Surviving At Home

We decided to treat ourselves to pizza on Saturday night because our daughter had a friend sleep over and hey, any excuse not to cook is good! Because we had this extra person and because we assumed that she was a bigger eater than our two kids, we ordered two pizzas instead of just one.

Needless to say, the kids were not very hungry Saturday and we had one full pizza left, which we finished for dinner on Sunday night. Our money did not go to waste but I felt like I could have eaten pizza all night long.

We all love carbs in my family and I was intrigued to find the following information written by the author of the ebook, Craving Secrets:

Eating carbs like pasta, rice, bread and sweets will raise your blood sugar levels. It also temporarily elevates the levels of certain neurotransmitters in our bodies, most notably dopamine which releases chemicals including endorphins that give us a feeling of pleasure and serotonin which produces a feeling of well being.

Many of our comfort foods are also heavy in carbs. Think about the foods you want and crave when you are feeling stressed or sad. Is it mac’n cheese, fried chicken and mashed potatoes or a bowl of spaghetti? Maybe you start craving cake, cookies or pastries.

One way or another we go back to the foods mom used to give us to make us feel better after a hard day at school or when we got hurt. Combine this with the raise in serotonin levels that tell our brains that we are happy and it’s no wonder we crave foods rich in carbohydrates when we are stressed or sad. Getting more carbohydrate information will help you understand your eating habits and take control of it.

Are Carbs Really Dangerous Or Addictive?

Yes and No. Our body needs carbohydrates as a source of energy, but not in the amounts our society as a whole has been consuming carbohydrates, especially in the form or refined products such as bleached flour, white rice and processed pasta. It is also a good idea to stay away from white table sugar as much as possible. This refined sugar has almost no nutritional value other than the “empty” calories it provides.

Eating whole grain products combined with some lean protein is a much better way to give our bodies the carbs they need while also absorbing an array of other nutrients, vitamins, minerals and micronutrients. Combining some lean protein with the carbs will also keep us feeling full and satisfied longer than eating carbs by themselves.

The high consumption of refined carbohydrates from white bread to pasta, in the western world is leading to an increase in health conditions from diabetes to obesity.

Can refined carbs be addictive? Yes – not only to we get addicted to the neurotransmitters that are released by the consumption of carbohydrate rich foods, which is a reaction very similar to the “high” of a drug addict, consuming simple carbohydrates also causes our blood sugar levels to rise quickly and then plummet back down just as fast, resulting in a craving for more food. This is a desperate (and futile) attempt of our body to keep the blood sugar in balance.

Article by:
Are cravings controlling your life? Diana Walker’s book www.CravingSecrets.com will show you why you have certain food cravings, how they affect your health and your mood, and what you can do to beat them and live a healthier life.

I think I’m going to make up my own sign, complete with cute mascot, and designate our house as “Picky Eaters R Us.” Picky doesn’t even completely describe the chaos we endure in my kitchen come 5 o’clock.

Considering the number of cookbooks I own and how many online recipes I have access to, I cannot find anything that my kids will eat, besides pancakes, pizza and junk food. I have literally run out of ideas of what to feed them.

I marvel at the food blogs (Pioneer Woman’s is awesome!) and I watch Iron Chef America dumbfounded at the number of ingredients these chefs put into their dishes. If there’s the forbidden “black stuff” on a piece of meat here, we’re in trouble.

When my oldest started eating jarred baby food, nearly 11 years ago, I was ecstatic because she loved vegetables! Green beans…no problem. Carrots…loved ‘em! She devoured almost everything we fed her and we thought we were on our way to a lifetime of healthy eating.

Obviously, you can guess her love of veggies has changed and it now takes her over 30 minutes to eat just a few pieces of chicken. Don’t threaten to put ketchup on it…she’s a naked-no-sauce kind of girl.

I was intrigued by the whole hide-pureed-food-in-other-food way of thinking but I haven’t actually tried it yet, mostly because I’m too cynical to think that my picky eaters wouldn’t be fooled.

My brother swears that kids outgrow their food pickiness, although I don’t know how he knows this since he doesn’t have kids. But he is a teacher and knows all kinds of stuff so maybe he read that somewhere.

I have money riding on the fact that my darling daughter will find a way to buck the system and ruin that train of expert thinking.

Here is the link to see the picture I posted yesterday…

This picture is of my paternal grandmother, Helen Marcia Prentiss. She was born in MA on December 14, 1908 which makes this photo 99 years old.

I have become the family photo keeper and genealogist and I have all of my grandmother’s original photo albums. To me, there is something very regal about these old black and white photos. I’m not sure my grandkids will say the same thing about our cheesy full color snapshots. 

A few Christmases ago I scanned all these photos (I know, probably a big no-no!) and I made photo discs for my brothers and my parents. I’ve had the albums for a number of years and should really ask a professional how to further preserve these actual photos. Considering their age and that they are somehow glued onto very old (and I’m sure very acidic paper) they are all in remarkable condition!

Here are a few others of my grandmother as a baby: