My diet is an evolving thing...constantly changing as my life changes and as I learn more and more about nutrition.
I have always been a healthy eater, thanks to my mom. She was a stay at home mom and had time to cook/prepare most of our meals. For breakfast we had fruit and a non-sugary cereal (Crispix, Kix, Cheerios, Special K are the ones I remember). Lunch was usually a turkey sandwich on wheat with fruit and pretzles (that she packed in a brown paper bag for me, Adam, and Hilary...sometimes with a little "have a great day! love, mom" note tucked inside). We snacked on fruit, carrots and ranch, and sometimes left-overs (it was a good day when you got home from school and there was chicken salad in the fridge). For dinner, we ate a lot of chicken, always had at least one vegetable, and were only treated to dessert afterward for a "special treat". Most nights dinner was followed up with "you can cut up an apple" if we wanted something sweet.
She didn't keep candy or cookies in the house. Ice cream was only bought if it was going with our dessert that night (think pie a la mode). We weren't allowed to drink soft drinks on a daily basis...and neither did she which I'm also thankful for.
But she wasn't as "into nutrition" as I am, so we also had not-so-healthy things too. Which I think was just as important in shaping my BALANCED eating.
Sometimes for breakfast she would make pancakes, French toast, biscuits, or ham and cheese croissants (hard to believe she had time for this on a school morning!!). She also relied on frozen breakfast items...French toast sticks, sausage biscuits, toaster strudels (things I wouldn't necessarily eat now). For dinner we sometimes ordered Domino's Pizza or she would pick up Popeye's fried chicken (and biscuits of course). Sometimes for a snack she would make nachos. Or we would get an ice cream sandwich from the Time Saver (gas station) on our way home from school (she would eat one too). Adam loved bagel bites and cheese filled pretzel sticks (maybe I did too?!).
I think the biggest thing my mom taught me was all things in moderation. She was NEVER on a diet. She ALWAYS ate what we were having for dinner (she never served us something that she didn't eat because she was "watching her weight"). She loved a good burger and ate dessert when we were celebrating something. She liked to bake (often not from scratch...she loved a cake box mix). She exercised almost daily (she liked to power walk, sometimes before we got up for school). She was such a great role model...nutritionally and otherwise :)
So thankful for her and the 23 years I had with her.
