Does anyone else here NOT eat only healthy foods?

[clarkacademy]

Oh yes, I've now moved on to a White Russian with quite a lot of vodka.

 

 

I LOVE THOSE! My mom makes the best ones MMMMMMMM

[Unicorn.]

I have gluten issues, but that doesn't mean I don't eat a sandwich or oreos and milk once in a while. I just can't have it as often as I'd like without getting really sick.

 

I'm one of those "I'd have pizza everyday" kinda people if that was an option for me. :)

 

 

Fiona, I must inform you of these lovely, gluten free cookies that are even better than Oreos! Glutino chocolate sandwich cookies! OMG, they are yummy. You can have your treat and still be gf!

 

Cat- it's all about balance. Some healthy, some pizza, some burgers, some healthy (ok, healthy-ish). Btw- I love white sandwich bread! :D

[caroljenn]

Well, let's see. I had a fried Arby's chicken cordon blue sandwich with some curly fries and a diet coke for lunch today, so I am pretty disgusted with myself! I try to eat 80-90% healthy, clean and organic, but let's face it - 100% would be tough. You'd never be able to go out to eat again, never through another drive through, never have a bottle of Mexican Coke again? I do the best I can, but I am not trying to be perfect.

 

We polished off several (like 12) boxes of GMO Girl Scout cookies last month, I hate whole wheat pasta and broccoli and beets and several other veggies, and I would never think of putting my PB&J on anything other than white bread. I just use organic white bread now. And I blend my smoothies, which is a HUGE lifestyle change for me- I am getting so many more vitamins and nutrients (veggies included) than I was, I am almost embarrassed at how poorly I ate before. I never really realized how bad some of the stuff out there is for you, but I don't expect myself to be perfect, and realistically, I still like my junk on occasion. Just not every day anymore! :thumbup1:

[Elinor Everywhere]

 

My kids are GF, so I never get donuts, if I could sneak out of the house, I would eat donuts.

 

Just wait until they're older. Your donut days are coming!

[kroe1]

I have eaten at McDonald's every day of my life for over 40 years. It is sad, but true. I am not fat and my total cholesterol was less than 100 the last time I had it checked. I know I will die from cancer at a fairly young age based on family history so I see no reason to stress over food.

 

 

[Night Elf]

I am from the South, born and raised. 'Nuff said.

 

:thumbup1:

 

Well said!

[Elinor Everywhere]

 

Oh yes, I've now moved on to a White Russian with quite a lot of vodka.

 

OMG, dessert in a glass!! Lip-smacking good. Not that it necessarily takes the place of dessert, though. :D

[*********]

I firmly believe that being a healthy weight has much more bearing on your overall health than what you eat.

 

Yes, seriously.

 

(That being said, I am still working on getting down to a healthy weight, so less junk food for me. Sigh.)

[Julie Smith]

That's us. I personally even have a favorite white bread that I love.

[Brilliant]

 

We like Italian food (but don't like whole grain pasta,) and we like French food, and burgers and fries, and food with sugar and salt and fat in it. ...

 

 

 

I had to laugh when I read the above. It reminded me of a quote from Chris Traeger (Rob Lowe) in Parks & Rec, who is/was a total health food and exercise fiend, upon tasting something delicious and unapproved: "I don't know if you know this but things with fat in them taste way better"

 

Anyway, I'm kind of in the same boat as you. We really try to eat healthy - lots of grass fed, organic, etc., tons of veggies. But my ds eats chips EVERY DAY and soda almost every day. And sometimes I buy sourdough white bread b/c my teens love it so much. But they are both healthy and height/weight proportionate, so I think I'm doing OK by them.

[DianeW88]

I eat all things in moderation. Including junk food. I also exercise every day and I'm not overweight. I don't drink alcohol, coffee or tea though. That Mormon thing. :D

[T'smom]

Um, yeah, I eat junk food. Plenty of it. I eat a lot of healthy stuff too. I have a green smoothie and a sald every day. But I also have Pepsi every day!

[nono]

And I drink alcohol daily.

Kindred souls. I figure my clean eating balances out my alcohol intake. I also had a Shamrock Shake last week. One has to live, a little. :lol:

[Elinor Everywhere]

Kindred souls. I figure my clean eating balances out my alcohol intake.

 

Yes! Or at least, that's my story and I'm sticking to it. :D

[Guest]

Don't get me wrong -- I have nothing against people who take the time to eat cleanly, cook every single meal from scratch, and who never eat anything even remotely resembling junk food -- I admire their hard work and dedication, but...

 

I can honestly tell you that I never met anyone like that until we started homeschooling, and none of my friends IRL are that way, either, so I'm wondering if I'm the only one on this forum who tries to eat pretty well, but also eats out frequently and considers Beefaroni just fine as an occasional lunch option. Am I the only one who does not consider cookies, cake, chips, and candy to be Forbidden Foods, and who always has snack foods and soda in the house?

 

White sandwich bread seems to be another thing that is considered to be somehow absolutely horrible, so I don't even want to know how deadly and sickening people must think it is with some salami or ham on it. Sure, most of our bread comes from the bakery, but it's not usually whole grain.

 

We don't bake our own bread, own a grain mill, have our own chickens, grow our own food, or milk our own goats. We keep trying to like quinoa, but it's just not happening.

 

We like Italian food (but don't like whole grain pasta,) and we like French food, and burgers and fries, and food with sugar and salt and fat in it. We eat dairy products. I drink coffee and tea and other caffeinated beverages... and I put milk or cream and sugar in them

 

We're not overweight, our blood pressure is fine, and our cholesterol is low. We are considered pretty healthy by our doctors and by the people we know. But we aren't eating only whole grains and organic everything, and we all hate hummus.

 

Don't get me wrong -- we try to eat a balanced diet, and compared to a lot of the people we know, I think we do pretty well, but it's not some sort of "super diet" where everything that goes into our mouths is 100% healthy, and I'm fine with that -- but I sometimes feel that I'm just about the only person on this forum who feels that way.

 

Is anyone else in the same boat I'm in?

 

And please know that I'm not criticizing anyone, and I do know that many people have special dietary considerations that require them to follow special, specific diets. I'm just wondering if anyone else goes out for pizza and a soda as a matter of course, rather than considering it to be some sort of big, rare, special-occasion junk food splurge.

 

No, you're not alone. I do make a lot of homemade meals and I do make bread, crackers and snacks from scratch, but I don't put a wholesale ban on less-healthy choices. My boys make Ramen noodles on a fairly regular basis - I even have the huge Costco thingy! Although I do often make homemade bread, I also buy bread at Costco. It's the kind that pretends to be whole grain, but is really just white bread with food coloring. :coolgleamA: I don't buy soda, but my kids are not banned from having it; they have it elsewhere from time to time. Sometimes I buy a flat of V8 Fusion, which really might as well be soda. Breakfast needs to be the simplest possible thing. My kids often have Cinnamon Toast Crunch cereal. Sometimes I buy Pop Tarts, but they have to be on sale or generic.

 

I do grow a garden organically and I harvest berries in the summer. I have visions of expanding this. I can my tomatoes and make pickles. I have visions of expanding this, too. I want chickens; I'm revving up to get them.

 

That said, I don't seek to buy organic produce or free-range chickens. I'm very price-sensitive when it comes to food and I'm not paying twice as much for organic milk, as my family goes through 5 gallons a week. I'm not taking on any more specialized a diet than necessary around here. No special trips to the co-op market to buy soy-free (or soy-only or whatever) donuts. Thankfully, our only food "issue" is with me - no lactose for me - but even then, I don't seek a lot of dairy-free cheese or what-not.

 

So...maybe I'm a little bit crunchier than you, but I still eat, buy and feed my family an array of ordinary, packaged supermarket food that's not particularly healthy - or maybe downright atrocious - at least some of the time.

 

The one thing I pretty much ban is gum. It's really not a health issue, though. I just think gum-chewing is gross to look at and serves no purpose. I put it in the same social category as smoking.

[Elinor Everywhere]

 

The one thing I pretty much ban is gum. It's really not a health issue, though. I just think gum-chewing is gross to look at and serves no purpose. I put it in the same social category as smoking.

 

 

Thank you!! Gum-chewing drives me crazy. I let my kids chew it, but my son (in particular) always ends up chewing it noisily and I make him throw it out. Gross! I've never enjoyed gum, but my dd absolutely loves it. She's not gross with it, though, so it makes a great stocking stuffer for her. :)

[KungFuPanda]

 

 

 

The one thing I pretty much ban is gum. It's really not a health issue, though. I just think gum-chewing is gross to look at and serves no purpose. I put it in the same social category as smoking.

 

I beg to differ. There ARE those who could benefit from a nice minty stick of gum.

 

 

As long as we're confessing, I'd like to own up to feeding my family at a food court about once a week. It's either the mall or Wegman's, or at outdoor tables at a shopping center that has a Baha Fresh, Panera, and Five Guys all clustered together. We once hung out there with friends for so long that we got out NEXT meal there as well.

[nukeswife]

I'm one of those that doesn't give a hoot. I buy plenty of beefaroni as it's my 13 year olds favorite go to meal for lunch. I'm the only one in the family that is considered overweight (obese actually, I'm 5'3" 185) but I'm happy with myself, my doctor says I'm good health wise, no high blood pressure or cholesterol. I have a hiatal hernia, but I had that when I was within normal weight range too. The only thing they found wrong at my last physical was I have low Vitamin D. If I really wanted to lose the weight I know I could, but I hate exercise, every kind I've ever tried. Now if I had a house I could fix up that would do it for me. I lost about 30lbs when we bought a fixer upper and I was up and down ladders painting and installing new flooring, cabinets etc.

 

I was pretty vocal on the soda banning thread because I'm so sick of people telling me that what I eat is killing me and I need to be saved from myself. In fact the day that thread was really going, I had a mountain dew and 5 savannah smiles girl scout cookies for breakfast.

 

ETA: I forgot to say I do belong to a CSA, but it's not a typical one. I don't get a box of random stuff each month. I pay in my $139 and I get a membership card to my local farm that is good for $150 worth of what ever the heck I want to buy. They have the best peaches they drive up from SC and pick your own strawberries. This year they'll have raspberries which we're excited about, but we are pretty basic when it comes to fruits and veggies. The only squash that ever enters my house are pumpkins and they just end up with faces rotting on my porch. :p

 

EATA:(edited again to add) I do get milk from a delivery service but it's not certified organic or anything. I'm just to lazy to go out for milk and got spoiled when my kids were younger and my husband found Oberweiss who delivers once a week so I didn't have to run out with the kids. We go through a good 4 gallons a week at least.

[kewb]

I make the best choices I can every day. I am making oat milk right now for the very first time. I make my kefir. I bake 95% of our bread. Use whole wheat pasta. The majority of our meals are from scratch. I do not keep soda in the house because I think it is empty calories. I feel the same way about juice but I will buy it every once in awhile as a treat. 8 times out of 10 I have nice healthy snacks for my kids for after swim practice. Those other 2x, well we were running late and I didn't have time to bake anything so Little Debbie snack cakes it is.

 

Friday night is pizza night and take out chinese food makes a fairly regular appearance as well. I am talking deep fried general tsos chicken with those steamed veggies.

 

My main reason for keeping the junk out of the house is because I will eat it. None of us need it so I don't keep it around. If there is a bag of white flour dinner rolls around I will inhale the bag so I don't keep them in the house.

 

Everything in life is about balance and making the best choices you can. Some days I fall down flat and other days I rock it.

[amsunshine]

Hey, I'm a potato chip junkie....can I join you but have a cocktail instead of beer?

 

Me, too! I'll bring my glass of white wine!

[Dustybug]

We live in the South and my DH was born and bred here. We try to eat mostly healthy, but we're not scared of all the things you listed either. :)

[jewellsmommy]

Well, let's see, I just had vanilla frozen yogurt with fresh pineapple, bananas, and berries...

 

 

smothered in a dark chocolate sauce! :drool5: :lol: .

 

And I have a french fry problem. I will get a lovely salad and unsweet tea at ChicfilA for dinner, but then get a large fry for dessert! :D

 

 

So...no. I don't know what you guys are talking about. I eat healthy all the time, yep, no cheating here. Hmm...Where is the smiley with crossed fingers behind its back?

[SunnyDays]

All I can say is... I want to have a potluck party with all of you!! :D

[I.Dup.]

I don't eat only healthy foods. We do not buy grassfed, organic meat or farm milk. We don't buy organic apples, I try to buy organic greens but we don't eat a lot of vegetables, to be honest. I think we eat decently healthy but we will have pizza or fast food once a week, that kind of thing. I eat a lot of sugar, in the form of chocolate.

 

I had a severe eating disorder and I just can't make my whole life about what I put into my mouth anymore. Life is too short. I do try to stay on top of vitamins and now I'm using essential oils that are supposed to be really high on the ORAC scale, so that makes me feel better. ;)

[mommymilkies]

I'm all about moderation. I'm the first one to scarf down a batch of cookie dough quite proudly. However, our health problems prohibit it right now, so I will just live vicariously through you.

[KrissiK]

We try to eat healthy, and I really could stand to lose 5-10 lbs., but we eat Mac & cheese, we have chips, we have dessert. I give the kids sweet cereal mixed with Cheerios 3-4 times a week for breakfast.

[GSOchristie]

No, we aren't healthy all the time. We have (dye free) sugary cereal every Sarurday morning, special cereal day, as my kids call it. We occasionally eat McDonald's and Chick fil A, about once a month, I'd say. I do make a lot of things from scratch, but it's really as much a money saving thing as health thing. We have to avoid dyes because one kid is allergic, but I will let them have a Twix or Milky Way for a special treat. They eat popcorn that pops in a bag for movie nights once a week, just because I think air popped popcorn is gross ;).

[Chelli]

I had to give such a short answer earlier because I was making supper which was smothered steak (chopped steak dredged in flour, cooked in a skillet, topped with brown gravy), mashed potatoes, corn (cooked with butter and salt), green beans (cooked with brown sugar and bacon), and homemade yeast rolls. :laugh:

 

So, yeah, you could say that we don't eat the best, but it's filling and no one is unhealthy.

[TammyinTN]

I'm one who buys grassfed meats, pastured chickens and their eggs, raw milk, and produce from our CSA. I avoid bread and starch. Or at least, I should.

 

Then that all runs out, and we eat meat, cheese, produce, milk, desserts, and every other good thing from Trader Joe's.

 

We have dessert every night, almost never home-made. Why, when I'm so addicted to Trader Joes dark peanut butter cups and salt-and-dark chocolate-covered almonds!

 

And we eat out a lot. And I drink alcohol daily. As a type this, I'm sitting in the warm sun with my dog at my neighborhood cafe drinking a Moscow Mule, and eating their delicious Turkey Stack sandwich on crusty ciabatta bread. And.....potato chips.

 

So, I STRIVE for one ideal, and live another about 50% of the time. Oh well! Now that Arizona Cocktail Week is over, I'm looking forward to St. Patty's Day. Onward! :D

 

 

I really like you! :D

[Catwoman]

I am so hungry right now.

[Critterfixer]

Just finished a cup of hot chocolate as consolation for not being able to see the comet tonight. No, I don't eat healthy all the time. I do eat gluten-free, soy-free all the time. But that doesn't mean I can't make a mean hot-milk sponge cake substitute with tapioca flour, smother the whole thing in strawberries and have strawberry shortcake for tea!

But now the deal is I have to run another couple of miles a week when I do that, so moderation is important.

[BigMamaBird]

We're the same way. I'm doing Weight Watchers so I try to eat a lot of fruits and veggie, but none of them are organic. I've cut out most pop but still have maybe one a week. I love sweets! My kids love boxed Mac n' Cheese. We're MUCH better than we used to be, but aren't fanatic about it.

[nd293]

I guess we're an 80/20 family. We eat decently most of the time. We eat mostly 'real' stuff - not much highly processed food, and I cook meals from scratch. But the kids get sweets every few days, and chips and soft drinks on the weekend, and yes, we occasionally have pizza or KFC or MacDonalds. Michael Pollan's 'In Defense of Food' and 'The Omnivore's Dilimma' really helped me think through my approach to healthy eating - it put into words my instinctive feelings about the subject.

 

ETA a quote from the Wikipedia article on 'In Defense of Food':

 

" In the book, Pollan explores the relationship between nutritionism and the Western diet, postulating that the answer to healthy eating is simply to "Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants."[3] Pollan argues that nutritionism as an ideology has overly complicated and harmed American eating habits.[2] He says that rather than focusing on eating nutrients, people should focus on eating the sort of food that their ancestors would recognize, implying that much of what Americans eat today isn't real food, but "imitations of food."[3] In the book, he distinguishes between food and "edible foodlike substances." "

[speedmom4]

I don't eat bird seed (quinoa, millet, etc.). Can't stand any of that.

 

 

I don't even know what quinoa is!

 

We eat some very healthy foods like raw milk and organic greens but I also have cookies and white bread in the pantry. We are pretty asynchronous about our diet.

 

Elise in NC

[Hikin' Mama]

I eat a pretty healthy diet, but I'm kind of a "everything in moderation" kind of person. For example, even though I think HFCS is evil, I still have a Coke now and then. The only thing I absolutely will not consume is any type of fake sweetener. But the real stuff? Bring it!

[Hikin' Mama]

Oops.

[Dolphin]

Well, I live in Bugerville country. No matter how good I am most of the time, when Blackberry Milkshakes season, or Rosemary String Season hit, we do the drive through!

[SunnyDays]

I had to give such a short answer earlier because I was making supper which was smothered steak (chopped steak dredged in flour, cooked in a skillet, topped with brown gravy), mashed potatoes, corn (cooked with butter and salt), green beans (cooked with brown sugar and bacon), and homemade yeast rolls. :laugh:

 

So, yeah, you could say that we don't eat the best, but it's filling and no one is unhealthy.

 

 

What was your address again?!? ;)

 

 

[happyhomemaker]

I have thought many times over that people here would be horrified to see the inside of my pantry. I have Coke in there- multiple bottles and I won't give it up!!! I also have some boxes of Kraft Mac and cheese sitting on the shelf, and we have eaten pasta twice this week already. We are all at a healthy, and I do get lots of fruits and veggies, but we love our chips too.

 

Actually this evening I was getting my daughter some goldfish when I noticed ds's open pencil sharpener was in the box. I didnt see any shavings in the box and I didnt know if the sharpener was clean or not. I have no idea why or how it got there (ok, I have a 2 yr old so I have some idea about how), and I was going to post to see if people thought I should throw out the box or not, but I didn't post bc I didn't want people to judge me about having goldfish in the pantry. Whew! Glad I got that off my chest!

[NorthwestMom]

Goldfish are HEALTHY crackers. :thumbup1:

[Word Nerd]

I used to think I did OK until I started visiting these boards.

[Spy Car]

Good grief.

 

Bill

[Mommyof4ks]

We try to eat clean and healthy, but tonight we ate at El Chico, and it was very yummy. :)

[Chelli]

What was your address again?!? ;)

 

 

You're welcome any time!

[Joker]

We try to eat clean and healthy, but tonight we ate at El Chico, and it was very yummy. :)

 

 

 

So not fair!! I miss El Chico. It was the one place we usually went to if we ate out while I was growing up, and we don't have them here.

[mandymom]

I cook most nights from mostly scratch. We participate in a fruit/veggie co-op. I buy organic food sometimes, and I try to stay away from HFCS and I appreciate GMO-free foods.

 

But I like to drink Coke (yeah, yeah, yeah...HFCS supreme), I like to make desserts (although usually from scratch), and my dh is the owner/operator of a Chick-fil-A. Yeah, we certainly aren't purists here.

[jujsky]

Not unless Ben & Jerry's and Cheeze-Its are considered healthy foods.

[nmoira]

Good grief.

 

 

Come now, what's your guilty culinary habit or pleasure? Man cannot live on kale alone.

[Spy Car]

 

 

Come now, what's your guilty culinary habit or pleasure? Man cannot live on kale alone.

 

 

I love kale. So there :p

 

Bill

[Joker]

I love kale. So there :p

 

Bill

 

 

Even though tonight my oldest indulged in an Almond Joy, she also loves kale. It doesn't stay here long because she grabs a few leaves, adds peppers, a bit of cheese, rolls it up and eats. It's one of her favorite snacks. I honestly don't know how she eats it so often and never with dressing. :blink: