Perhaps you’ve worked out the ‘normal’ behavior in your family is just not ok anymore, and it’s time to create a new ‘normal’”…But where to start?!
Becoming aware of food sensitivities and the possibility that your child is reacting to food additives can be a daunting realization. Most of the time, because change is hard and scary, we avoid it and search for the quick fix solution – the easy option –and we want it now! No time for the hard road…and fair enough…whilst we’re trying to bring up kids, share the peace love and mung beans throughout the planet and still get the cleaning, cooking and lawns done, any easy option that comes along is good.
The problem is, when it comes to quick easy food choices for kids, these foods often contain unsafe additives and our kids end up eating a chemical cocktail that can cause major behavioural and physical problems – and they consume this on a daily basis!
So what to do?
Opting for a change in the foods we eat to more real, fresh foods and less chemicals can seem hard, but the rewards outweigh the difficulties. To have your kids change from little werewolves to calm happy healthy loving beings is soooo worth it!
So, (say it with me) Change is good (for the parents and the kids :-).
Then why is it so hard to start?
I got to thinking about why it’s so hard to change to chemical free foods, and I’ve compiled a list of the common first 3 obstacles that stop people in their tracks right at the beginning.
Before we go further, I just want to say…
Change doesn’t have to be hard….
I firmly believe we are all on this planet to help each other, and what a great feeling it is when we do share the lovin’! As a mother, it’s always nice to hear someone else is going through the same problems and even better to get some tips on how to fix them.
So my plan is to help others make the same family food change I did… just much easier– my very own little ‘silver platter’ for you!
To start, we’re going to work our way through these 3 hard things about changing to chemical free foods and how to make these things easy… Sound like a plan?
The first 3 obstacles to changing to additive free foods:
- The Information Overload
There’s so much to know and learn about food additives, sensitivities and healthy eating habits. When you start dipping your toes in the water, the ocean can seem rather daunting and become a huge obstacle to getting started on a path to change. - Knowing How Far To Go
Does it mean going to extremes and becoming vegan raw food eating hippies? Or is there a more palatable level of change you can introduce to your family’s eating plan that’s less scary and more do-able? - Making the first move!
What do you do first?
Clean out the fridge?
Go shopping?
Where do you begin?
Since these obstacles are rather important to overcome, I’m going to devote a blog to each one. Each blog will help you work out how to overcome the obstacle – the easy way….
If you want to add anything you find particularly hard, please feel free to share – I’d love to hear from you!
For now, let’s delve into the first common reason change to additive free eating is so hard…
Information Overload 
Changing eating habits involves looking at food in a whole new way, and there’s a lot to know!
Ingredients, food additives, food labels, what’s good for you, what’s not, what they do to you etc …. Finding the information and learning about it all is quite hard and time consuming! Whilst there are some amazingly wonderful people and websites out there with lots of great information, it takes a lot of research and can be utterly overwhelming.
So how to sort through it all?
I have a background in psychology, so I took the scientific approach and dove right into some serious research!
How did I do it?
First I looked at the ‘what’….
- I read a lot – from all types of sources – about food additives, symptoms etc
- I made notes on the things I found most important and the common messages/information from different sources
- I wrote a list of the key points – usually in the form of ‘what’, ‘when’, ‘why’, and ‘where’ type headings to separate the information into understandable ‘categories’Next I looked at the ‘why’…
- I worked out why it all applies to my kids and family – why is it such a problem for us?
I went back to ‘what’ I could do about it…. - I read and researched some more about how to solve the problem of sensitivities to food additives – what are the best solutions others have tried and why are they the best?Why do they work?
- I picked the ‘most useful’ or ‘most likely to work’ solutions, bearing in mind what I thought would be ‘easiest’ for us to implement and wrote down the solutions in order of what we were going to try – what foods were best to eat, where to get them, what we would eliminate, etc.Then I uncovered the most important bit…the ‘how’
- I looked at strategies and methods to sort out how I would put these changes into place – How would I get the kids to change what they eat? How would I stop them wanting foods with additives? How would I change their tastes? How would I deal with unwanted behaviours and issues that arose from the food additives and the change?And finally…
- I actually started to make the change using the knowledge I had (the ‘what’) and the strategies I’d put in place (the ‘how’)
- I made note of what worked, what didn’t, why it didn’t, how it effected us, etc to fine tune any problems
- I adjusted and kept going, or discarded and tried something new (and so began the process all over again!)
Since going through this process, I’ve discovered it’s what a lot of people need help with. Sometimes the ‘what’ is so damned daunting and hard and unless you’re a freak like me and love researching and knowing everything and everything, it all gets put into the too hard basket.
By starting with the ‘how’, it makes the ‘what and the ‘why’ much easier to grasp – it’s almost like it’s learned by osmosis along the journey, as long as you’re given direction on how to achieve something.
So I’ve believe there are two ways to deal with this information overload…..
- Learn how to research food
sensitivities and dive right in, or if research is just too far out of your interest zone, or you lack the time to look thoroughly, - Head to The Food Werewolf Knowledge Centre. I’ve taken the hard work out of the research process and added the most important, and credible information about living an additive-free lifestyle right here.
I’m always adding new tips and advice to the blog here – sign up to the email newsletterto make sure you never miss out on a post and have it delivered straight to your inbox.
Keep a check on facebook for my next blog to overcome the next obstacle – working out how far to go with your family’s change to additive free eating.
Happy researching!
Loren x
The Food Werewolf
