On the Road to Healthy Eating

I love cooking. LOVE IT. Well, for that matter, I love food. Cooking is the way that I get food, so that could be the reason why I love cooking.  I’m no Masterchef-quality home cook though. Today, I set the smoke detector off twice making eggs.  That’s right, eggs. I swear I didn’t burn anything, but I think it illustrates my cooking skills. (OR maybe it illustrates the fact that the smoke detector is out to embarrass me.)  I really wish I was a better cook. I’ve always loved playing around with recipes and seeing what I can make them into.  I like looking at my cupboard and seeing what I can make with what’s there. Sometimes they fail, but sometimes I get a winner.  I had a lot more time to experiment before my son was born.  Now, I find myself going back to the old reliable recipes.  Borrrring. Really boring. So boring that I now dread cooking. I dread making a grocery list. In fact, that’s what I should be doing now.  I decided to procrastinate and write instead. (So much for blogging helping to bring me focus...)

Part of my problem is that I want to eat healthier.  I’m also on maternity leave and am on a budget. On top of that, I’m really confused about what is healthy. I read a lot about healthy eating and find that the information often conflicts.  Real food, clean eating, paleo, low carb, gluten-free, low cal, low fat, vegan, vegetarian - there’s so much to look at.  One article has me thinking that all wheat is the enemy, and the next tells me that it’s just the modern stuff I have to worry about. Try to lower your calories, but don’t eat anything that is light, because it’s full of fat. Lower your fat intake, but don’t eat anything fat free, because it’s full of sugar. And by the way, sugar is the enemy.  You must get rid of it... well, maple syrup is okay, and agave, but nothing else.  Well, maybe honey... but DON’T even think about feeding that to your child.  See what I mean? I’m so confused. Trying to eat healthier has really added to my scatterbrained head!

So today, I started the search for a dietician.  Hubby and I are going to go and get information from an actual person who knows food. We want to know what is really good for us and our son and what’s just hype.  I want help with meal planning, so grocery shopping and cooking can become fun again.  (I used to love it!) I need easy and family friendly meals.  I really don’t want to have to cook three different meals each night. It also has to be budget-friendly, which I know is tricky.

I know there are other ways to do lose weight and get healthy, but I think this is the way to go for me.  I hope this is the way to go.  Dieticians know food, and I want to know food. I just want to be healthier than I am right now, but I really don’t know how to start.  Providing healthy food for my family is a pretty important mum skill in my mind, so I need to get this figured out now! I feel like this should be easier, but I guess that’s why there are so many of us out there who are struggling with our health!