A new way to shop

I mentioned in my previous post how did I get here? that our most recent attempt at providing a better life for our family was a major dietary change.  We have eliminated refined sugar, refined flour, hydrogenated oils, and artificial flavors and colors and greatly limited our consumption of animal protein. Its a HUGE change! we went from eating McDonalds, Hamburger Helper, Hot Dogs, Pizza, and the list goes on, to eating Thai Curry Tofu (which the kids loved! I added mangos and greenbeans to mine).  All of these changes in eating also required a change in the way we grocery shopped, which brings me to my topic for today.

 This weekend, all six of us went shopping and it was amazing....thats right, I just said grocery shopping with 4 small children on a Saturday afternoon was amazing.  Believe me this wasn't always the case! Here is what grocery shopping used to look like for us...

Taking 4 kids to the grocery store was aweful! Thats why we almost always went to the local store that had a child care center :-) but they only take children who are over three and potty trained, so at a minimum, that meant I was shopping with two children instead of four.  Sure I was paying about 20-50% more to only shop with 2 kids instead of 4 but it was totally worth it! Even with two kids though, shopping was stressful.  Have you ever tried to steer one of these around a display in the middle of the isle?

Its like Trying to steer a tractor trailer AND the cart is smaller so I can't get as many groceries.  My trip consisted of children screaming for cheese at the lunchmeat counter, begging for cookies, gummies, cereal, popcicles, candy bars, and any other sugary item with bright colorful packaging that caught their eyes.  In the not so fun isles, the kids would start removing unwanted items from the cart.  Most notable was the day that my 3 year old dropped the dozen eggs that I had just placed in the cart all over the floor.  And the grand finale of each shopping trip was the inevitable melt down in the checkout line.  IT WASN'T PRETTY!

But this week was different.

We started our whole food approach about three weeks ago.  When I told the kids we were going grocery shopping AGAIN I was expecting a fight but they just went along for the ride knowing that if they were good they would get to play video games when we got home.  When we got to the store #1 and #2 immediately started complaining that it was taking too long so I decided I needed a different approach to shopping, I was going to have them help rather that drag them along for the ride. We hit the produce section first and I asked #1 and #2 to get some bags for produce.  On the way to the bags #2 found carrots and HAD to have them, so we did.  Every time I found something I wanted to buy I asked the kids to get them.  We even talked about how to tell if the watermelon is ripe and why we wanted to buy some fruits like strawberries at the specialty store (because they are organic and strawberries are on the dirty dozen list) and others things like bananas and mangos at the regular grocery store (these are on the clean foods list and are much less expensive).  It was so amazing to see them actually get excited about buying produce.

After produce was the fish counter.  The #2 was immediately drawn to the whole fish.  Hubby and looked at each other as if to say "are we really going to buy a whole fish?" and we decided if it meant less fights at the dinner table and the grocery store and at the dinner table we were willing to give it a try! More to come on our first attempt to cook whole fish soon. As we got in to the middle of the store where all the processed foods were, things got a little stickier. I had to explain MANY times why each cereal that the kids picked up was not a good choice, but when I took the time to show the kids that there were sugar and chemicals in the items they were requesting they were much willing to accept "no" as the answer.  We even discussed which cheeses were better for us a why.  I showed #1, who is just starting to read, how some of the cheese said that it did not have hormones or antibiotics and why that is important. He really seemed to like searching for the right labels.

And the greatest part of my trip was when we got to the bakery.  I was simply picking up a few loaves of bread when I turned around and saw all four of my children oogling the cakes cookies and danishes. They were looking and tapping on the glass and saying "Mommy look at these!" but they never asked for any of it.  As they were eying up a particularly large cheese danish, one of the bakers stopped by and this is the conversation that I overheard...

#2: That looks so yummy.
Baker: Yeah, you should get one.
#2: No, we don't need that, it has sugar.  We have Hulk muffins at home.

I was one proud mama.

It occurred to me later that with all the changes I have made to their diet, I never included them in the process.  Just that little bit of time to explain made the whole shopping experience so much more enjoyable.  Our shopping experience went from one of misery and punishment to quality time and family growth.  It was amazing and reassured me that we are doing the right thing in providing a healthier diet for our family.

What does grocery shopping look like for your family? I can't wait to hear what has and hasn't worked for you.  Here is the recipe for "Hulk muffins." They are whole wheat, No added sugar or artificial sweetener, and dairy free, oh and they are called hulk muffins because they have green in them and i have three little boys who are obsessed with super heros!I hope you enjoy!