Like a lot of moms, I often think about my life in before-kids and after-kids terms. Before kids, I grappled with dilemmas like “Could I get a healthier entree at the Italian or Thai place?” and “Spin class or yoga?” These days, it’s more “Would I burn more calories mowing the lawn or pushing the baby on his tricycle?” and “What kinds of meals can I prepare using only one hand?”
Eating (and living) well can be challenging at any stage of life. But as moms, we have our work cut out for us. Not only is time—to read food labels at the store, cook balanced meals, squeeze in a treadmill workout—at a serious premium, but we’re also the de facto household food and nutrition czars. In our job description: Ensure that everyone has a green vegetable on their plate and finishes their milk, deflect pleas for Yogos and Cookie Crisp cereal every week while grocery shopping, and negotiate two-more-bites-of-broccoli-if-you’re-even-thinking-about-dessert trade deals.
And of course, there’s the small but significant matter of what’s on our own plate.
I started Real Mom Nutrition to help moms who want to feed their families the best foods possible, who struggle with making their own well-being a priority—and who could use some practical, low-cost strategies for doing both.
In this blog, I’ll dish out ideas that have worked with my own family and weigh in on nutrition news and trends. If you’re trying to lose the last 10 pounds of won’t-budge baby weight or give your own eating habits a makeover, you’ll find realistic tips for that here too. And I hope you’ll leave feedback, questions, and success stories.
Now I’m off to make my famous one-handed spaghetti.