Lunch is served...no diet food here! For myself, the half-cup of hummus and plate of veggies.  For my two littles, half sandwich of all natural PB with honey, garbanzo beans, hummus or ranch to dip, and veggies.  I usually put an olive on their veggie tray but we are out today.  They ate each and every bite on thier plates (as did I). Good food is good for you!

One element of this blog I originally intended on implementing is pictures of the foods I eat.  I had to create some space on my phone, so I am just getting around to doing it.  Here is a picture of lunch today.  I wanted to do this so people can see that it looks delicious and it is!  Also, you can see that I am clearly not starving myself or doing without.  When a person makes good choices of substance, 800-1000 calories can go pretty far for a day.
 Probably the biggest reason why I am so inspired to reach and maintain a healthy BMI is because of my children.  We have the genetics that are associated with all kinds of health conditions if we do not mind our dietary health.  So I can picture my children's lives going one of two directions when I feed them.  Either I can set them up for a lifestyle that gives them good health and happiness, or I can doom them to a lifetime of struggle, poor health, and likely low self-esteem.  When I put it like that, the choice is clear to me.  Choose health!  Do it for yourself and your family!  I need to love and value my body enough to take care of it as I should and my greatest hope is that my children will follow suit!
This all became very clear to me in the winter of 2013.  My then three year old had a well-child check-up and the doctor came in concerned about my child's weight.  My three year old weighed over 50 pounds and was not even on the charts for the percentages.  I was shocked...disappointed...and embarrassed.  I did not believe I was doing anything wrong for my child at the time.  I never gave them fast food or junk food, practiced some good guidelines...but one unmistakable thing I could identify even back then was my child's love for food matched my own.  It occurred to me that a child that loves food that much would likely eat more vegetables than is being asked of them.  
We made some changes, but the real results came when we switched to a vegan diet.  My child's Doctor agrees that diet made the ultimate change in my child's BMI (which is completely normal now). Although the BMI scare was more than two years ago my child still weighs under 50 pounds!
I believe it is none of our faults. This is just one example of the unfairness of life.  Some people can eat whatever they want and have a healthy BMI or some people do not have to try as hard.  But me?  Not so much!  I am pretty sure my husband's genetics is very similar.  For our children, that equals a perfect storm of bad health if they are not taught and practice a healthy dietary lifestyle.
So that is why I am doing what I do.  That is why my children get lunches like the one pictured above and love them.  I do not want them to see foods like this as un-normal meal selections or "diet foods".  The are clearly not.  It is a privilage to have such a great variety of fresh produce!  They are the foods that love us right back.
Oh...I almost forgot...we all get water to drink everyday at lunch and breakfast.  I almost never provide anything other than water for my children.  I tell them water is the source of life- it is essential that we drink it! I do allow them to have one glass of milk at dinner.  They always drink that down in a second and guess what refills their glass- yup- water.