It's not tha pants that make your bum look big...it's your bum! 1/3

After a long night of monsters in the closet and endless glasses of water culminating in a bedwetting episode (not your own), sunrise sees you poised over the percolater, waiting for sweet coffee to pervade your nostrils and infuse your veins.  Moments later, you buzz about getting breakfast for the kids, do the dishes, make the beds, put the washing on, feed the dog, shove a bit of white bread toast with jam in you mouth, and finish off what’s left in the coffee pot, with another two sugars.  

A few hours later and a masterpiece on the wallpaper has left you feeling irritable and snappish.  Time for the kid’s morning tea, a cup of tea for yourself and a fistful of chocolate biscuits.   Suddenly the blood pumps through your veins and you’re doing a little jig, spinning the kids around in the air and dancing to The Wiggles ‘toot toot chugga chugga big red car’, everyone’s giggling and breathless. But this energy is short-lived and you are left needing a little lie down. Shame about that, because the next item on the agenda means you have exactly fifteen minutes to pack lunches and get kids in the car.  Scream, shout, threaten and plead, throw a whole lot of packaged items in their lunchboxes. Morning coffee group with other mum’s and only baking and strong coffee is served, with of course two sugars. Lunch? What’s that? How come you never lose any weight? Seems like all you do is run around from morning until night and hardly ever eat a decent meal…throw another handful of chocolate biscuits in your mouth,.. 

2pm and a white bread sandwich with peanut butter and a banana will have to suffice until dinner. Four o’clock hits you like a ton of bricks and you can’t believe its only Wednesday, it feels like it should be Friday.  A cup of tea and a meusli bar will pick you up.  Pasta for dinner followed by a nice big glass of wine or two will help you relax and unwind for about five minutes before the evening shift begins.  The television goes on, and a packet of biscuits is handed around while you finish off with a cup of tea, two sugars.  Up again for your second and final wind of the evening, dishes, fold the washing, vacumn and make the lunches before falling into bed for another night of monsters, glasses of water and sharp toenails in your ribs.

Have you ever been at the petrol station when some bleary-eyed fool puts diesel in his petrol tank?  Did you roll your eyes and smirk along with everyone else? Everyone knows petrol engines don’t run on diesel.  Why does nobody roll their eyes when we expect the human body to run on no gas? Or worse, fill up on stimulants such as chocolate biscuits, caffeine and refined foods and then expect to function as a calm, rational grown-up? 

At about 10.30 am this morning, I watched my 2 year old son have a meltdown.  He had been happily playing when suddenly I could see him being hit by a tidal wave of frustration.  He started to stamp his feet and cry, and run around in circles.  Did I smack him? Put him in time out? Ask him what was wrong? Distract him? No, I had forgotten his 10am morning tea break, because my parents were visiting from out of town and we were out of routine.  I simply made him some food and sat him down to eat.  He calmed down straight away and was happily playing 10 minutes later.  I’m not saying it’s the answer to all tantrums, but what I am saying that there is a huge link between trying to get your petrol car to run on little, or no gas and its output and performance.

It takes a lot of effort to shop and eat well.  When you are feeling down, if you are busy or stressed or very tired, good habits can go right out the window. It is of course these times that the body’s nutritional needs are greatest, but to eat well, you need to know how to eat well, and if you are on a budget you need to know how to get the most out of it.  It doesn’t cost a lot of money to eat well, but it is an effort that you have to make every day!

Fatigue, fuzzy thinking, nappy brain, a shaky, empty feeling inside, or shaky hands, headaches, indecision, poor concentration, irritable, weepy, irrational outbursts of anger quickly followed by guilt, over-reacting or loss of perspective on situations….have you ever thought that maybe it’s not your nature, maybe its not even nurture…..maybe its what you put (or don’t put) in your mouth?

If you want to get the most out of your grocery budget, then listen up, because one of the most important things you can do for your family’s health and for your grocery bill is to reduce sugar in your diet.  Sugar is robbing your family of nutrients and charging you for it at the same time!

Take a look at a typical day’s eating habits in the life of one of my female patients.  This woman suffered from anxiety and terrible indecisiveness that drove her and her family mad.  She was adamant that she ate a healthy diet.  What do you think?

Breakfast

Meusli with canned peaches & toast with jam

A glass of orange juice

Snack

Fruit yoghurt and apple

Lunch

Salad sandwich with mayonnaise

Snack

Meusli bar and can of lemonade

Dinner

Spaghetti bolognaise with vegetables

Desert

99% Fat free ice cream

A serving of peaches in syrup for example contains 4 teaspoons of sugar.  Yoghurt (not the brightly coloured children’s flavoured variety, but the healthy fruity variety) contains up to 6 teaspoons of sugar in just one serve! Unless you’re careful about which Orange Juice you buy, you may find up to 6 teaspoons of extra sugar added to each serving of juice.  There’s sugar hidden in your mayonnaise, and a couple of teaspoons more hidden in your pasta sauce.  Meusli bars are positively scary with about 6-8 teaspoons of sugar added.  A 600ml bottle of lemonade has 20 teaspoons of sugar, and icecream….well, lets not even go there. 

All this adds up to an entire 250 ml glass full of sugar that some people eat every day, and that’s on a seemingly healthy diet.  Can you imagine how it escalates when you start to add chocolate and lollies, more softdrinks and cakes and biscuits!