Am I Turning into a Health Nut?

For some reason, little things keep happening that make me want to eat healthier. I guess it all started when I was pregnant and didn't want to gain lots of weight. I'd wake up feeling sick, and if I went longer than 2 hours, I felt sick. I decided to eat small meals throughout the day. So I did.

By the time I quit feeling sick, sugar started having a nasty effect on me. If I ate something like chocolate or cookies, I felt pretty woozy for an hour after, and I literally had to sit down and put my feet up until the feeling passed. I quit eating as much sugar.

Joseph was born, and I started nursing him. I pretty much backtracked a little bit on my eating habits. Then, at 6 months, he started getting more demanding. I noticed the sick feeling returning if I didn't eat often enough. I was trying to eat snacks, but they were often either sugary or unhealthy in some way. I made a plan to eat certain food groups for snacks. I added different fruits and veggies for dinners every day of the week to give variety and make sure I bought enough fruits and veggies. Our grocery bill went up, but it's definitely been worth it.

My most recent change happened because of Grandma Head's awesome wheat bread. It's soft, chewy, and not bitter. I asked her for the recipe, got the ingredients, and am working on tweaking it exactly the way I like it. It's such a blessing to have a store like Winco where I can get whole-wheat flour, wheat germ, etc. for cheap in bulk. I've never loved whole-grain stuff (besides corn) until now. The FDA recommends at least half of all the grains we eat to be whole-grain. My goal is to only eat whole-grain pasta, waffles/pancakes and bread products (bagels, English muffins) and for my kids to like them.

So what's my next step?

I really doubt I will ever go much beyond this point. I'm not thoroughly convinced that buying "organic" is much better, and it's expensive. I'm not going to buy low-fat cheese or sour cream, because James really needs that. I do plan on trying to cook brown rice and maybe mix it half and half with white rice. I don't think I will ever give up my white rice, because I love it too much! Same with white flour tortillas. I just don't love making tortillas from scratch like I do other breads. It's very time-consuming.

I am going to give up sugar for Lent. When I say sugar, I don't mean ALL types of sugar. I really mean sweets, such as cakes, pies, cookies, ice cream, and chocolate. I don't eat syrup, so that's not a problem. And I'm not going to buy a new kind of peanut butter. I still plan on putting that on my waffles.

I'm not crazy, even though James thinks I am. I really want to see if I can do it, because I have loved sugary treats my whole life. I've heard that withdrawals can be hard, but I have support from Cindy!

P.S. I felt really out of place when I walked into the health store to buy lecithin. Not to mention, I never though I would go and buy something called lecithin.