Changed diet, changed life, changed son!

Our journey towards healthy eating was not rocket science but it has changed our lives so much I wanted to share it with you in the hopes that what I learned can help someone else.

The first (and hardest) step in our journey was realizing our son Stephen was 'different'....last Dec and Jan we began to seriously question his speech therapist...why isn't he talking? why hasn't a year of speech therapy helped him? why is he running around and rubbing his head into things, chewing on items and pushing his sister constantly? Why does he seem lost in his own world and not make an effort to join ours? Why did his good appetite shrink down to a limited diet? Our questions and worries went on and on--I felt helpless to reach out and connect with my son, helpless to help him reach out and connect with others and so frustrated with the endless answers: "he's fine, just a slow learner, maybe it's parenting...you just need to discipline him more...."

When I finally found professionals who would listen to me the next step wasn't much easier: accepting that my son had a 'label'...however I was hopeful that maybe now we could get him some help...during the process we decided to attempt a gluten free casein free diet--that is a challenge! Through a friend's help we separated the diet into 3 phases and started Phase 1 which is what I want to share with you. (The GFCF diet wasn't successful with us but for some it is...we found that the initial changes we made were the most helpful and significant in decreasing Stephen's behaviors and starting him on the road to recovery.)

Over the next 6 months we implemented this diet, started him with some good therapist and school program and added some amazing supplements(ask for more details) to his regiment. I am grateful to say that today our son is a different person! Whereas before he would play in his own area he now initiates play, he no longer sucks or chews on everything, his aggressive behavior has decreased 80-85%, he speaks in some whole sentences, he can name everyone in the family, he can ask for help...the list goes on and on! Not to mention he eats 2-3 full meals a day!

You might think you don't have money to get healthy food but we have found ways to stay within our budget and eat healthy! for us, we can't afford not to eat healthy.

My goal is to help you and anyone else who is interested learn simple and cost effective ways to change your lifestyle to a healthy one. Please share input, questions and feedback! I am constantly learning new ways to add nutrition to our diet and I would love to hear your tips too!

The first step in this process is obviously having the right foods on hand....What I did(with a friend's help) was to write out foods that the kids loved and would eat 90% of the time...then I recreated a menu with healthy options and stocked up on foods enough for a week or two to ease us into the diet. We had no problem switching over--the kids loved the foods and within a week or two Stephen was back to eating meat and even trying foods he hadn't eaten in months!

Here is what our first sample menu looked like:

Breakfast Before:

Lucky charms, poptarts, bananas, cereal, scrambled eggs, pancakes, french toast, sausage

Breakfast After:

Grass fed eggs, whole wheat pancakes with homemade syrup or maple syrup or Log Cabin syrup(only one without HFCS), Farmland sausage, rice chex cereal, organic poptarts(or no pop tarts)

Lunch Before:

hotdogs, spaghettios, PB and jelly, mac n cheese, grilled cheese, chicken nuggets

Lunch After:

turkey hotdogs(msg free), no canned foods, natural PB, homemade or organic jelly on wheat bread, no mac n cheese(our kids wouldn't eat organic) whole wheat grilled cheese, Tyson chicken nuggets(all natural) or grilled chicken breast

Snacks:

Welch's fruit snacks(REd 40 and dye) sandwich crackers(HFCS), cookies, candy

Snacks after: cheese, nuts, raisins, organic fruit snacks, natural or organic crackers(amelia's or sharp shopper has these cheap) homemade cookies or fruit

Supper:

varies..basically any meat, potato and vegetable meal without sauce is good--I have a recipe for homemade cream soup and I add garlic and vegetables to everything I can


Misc:

we took out chocolate and strawberry syrup both with HFCS or red 40

Well, that's all for tonight--changing the diet can feel overwhelming but it is so worth every minute, dime and effort you put into it! Even if you look at this list and only add or take away one thing a week you are improving your lifestyle and making a difference! Thank you for taking the time to read this and please feel free to add your questions or input!