means I need to sit quietly with myself and ask, “am I really hungry or is it something else that makes me want to eat this cookie?”
I’m not saying this is how everyone should live, but I do want my kids to realize there are all kinds of foods and they can make good choices for their bodies without restricting everything. Since I cook most of their meals, I can make sure they are getting lots of different (good) foods.
To sum, you’d have to wrestle the sugar from me, and I bite. Life is too short to live without chocolate.
For me, I can’t have it in the house. If there’s a bag of chips or a gallon of ice cream, I’m going to eat it. I don’t want to raise my kids the way we were (no sugar or artificial stuff in the house as it made my ADHD brother CRAZY) because it made me over eat it when it was around, binge if you will. So I try and find choices that my kids and I can both enjoy, in moderation and when the time is right. My 2 1/2 yo doesn’t need all the sugar and processed food but I don’t want to deprive her of it either.