It turns out, that not only do I not eat grains, but I also can’t count.
Did I say eating Paleo lifts brain fog? I might have to take that back.
Yesterday was Day 12 not 13! Doh!

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Coincidentally, our thirteenth day is on Halloween. I have sent our two kids off to a Halloween party with some friends.
The last place you want to be on your 30 Day challenge is at a sugar fest, so I chose to come home and do my daily write up instead.
As an Australian, I don’t really get excited about Halloween and I certainly feel quite challenged when it comes to making costumes for the kids. Craft is not my strong point.

Halloween is one of those few days of the year that I turn a blind eye to junk food consumption. A parent no matter how anal, at some point must surrender to this society we live in and it’s traditions.
I am not against occasional treats.
If I wasn’t on my 30 Day Paleo Challenge, I would definitely be having a glass of red, with some dark chocolate right now, and maybe a tequila or two – but that’s me. And I normally would need something to help me deal with those sugar injected kids later too.
I guess the biggest challenge for Paleo parents or any other parent who is conscious about food is; how can I maintain the right balance between the food my kids should eat, and the food they want to eat?

I feel that it depends on the child and even the developmental phase they are experiencing at the time, age etc. But I do have some tricks up my sleeve….
My most effective method is education.
I let the children help me cook, so they can touch and get to know the vegetables. I call it ‘Food Bonding!’ They learn their names, how they feel, what they look like when you cut them in half and how they grow in the earth etc.
Then we have a book, The Nutrition Bible (it is a tad old these days, but effective). You can look up pretty much every food and their vitamins and mineral content and what it is good for – whether it be skin, eyes or brain. Our son frequently asks us during dinner ‘ What is ….. good for? Then we get the book out and read about it.
My daughter insists that eating fish will help you swim faster – that was not in the book.
The kids love to learn about food and they have been chopping vegetables since they were two. When we go out to eat, we still let them eat pizza and chips ( that is french fries ). Afterwards we talk about how they feel, which is normally not great. I try not to deprive them too much as it can be counterproductive. I grew up in a junk free household (bless my mum and dad for this healthy start), but, every penny I could get my hands on, would secretly make it’s way down to the local shop, where I would buy a bag of lollies and eat until I puked. I certainly don’t want our children to feel compelled to do that, so we allow them ‘junk’ once in a while.

I never force our kids to eat anything they don’t like either, but they must however, try everything we cook. I came from a family where our father, who grew up during post-war depression, forced all of his six daughters (I come from a big family), to finish every last morsel on our plates. The day we moved house, three strong removalists carried the antique wooden sideboard that had been placed beautifully next to the dining table for years, away into the truck. Left behind were remnants of all the food my sisters had thrown behind it, during my father’s pockets of inattentiveness.
Happy Halloween everybody!