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Ok…I just have to say it…I love food! I have always enjoyed treats and chips and anything with meat, and if I’m being honest…have not ever been very good at portion control and willpower when it comes to food. While this allowed me to enjoy a lot of amazing meals and foods over the years, my body finally revolted about a year ago.
I started having stomach issues in February of 2020 and for the longest time thought it was a sensitivity to gluten. Multiple trips to my doctor, a gastroenterologist, and finally a naturopathic doctor later I have discovered I have SIBO. I had never heard of this before but have come to realize that all those years of basically not holding back when it came to food has made an impact on how my body digests and processes it.
One of the steps my wife and I have decided to take to help remedy this is a program called the Whole 30. We heard about it from some family friends and decided to try it as it focuses less on body shaming and worrying about what the scale says, and more on what you eat, how you eat and when. They even tell you not to weigh yourself for the entire 30 days! Instead, you cut a lot of foods out of your diet for 30 days and then one-by-one introduce them back in to see what your body may be having difficulty with. There’s also a lot of support and encouragement on when you eat, how much to eat and how to avoid certain cravings and food urges.
I’m excited about this journey as about 9 days in I am already seeing some great results and my stomach is feeling a lot better. I’m also learning a lot about my habits and relationship with food and how I can break some of those “eating just because” moments that when added up can be harmful.
I bring this up because I know that as parents and caregivers we often think about and stress over our kids’ nutrition and what they will and won’t eat. This often causes us a lot of stress, which we sometimes use food to help us cope with. But, with March being National Nutrition Month and starting my own wellness journey I thought it was a good time to remind myself as well as all of us that our kids need to see us taking care of our bodies and nutrition as well. And hey…if the saying “more is caught than taught” is true…than hopefully our healthy eating habits will be seen by them and maybe (just maybe!) it will be easier to encourage them to eat more of their vegetables next time.
I’ll make sure to follow-up in a future blog with the end of my Whole 30 journey, but would also love to hear from you…how do you talk about and focus on nutrition for yourself and your family? Please share your stories with us at parentinghub@earlylearninghub.org.
For more articles from this author, check out his blog at This is Fatherhood!
