A Change Will Do You Good

First, I'm happy to announce that I have given up the nastiest habit on Earth: Smoking. I know what you are probably thinking...it's like the 12th time that I have attempted to quit. And until you have smoked and tried to quit yourself, you will never understand how hard it really really is. I've smoked since I was 17 I think, and in this day and age where there are so many things on this planet that make you feel like sh*t, this is one that you really have complete control over.

On that note, The Ross Family has also adapted a healthier lifestyle for ALL of us. No preservatives, no artificial colorings. This change will not come easy as most of all the food that you buy today comes with some sort of coloring or preservative to make the food LOOK better and last longer. These preservatives and colorings have been linked to some (not all) of the symptoms of ADD/ADHD. It's no shock to me that the rise in children diagnosed with ADD could possible correlate with all of the preservatives and colorings that children eat every day and at every meal.

As some people know, Ryan and I have struggled with Tyler's behavior since he was a toddler. We took a lot of it in stride because he was just "overly curious" or "just a normal toddler". Now that he is going to be 5 and he is in school, it has been brought to our attention that his behavior has been effecting his school work.

I spoke with the teacher last week to see how he was doing. Now, I don't EVER see his regular teacher. She isn't there when I drop Ty off in the morning and she isn't there when Ryan picks him up. But his teacher has not been at the school and someone is taking her place. I was lucky enough to talk to this teacher to ask her about Tyler.

She said that he has been having some difficulty at school with listening, following directions, and concentration. He has been receiving time outs for not listening and this was news to Ryan and I. We knew how he was at home, but when those issues were addressed earlier, the school said that he wasn't having any problems. I guess a lot has changed in 3 months.

Previously we have taken Tyler to the doctor to ask him about ADD/ADHD and if the behavior that Tyler has been showing gave us any reason to be concerned. The dr brushed us off and gave us some advice of "gating him in his room for time outs" (he wouldn't sit for a time out and it got to be a 2-3 hour ordeal that ended with Ty so worked up that he was sick).

Now, don't get me wrong. I know that boys can be hyper and have a lot of activity. But there was one temper outburst that still has me sick to my stomach. On 2/14, Tyler wasn't listening after Ryan and I told him not to do something. After threatening to take toys away and chasing him around the living room (a common night for us) Ryan caught him and put him in bed. He then said to us, "Tomorrow when it's Friday, I'm going to kill you!". Good grief. I was mortified. He commonly bursts out with "I hate you!" which has no effect on us anymore, but this was the breaking point. His behavior at home was getting worse and it was now starting to become a developing problem in school. It was time to take action.

I was ready to start over. I've done my research and I was ready to try a change to better my children and better my family. I won't go into "preaching mode" about the preservatives and the colorings, but when I started to pay attention to what was in the food I was feeding my family, I realized that I needed to do something about it.

So, as you see, I went through our cabinets and pulled out EVERYTHING that has any preservatives and colorings.

It left us with a pretty empty cabinet. Rice, REAL oatmeal (the instant actually has a bunch of preservatives, so that will go), spaghetti noodles, mandrin orange cups stayed. The Aunt J's maple syrup was to go... it's packed with high frutose corn syrup. The kids' love their french toast (made with carrot puree!) and waffles, so I have to keep syrup in the house. Ryan pretty much sh*t a brick when he saw how expensive REAL maple syrup was when we hit up Trader Joes. We also found granola bars, banana chips, crackers and cereal. Next week we are going to check out Whole Foods for more ideas and options. Since the food is a little bit more money, we have to make sure that we eat what we have and not wind up with a bunch of stuff that is going to go bad.

I have to honestly say that even after ONE day Tyler's been extremely good. No screaming outbursts. He has been a joy this afternoon and I'm probably being stupid for thinking that it's all just the food, but I do believe that it has something to do with it.

If you are interested, here's the link of additives. Look at the food that you have in your cabinet and I'm sure you'll be surprised too!

http://cspinet.org/reports/chemcuisine.htm

It just makes Ryan and I think...