How to Go Primal: For Parents
Whether we’re parents or not, we all identify on some level with the problematic influence other people can have on our lifestyle choices. Whether it’s an inflexible partner, “concerned” friends and family members, or iron-willed children, they all prove that none of us lives in a vacuum. Taking on the Primal Blueprint, particularly the diet, in these cases isn’t just revamping one’s own eating. It involves a whole negotiation with the set patterns and expectations within one’s entire household. (Deep, cleansing breath…) With the Primal Challenge this month, many readers, particularly parents, are finding that aspect the hardest element of their commitment – particularly when it comes to the food. I’ve covered some seedling suggestions in the past, but I thought I’d offer a special, Challenge-focused triage post for the well-intentioned but struggling parents out there. I hope you’ll join me in offering up your best tips, strategies, recipes, and serenity mantras.
First off, let me offer kudos to the parents taking up the Challenge this month. It’s true that all of us here, parents or not, could offer a hundred excuses for not doing it. Nonetheless, here we are. We’re on the path. We’re recommitting each day. We’re all showing up, and that’s 90% of it. For parents, the overall lifestyle negotiation takes on it’s own set of obstacles though. Home life and everything it entails ends up largely influenced if not dictated by the needs (and sometimes whims) of the kiddos. It’s easy to fall into what initially feels like a middle ground deal but gradually devolves into a wholly unreasonable and unhealthy arrangement – for everybody. We surrender our standards in the name of convenience or cost savings. We postpone healthy changes because they don’t mesh with family demands at the time. Let’s stop the car for a moment.
Secure your diet before helping others. Don’t get me wrong. I’m not advocating letting your children gorge in a pool of Cocoa Krispies while you prepare that Thai steak salad for dinner. Nonetheless, many a a mother and father have undoubtedly driven themselves to the edge of sanity trying to wholly transition little Sally and Joey just as they initiate their own Primal challenge. It’s a perfectly honorable, understandable inclination, but it’s often (not always) doomed to failure. Let me explain.
There’s the good intention of wanting to improve your children’s diet as you improve your own. I love this one. By all means, go for it. You couldn’t give your kids a better gift (besides your love of course). Some folks can do it all in one sweep, and more power to them. If you have any doubts, however, work on yourself first. I know that “indulging” in healthier food while you leave your children behind in what suddenly seems a culinary wasteland can impose a tremendous amount of guilt. (Reader letters confirm as much.)
Let me say this. Improving your kids’ diet is an infinitely worthy goal, but it’s a different project. It’s a separate intention. Give each goal its individual due, and you’ll be more likely to be successful on both fronts. Remember the oxygen mask metaphor? If you secure your own source of oxygen, you’re in better shape to help the person next to you. Likewise, if you’re established in a healthy Primal Blueprint diet – meaning, you’ve created a genuine routine and you have a respectful repertoire of recipes – you will be in a better position to stay the course with your kids.
Anyone who’s transitioned children to a different diet can tell you it’s not the easiest thing in the world. They will likely resist. They will complain. The older ones will hold out waiting for you to change your mind and go back to the old ways. Will you? If you’re a newbie just charting the course, the prospect is much more likely than if you’ve had the time and practice to make the Blueprint your own. You’ll have developed a creativity and flexibility conducive to creating a workable version of the PB for your family – without compromising the basic premise or your personal commitment.
As you forge your own Primal path, set an important but more manageable goal for the kids. Cut out the gluten in their diet or those last processed foods you’ve been meaning to dump. Get rid of the sugar or work on increasing their veggie intake. Choose whatever feels reasonable, but opt for a change that isn’t going to undermine your own efforts now. If that means doing the same old, same old for a couple of weeks, than so be it. Rome wasn’t built in a day.
Then there’s the practical aspects of juggling different menus. For one, parents new to the PB imagine the prospect of making multiple meals and decide the extra time, effort, and expense will be a deal breaker. It’s gotta be everybody or nobody if this is gonna work, they think. I understand this perspective. I sympathize with it. As a parent, I remember what it’s like to be on a budget, to have no time for yourself, to throw dinner together as quickly as humanly possible because you know a hunger meltdown is exactly nine minutes away and counting.
Nonetheless, the fact remains. When you allow your success to depend on the cooperation of others, you’ve surrendered control of – and full responsibility for – your intention. It’s a hard truth when you’re already stressed and sleepless. Let me offer a few suggestions along these lines. I know, too, there will be a whole host of fellow Grokkers who will offer the benefit of their own experience in these matters. That’s one of the greatest parts about this community. Don’t be afraid to lean on it.
- Eat separate meals at separate times. Yes, making different meals does take longer. There’s no way around it. You can, however, get the kids fed on time and still work in a Primal dinner for yourself if you’re not married to the idea that it has to be the exact way and time that it was before. Spare yourself the meltdowns and eye rolls about having to get to soccer practice and establish your own mealtime. Break it up. Eat half your dinner with the family and half later. Bring it to go on certain days if need be. Embrace the strategically scheduled IF when necessary. Throw out your old schedule entirely and start from scratch. As disorienting as setting a new schedule sounds, it can be easier for some people than trying to force new priorities into the old one.
- Plan, plan, plan. With a little time, things will fall into place and become more automatic, but these transitions take some effort in the beginning. Be patient with the process, and see the possibilities. Create a list of your favorite Primal recipes and snacks. List a meal plan for your kids. Figure out what can be integrated into a week’s cooking and shopping budget. Both you and the little ones might have to forgo or switch off getting one or more of your favorite foods. You might trade some expenses by leaning a little more on frozen veggies or shopping a road side farm stand this week. Nonetheless, if you plan it out, you can be sure that you’ve covered everyone’s needs for the week.
- Coordinate meals to use the same basic ingredients. Instead of buying all separate ingredients for your food and theirs, make the respective meals as complementary as you can. A pound of ground beef, some chicken tenders, or some scrambled eggs can easily become the cornerstone for a tasty kid dinner and a fully Primal one for you. I have no doubt good readers will have tips here.
- Integrate family meals one at a time. Do a Primal dinner once a week – something everyone can agree upon. Add a Primal breakfast or snack the week after. Let go of expectations about the food itself and make it an event. Get the kids involved in planning or cooking. Make it a fancy meal with printed menus and fine china or eat it outside together on the ground with your hands. Make a family event out of it. Let it simply be a good time – one meal at a time.
- Always have a contingency plan. You expend massive amounts of time and brain energy packing the diaper back or day pack taking into account every kids’ conceivable need. How about your needs? Take the time to make some Primal energy bars each week, or bring along some protein shake mix when you’re on a family outing. Life with kids is less than neat, less than predictable. Always come prepared, Primal style.
Thanks for reading today, everybody. Have kids? How have you meshed (or not) your Primal choices with the family picture? What are your fallback recipes for busy times or the Primal meals that no kid can refuse? I hope you’ll add your suggestions and advice for all the Primal parents out there. Happy hump day!
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Posted By: Mark Sisson
I’m right in the middle of this struggle at the moment. Blogging about my successes and failures seems to help keep me sane as well as put me in touch with other like-minded parents who are trying to make the switch to Paleo. I find that my kids will eat some things one day and then the next will turn their nose up at them. We have had successes with gluten free/casein free ‘muesli’ bars whenever the kids get too restless. We’ve played games of being monsters and eating the forests, putting sultanas on our boiled eggs to make faces, lots of fruit, nuts and ‘almond bread’. I definitely recommend Marks advice on changing yourself before implementing the change to the whole family, it takes time, organisation and patiences, but so worth it in the end.
Our kids made the change to Primal a ton easier than we ever thought they would!! Its been great!!
The Paleo Parents have a great website for kid friendly Primal/Paleo living!!
Great post. I’m slowly trying to transition myself and my 20-month-old to primal eating (Project Hubby is on hold – he refuses to give up his Coke). My biggest problem is snack foods, especially when we’re out and about. He’s too little for nuts, and doesn’t like crunchy vegetables (he’s only just getting the teeth to be able to deal with them) or hard-boiled eggs. I feed him a lot of fruit, but I’m afraid I also rely on carby foods (sandwiches, fruit bars, even donuts) to satisfy him when we’re on-the-go. Any suggestions in this regard would be very helpful. Also ideas for what to use instead of infant cereal…
I made my own “infant cereal”. Mashed up sweet potato mixed with any veggie is really yummy. I added bone broth or sauerkraut juice to thin it out. If they need more sweetness at first, you can add fruit purees!
Try giving him avocado mashed up with cottage cheese or hard boiled eggs (I know he doesn’t like them by themselves but he might eat it if the smell is camoflaged a litte). My kids loved it (and so did my husband!. Also, don’t forget a small amount of seasonings to make things more interesting, just remember little tastebuds are more sensitive than ours are. Mashed pumpkin with a little pumpkin pie spice, coconut oil and a little applesauce or other puree to sweeten it up a little might be a tasty option.
I loved the pouch baby food for that age–you take the cap off and just give it to them. I even gave my younger son them in the car on long car rides since they were pretty mess-free. I use them for myself, too.
If you do cheese, that’s an easy one, too. You can either put it in a little lunchbox (I loved the little breastmilk storage coolers I got from the hospital,)or put it in the freezer for a bit before you leave so it stays cold until you eat it. The same works for little bites of meat. We also have used freeze-dried veggies like peas and green beans–they’re crunchy but not super hard and don’t need to be refrigerated. They’re kinda like the puffs–if they suck on them for a few seconds they dissolve.
For infant cereal, I’d just leave it out. It gave my younger son horrible constipation, and his Dr. said as long as he was nursing really well and, as he got older, eating other foods, it wasn’t a big deal. It’s more for teaching them how to mouth food and testing for allergens than a ton of nutrition.
I think the approach certainly depends on the kids’ personalities and developmental levels.
At our house, we did an “add first, subtract later” approach. That is, we figured out some primal meals and snacks that our daughter enjoys and served them for dinner and had them available for snacks, while still allowing her to bake cookies (she is 12 and bakes her own cookies if she wants a sweet treat!), drink hot cocoa, and have other non-primal snacks or her favorite meals for lunch when everyone was eating different things, etc. For meals, a primal meal for everyone (meat/veggies/salad) plus potatoes or rice for her (and my hubby) works out well.
The next phase for us is going to be cutting down on her sugar intake. Her meals are mostly primal plus the occasional potato and rice, as she’s really given up things like sandwiches voluntarily and spontaneously over the past few months, but she’s allergic to almonds so switching pancakes and cookies to almond flour isn’t an option. I’ve experimented with coconut flour but haven’t yet hit on something she likes. I’m still trying to figure out how to approach this part of the transition with a stubborn 13yo…although the greater the %age of her diet that is primal, the better she feels, so I’m wondering about doing a month trial of no sugar, make it kind of a contest, and hope that after a month she will see the light and realize how much better she feels with the sugar cut out.
Christie, what about cheese for a snack on the go? I know dairy is out for some primal folks, but it’s an easy snack for kids and IMO one of the lesser evils as long as you don’t have a dairy sensitivity.
Can she do sunflower seeds? Mark has a great recipe for pancakes with bananas, eggs and almond butter, and I bet you could sub sunbutter for the almond butter. They’re really good!
I been mostly primal since spring, when my teen and I did a 30 day gluten free month. I loved the changes I felt, but he really didn’t like it (he’s a carbaholic). Since learning more, and cutting more grains from my diet, I’ve decided to bring the kids in. I’ve been making mostly all primal dinners over the summer, but with more cheating (mac and cheese type) stuff that they wanted. So teen and I decided to let what we have run out, and that’s it. I explained the science (he’s going to read Mark’s book soon), he understands, but doesn’t like. My 3rd son though is a really picky one, is hooked on PBJs and bagels. We’re out of bagels, and nearly out of bread, so he’ll be adjusting soon though. I’ve been making almond flour muffins for him to bridge the gap though.
Our rule for dinner is that they have to take how many bites they are old. So the 6 year old tries 6 bites. After that, pbj, deli meat, whatever is ok. If it’s something I really don’t think they’ll like (like chili a couple days ago) it’s only a bite, just enough to expose them to the new taste.
Though I’m grain free, I’m just starting with gluten for them. Since that’s going to be such an adjustment, I figure it’ll be easy after that. Dinner is easy, our worst is lunch, of the 4 kids, 2 are really picky and will just not eat if they can get away with it.
Forgot to mention that my husband isn’t completely on board yet. He’s understanding it makes sense, but not ready to give up soda and oreos, so I’m having to work around his influence a bit
The good news is that you don’t need to keep snacking it up when your kids are finally (at last!) primal. Forget packing snacks for food intake every two hours, now DS can wait until we get home, as he can now go for 4 or 5 hours between meals without whining for food. Primal snacks are harder, but so less needed. And it’s fantastic to go out with DS and play without being weighed down with a bag full of snacks to carry around, and less ‘getting ready’ time, cause I don’t need to bother with food, he just had his eggs and cheese for breaky, we’re good for hours! The benefits are worth it, life does become easier, stick with it!
My mom had a very sensible (I think) approach to feeding us. Eliminating those things we simply couldn’t gag down…I still I can’t eat liver…she had just two rules about food. Well three.
1. If you’ve never had it before, you must try one bite before declaring, “I don’t like that.”
2. If you don’t like what we’re having for dinner tonight, you don’t have to eat it. But…
3. …you don’t get anything else. You eat what’s put before you, or you don’t eat anything at all.
There was no yelling, no threatening, no “Children are starving in…”. I’ve always loved food, so I never got to #3, but my brother, who was one of those kids who moved his food around but never seemed to eat it (until he was a teenager), sometimes did.
This is the same type of approach we take with our kids. At some point, they’ve all ‘hated’ the foods they love today. If someone seriously dislikes one food, I try different methods of preparing it to see if they will eat it. If that’s still no-go, we let them swap out for another healthy item (which is easy to do when you’re having 2-3 types of veggies).
I found setting their plate with one known “liked food” heads off complaints. The rule is if you want seconds of anything you have to have eaten your firsts. So breakfast when we started was frozen blueberries (liked) sausage and eggs (not so much) now if I serve sausage and eggs they are happy, time to add another (not so much) until they get used to it.
Yes, this approach is great here too! We have one that won’t eat eggs any way except hard boiled. We’ve negotiated a hard boiled egg if he eats 1 egg the way we’re serving.
I have been primal since January of this year, and my husband is on board, although with his tall and lean build he can handle more carbs than I can.
I have been trying to transition my boys to paleo, but it is a challenge. My biggest problem areas are breakfast, lunch and snacks. We usually eat meat and veggies for dinner, and they are fine with that.
They are all school age, so they need a snack that does not need to be refrigerated. What is recommended other than fruit?
For lunch – i love the ideas posted in comments here. Can folks recommend lunch boxes and thermoses that keep food fresh at school?
Both my husband and I come from families with a lot of diabetes, and we feel a strong desire to change that for our boys.
Thank you Mark for all you do!
I use a Thermos brand thermos. If food is hot, I fill it with boiling water, let it stand for a few minutes, empty and dry it and put the hot food in.
If it will be a cold food, I put the thermos in the fridge overnight. I will also put an icepack in the lunch bag which is also insulated.
They eat meatballs, chicken nuggets (homemade,) soup, leftovers, meat sauce and veggies, almond flour muffins, hard boiled eggs, etc.
Breakfast is usually eggs, bacon, yogurt, coconut pancakes, nut butter, the aforementioned muffins.
I second what a commenter said about snacks being less necessary but if necessary the same food comes out along with cut up veggies and fruit.
My daughter just started kindergarten this week. They have 2 “nutrition breaks” which poses a bit of a problem in terms of packing food. They have great insulated lunch bags here in Ontario, Canada which are separated in the middle to provide space for both breaks. Works well!
We also have a nut-free, peanut-free school so no almond-flour muffins. The homemade larabars are great. I will try next time with sunflower seeds instead of walnuts and almonds. Thanks for the tip!
She also gets her orange yogurt everyday. It’s plain yogurt to which I add her multivitamin. She loves it! (and is none the wiser)
Seeds, if the snacks need to be nut-free, jerky, I also have a couple of the better brands of fruit snack type-stuff to help with the everyone else has it complaints. (Annie’s bunnies, Archer Farm’s brand from Target. Read the labels to make sure, but they’re usually dye and sugar-free.) You can make your own Larabar type snack with seeds instead of the nuts. (I’d include a note telling the teacher what is in it, and also for sunbutter with veggies.)I also put veggies, organic yogurt tubes or cheese in the freezer overnight to keep them cold for the am snack. We’re lucky in that the school doesn’t allow real sugary/fatty snacks in the classroom, so at least he’s not sitting next to someone eating a candy bar or Doritos.
My daughter has a Planet Lunch Box. It’s metal and sort of flat, like a laptop. It has an insulated carrying case. I got little plastic ice cubes to tuck in the corners. Also, there are two small containers that fit inside. One I use for dips. I put it in the freezer for ten minutes. If I use the other for something warm, I fill it with boiling water for a few minutes; it not going to keep something hot, but it won’t be cold, either.
My kids will eat their healthy primal dinner if I tell them they can have “dessert” if they eat an acceptable amount of their dinner. They help make it by slicing the bananas and putting them in the freezer. Once frozen, drop them in the food proceesor for 5 minutes or so and the frozen bananas turns into soft serve ice cream. we sometimes add bluberries or peaches to vary the taste. Then we top it with walnuts. They are all very lean active boys (3, 6, 7) and they can handle the extra carbs from the bananas.
My son is currently 5 years old and, so far, eats many veggies with ease. I partially attribute this to having a vegetable and herb garden.
When he was younger, I purposely put items in the garden that were toddler-sized like cherry tomatoes and alpine strawberries. He enjoyed picking them and eating them. Later, I would notice him picking and eating spinach, mint, basil, and rosemary. The day I found myself smiling to myself was when he walked up to me with arugula on his breath! Arugula, imagine!
When I’m making a salad for dinner, I often give him a mini-sized plate of whatever I’m putting in the salad. Spinach, carrots, nuts and red bell peppers are all things he will snack on if he gets hungry before dinner is ready.
I made primal pizza (with a cauliflour crust) tonight for dinner and my kids gobbled in down
When we transitioned I did not tell my daughter that she would have to do without certain foods, and I just served dinner and everyone ate what I served as usual. The few times she asked if she could have pizza or some other goodie I consider unwise, I just said “not tonight” and served what I had planned. Kids make a big deal out of things they are told they are not allowed to have, but if you let it fall by the wayside without comment they are less likely to comment on it also.
My kids are little (6 and 7). About a year ago I started taking away snacks that I realized were full of crap. I kept others and have slowly pulled them without saying a word. They didn’t really notice. On the rare occasion they come to the grocery with me they say, “hey we never buy these anymore” and I just explain why. Same goes for dinner. I make pb stuff for my husband and I and add some grains to theirs while increasing the veggies. One day the grains will disappear and they won’t know it happened. Slow and steady. Increase the good, decrease the not so good and one day it will be all good.
Great post Mark, have been giving this a lot of thought lately.
I’ve been primal for about 6 weeks now and have been giving a lot of thought to my 3yo’s diet and how to get him paleo. It is a bit difficult as he is in care 2 days/wk (they do the cooking and it is very good quality just too much wheat/grain and occ. sweet snacks for mine)but I figure if I can give him primal all the other days it is at least a good start.
Funnily enough, he has shown from a young age that he likes his fats and proteins above other food groups (he doesn’t have sugar from me either), the first time I took him out for coffee and fruit toast about 18mo ago, he ate the two large slices of butter like cheese and has relished eating butter ever since. I now give him a slice of pastured butter (unsalted) for breakfast each morning along with his eggs and bacon. It seems to really pique his appetite.
I AM having trouble getting veg into him. The only green thing he eats is avocado and we go through about 1 per day (just as well they are only $1 each!).
Thankyou to all the comments with snack suggestions – i will definately pursue them in the intrests of my primal diet and my son’s.
Sometimes it can be just as hard to get your parents to accept your diet. My mom is definitely a believer in the low-fat diet and no matter what materials I show her, she can’t be convinced that I’m not killing myself with all the fat. So when I visit her, I either have to make my own food, pick places that I can eat Primal or just figure the meal with her will fit under the 80/20 rule.
I have a four month old child, so he is being raised in a “primal” house. I feel lucky that I don’t need to try to change his diet if he were say, 14 years old. Kudos to those families that are successful in changing an entire family to a healthier lifestyle.
My husband and I are both Paleo. My husband has a son from a previous relationship, whom we share 50/50 with his mom.
We have great difficulty getting him used to eating Paleo. I understand it must be very difficult for him to adjust, since every other week he eats completely different (sweets, cereal, pasta, bread ect.) when he is at his moms place. He is 7 and has a hard time understanding why we eat so differently from his mom, since she believes what they eat at her place is healthy.
Does anyone have experience with children you share custody over and getting them adjusted to Paleo/Primal?
Peggy did a blog post about this sort of thing recently that you might want to check out.
http://theprimalparent.com/2011/09/09/shared-custody-family-battles/
I have transitionned from a low fat vegetarian diet to a hight fat primal diet, what a shift !! my kids, especially my son (10) is so happy to have meat in the house, and butter ! he has switched himself from his classic breakfast (milk, bread and nutella) to bacon and eggs when he have seen me eaten those. My son has never liked veggies, but now that i cook them with bacon or butter, he loves them !!
my daughter would eat whatever i propose so it ‘s easy with her.
they still have some chocolate or crackers occasionnaly, but i try to keep primal snack on hands so they have the choice.
my son has noticed by himself that he was not hungry anymore in the morning as he used to be with his former breackfast.
I have recently gone mostly primal in a slow process that took several months. I am now in the process of converting my three daughters, 12 year old twins and a 9 year old. I explained to the twins that this will help with their constant tummy aches, clear up their skin, and will hopefully eliminate the need for kidney stone medication that one of them is taking (indefinitely according to her doc). I told my nine year old that we needed to do this to help get her sister healthy. My strategy is to go one meal per week. This week is breakfast without grains or sugar. Next week will be lunch, which I think will be the hardest. Then afternoon snacks, then dinner. So far so good but I think the worst is yet to come!
I find snacks to not be a problem, but three healthy, compliant meals a day was doing me in. To address this, I take 6 hours on the weekend (try to get the kids out of the house with dad or playdates etc.) and crank out some staples like meatballs (rotate kinds of ground meat), salmon or other fish cakes, almond four pancakes (Elana’s pantry recipe), chicken tenders (again, Elana’s recipe), egg “cupcakes” (Everday Paleo recipe), homemade mayo, and hard boil eggs, or deviled eggs. I quadruple most recipes and keep a bunch in fridge and freeze what can be frozen. Huge, huge time savings and ease in the end. (And no whining, hungrily-waiting-for-food kids!)
I remember when I was a child in the 70s my Mom transitioned us from white Rainbow bread to wheat bread and we kicked and screamed in resistance!:) She was a great influence in my interest in healthy eating.
I know she would have loved to try this Primal way of eating. And I know it would have helped her with her health issues later in life. I wish we had known about it 10-20 years ago
Here are a few tips the have helped me with my 6 year old and 3 year old:
1. I transitioned myself first – took about a year before I worked on them. That way I had time to learn, to test out recipes, to feel better (recovered from MS).
2. I transitioned them in phases. First we changed dinner, then lunch, then snack, then breakfast. Spent a week or two on each meal transition to get them used to it before we moved on.
3. A lot of our dinners are spicy – too spicy for my kiddoes. It’s easy to make them some hamburger patties out of the ground beef I am using for our more flavorful main dish. I can pick veggies out from our meal, or just serve them some fresh raw veggies from teh crisper. One extra pan to wash, but other than that it doesn’t cause me extra time. I also always have hamburger patties in the fridge already made, so I can just reheat one for them if we’re having spicy foods.
4. Definitely echo what others have said that you can use coconut breads etc to transition. I used that for a while until my kids realized they were actually happier with some turkey and bacon or cheese for lunch than they were with their coconut bread nut butter and jelly sandwiches.
5. I figure my growing, highly active kids are like athletes…they need more carb than I do. So I make sure they get some in the form of sweet potato and rice. I do make them banana muffins made from rice flour with very litte sugar, and I let them have rice based cerealat breakfast a few times a week after they eat their protein and fat.
5. Pumpkin Coconut Flour pancakes save the day for me at breakfast time! Here is a link to the recipe, which I adapted from Civilized Caveman Cooking Creations (he’s got great recipes). http://www.fit4godonline.com/www.fit4godonline.com/recipes/pumpkincoconutpancakes
6. Remember the 80/20 rule!
7. Talk abotu real food vs fake food. Make nasty faces at the Cocoa Puffs in the story, act all goofy and say “Yuck, blech, that is NOT food! I wouldn’t eat that!”
7. I put a photo of each of my kids on the wall with poster putty. Underneath in one column they had a card for each of their daily food group requirements: so there were 5 protein cards, 4 vegetable cards, 2 fruit cards, and 7 fat cards. I also allowed (at first) one grain card. I put photos on each card to show examples of what constituted a fat or a protien etc. Whenever they ate one of those foods, they moved a card over into another column. That way by dinner time, they could see how many servings of each food they needed. They were excited abotu this and loved moving their cards around and it motivated them to eat more of the thing I wanted them to eat (protein, fat, veg) and less of other things (fruit, grain). I instituted it for about 2 weeks when I was transitioning them, then they got bored wiht it. I bring it back every now and then to make sure we stay on track and make sure they stay cognizant of their food choices.
I too struggle with lunches for my kids. We are a nut free/fish free school. I always have fruit and veggies cut and washed in the fridge for a quick snack. As well as hard boiled eggs in the fridge. Does anyone have a recipe for muffins or power bars that would satisfy the “bread” cravings the kids have?
Both Everyday Paleo and Wellness Mama have recipes for homemade Larabars.
Google paleo muffins and you’ll find a lot of recipes. This is my favorite so far:
http://www.multiplydelicious.com/thefood/2011/08/gluten-free-carrot-muffins/
Ditto on the larabars.
When my kids transitioned to paleo school lunches I found the ‘breadiness’ of the muffins and a sweet treat like Grok rocks from the PB cookbook to be very helpful. But what was essential was a thermos.
My kids are sooooo glad to be rid of sandwiches and a thermos either warmed with hot water or cooled in the fridge before putting in the food and sent in an insulated bag means you can give them whatever you like including leftovers – soup, meatballs, meat sauce, chicken salad etc, etc.
The transition was pretty easy for us… and they were VERY picky… They ate NO meat or veggies before primal (they were 5 and 3)…. We cut grains cold turkey… They fussed and didn’t really eat for 3 days… Now… they eat everything…. It’s made meal times SO much easier!
Breakfast cereal used to be one of my major addictions. I’d have several giant bowls of it every day. So here’s a more primal version:
Take on of those manual choppers and chop us some almonds. Not too small… Granola sized.
Get some milk. I only do this when I can get raw goat milk (I almost always have some). I don’t recommend store bought milk… ever. Nasty stuff.
Pour a half a cup of the almonds in a bowl and cover with milk. drizzle a small amount of raw unfiltered honey over it. Just a little, less than a teaspoon. Don’t go “nuts” with the honey. Sprinkle with some cinnamon.
Tastes just like a breakfast cereal!
I only do this rarely as a treat. It’s quite addictive.
I’m fortunate that my 2 kids were never sweet eaters. They’d go trick or treating and bring back the booty, and most of it would sit and still be in the pantry next Halloween.
A few things I think kids would generally like a lot are melted cheese on something (such as omelettes or maybe primal bread – I haven’t tried that yet but I’m sure it would be good), fruit (grapes for one, berries as well, and I think dried dates are delicious – maybe you could trick your kids into believing they’re candy), vegetables and dip, bacon of course, and maybe trail mix. As a treat yogurt with melted/shredded dark chocolate and maybe a bit of raw honey might appease their sweet teeth. My mom gave me orange pekoe tea to try when I was young and I thought it tasted disgusting (though in the last four years or so I can’t drink enough) and I’m not sure how others would react to it but I think herbal teas, especially mixtures, would probably be a good substitute for juice. I have some iced tea in my backpack beside me now that contains four cranberry bags and some bags of black tea and chamomile – it’s delicious. Impossible to sip. I can only chug it.
That’s all speaking from personal experience and preferences.
Of course this one’s a no-brainer but as a reminder it’s also a good idea to try to get your kids as active as possible. I think gymnastics, martial arts, sports, nature excursions, trips to the park, calisthenics, bike rides, rollerblading, and skating are some good activities for kids. I’ve heard and read that it’s unhealthy for kids/teens to regularly do heavy lifting because it causes their bones to become unnaturally dense and stop growing properly. I wonder how much this actually happens because I’m sure Grok had his kids collecting firewood and doing lots of other hard work but I’m not about to dispute science, at least on this matter.
As an aside I used to love trail mix (still do) and one time when my brother left a bowl of it sitting on the coffee table one of the cats started eating it. That cat was an interesting creature. His brother also went to eat a piece of fried potato that I accidentally dropped and when I tried to take it from him he growled at me so I let him eat it.
I wish I could get my parents to turn primal. They like a lot of primal foods but they cling to conventional wisdom. My mom is very adamant about doing what is “normal” and fitting in with “society.” She’s seen me get in better shape and look generally healthier (less like a junkie.. I looked pretty messed up before, still recovering since I’m going through detox) by becoming primal and I’ve told her about intermittent fasting and demonstrated that I can go a while without food and still function, whereas before I didn’t feel comfortable unless I grazed practically all day. Then there’s my dad, who usually backs my mom up no matter what.
I see them get so angry and upset for no reason at all and I’m sure that they could be more level-headed if they just corrected their diets and maybe took some vitamins and other natural supplements or extracts. My dad has recently started exercising more often and my brother is encouraging him to take up weight lifting so that’s good.
I’ve tried to educate my mom on the benefits of ginseng and bee pollen and she still calls it “shit” and claims that it’s unhealthy – without doing any research into it at all.. well, it’s better than the junk food aisle (sort of) that is my parents’ food stash. She scoffed when I told her I ran out of money because I bought expensive healthy stuff like those two things and a litre bottle of olive oil. She brought me some groceries the other day and there were a few good primal/primalish foods in the bag (though laced with preservatives – apparently I’m paranoid for wanting to eat natural and she seems to be on a mission to make me “normal” by making junk my only option for sustenance) but also an empty-calorie loaf of bread and some menacing-looking wafers that I don’t think I’ll even eat if I run out of everything else.. there’s no nutrition so there’s no point. I’d just be leaching nutrients from my system. If we’re going to make the best changes we can then we have to be at the top of our games. If that’s a possibility then there’s really no excuse to do otherwise.
I’ve come to see that people who eat lots of non-primal foods, sugar, artificial ingredients etc. seem to be a little crazy. My friend for example does way too much smoking, drugging and drinking and basically lives off milk for the most part. I’m sorry to say but he’s changed for the worse in the two years or so that we had little contact because of our personal circumstances. He used to be generally cheerful or at least level-headed and reasonable but now regularly has unpredictable mood swings and often contradicts himself or says things that don’t make sense. He even quit his job when apparently it was boring but going well for him.
I’m not a very emotional person but that saddens me.
The car isn’t going to run efficiently when it’s getting the wrong type of fuel or tainted fuel.
If I run out of food again I’ll do what I did last time – eat a whole bunch of wild apples and go to the hospital for some sandwiches – at least they use bread that I’m pretty sure is “enriched.”
P.S. My friend is also on an antidepressant (an SSRI) and says he’s physically addicted to them and I think that’s also part of the cause for his changes in behaviour.
My mom takes an SSRI too and that might explain some of the things she does and says.. for example she claims that she’s really worried about me because I’m homeless and going through a bit of a struggle to get my life together properly and eat well and that she wants to help me.. yet she kicked me out because my “attitude sucks” and I “need help” and won’t let me live at home again, which would be all I need to accomplish some good changes. A good word for that type of thought, in my opinion, is neurosis.
I thought food was in short supply but today someone gave me enough food to help with a couple meals and then I decided to try to catch crayfish from where I saw a bunch of babies a few weeks ago and while catching some (I got one good one and a few little ones that add up to another good one) I saw lots of clams so I took a bunch of those as well. It looks like I’ll be able to eat clams pretty much any time.. I don’t know if they hibernate under the mud in the winter or something.
I wanted to mention one breakfast item we just added which the kids (and I) love–
banana bread eggs.
I take 6 eggs, whisk them. Mash up 2 very ripe bananas and add them to the egg. I throw in a dash of nutmeg, a tsp or so of vanilla extract and a tablespoon of cinnamon (we like a lot). I put a small bit of whipping cream–around 2 tablespoons and mix everything together.
I melt butter in a pan and scramble the egg mixture. Tastes exactly like banana bread but without the flour. Yummy!
We also eat “toppings-only pizza”. I put the cheese on the bottom of a parchment paper-lined pan. Put sauce on top of the cheese and the other toppings on top of the sauce. I bake as usual.
Again, the kids just love it. Plus, as it is so dense, they eat smaller portions of it.
My son, who is 13, is a competitive tennis player and all-around athlete. It helped when there was a lot of press about Novak Djokovic going gluten-free and how the dietary change really helped him break through to become No. 1. The photos of Mark, in all his buff glory, are a motivator too, and we recently found out that a chiropractor we see, who is a triathlete, also eats paleo, and he looks amazing. Having these examples of athletes who are maximizing their potential through diet has helped quell his doubts that this is a weird tangent of mine. Oh, and the fact that his bronchial asthma has all but disappeared hasn’t hurt either!
I was just thinking the other day how glad I was to have found the PB before having kids. This amazing community will be such a huge benefit when we finally get to take that plunge.
Until then I just have to deal with overcoming my CW syndrome… +10 Internets to whoever can guess what that is, haha!