Hi Carrots N Cake readers. This guest post is really an honor for me because I am practically addicted to Tina’s blog. I can’t go through the day without checking in on her at least two or three times. She always seems to have either an amazing cookie recipe or a great exercise tip that I had never thought of and in our house she is simply known as ‘Tina’. Even though I have never met her in my life I feel like she is a friend. I know her husband’s name and her dog’s name and sometimes that is just plain weird, but “Welcome to the Blog World!”
My name is Maria (aka RealFitMama) and my blog (which you can check out to get my whole story) is picking up speed everyday. I write about, well, my life. My life is crazy! I have a husband (Jason) and two daughters (Linsey is 8 and Regan is 2). We, like most parents, are doing the best we can to raise happy and healthy girls who will one day become productive, successful members of our society. Right now my focus is really on the happy and healthy part. The females in our house are vegetarian and the male is an omnivore, but I have my feeling he will be joining our side sooner than he realizes!! Every time I write an article regarding cruelty to animals or tainted meat or what Monsanto is doing to our agriculture his mind changes a little bit more.
That’s not what I want to talk about today though. I want to address the difficulties we as parents (and everyone really) face living in a “fast food nation”. It’s more difficult than ever to raise children naturally when they are bombarded a zillion times a day with all kinds of unnatural products and the people bombarding them are telling them that they need these products or the “cool kids” all have these products or they will be a “cool kid” if they have these products. When McDonald’s sponsors the newest “it” movie with toys in the Happy Meal how do you say no when your daughter is crying because all her friends go there after school? How do you look her in the eyes without feeling guilty when she’s crying because a kid at school called her a “vegetarian freak”?
To put it in the most honest terms – I tell my daughter the sad, brutal truth so that she knows where I’m coming from. When Linsey was about 3 years old she and I sat down together and watched Super Size Me because she wondered why we never went to McDonald’s or Burger King like most of her friends. When she started asking questions regarding being a vegetarian I showed her the PETA documentary Meet Your Meat. I also make sure that she understands how using fresh fruits and vegetables not only helps our planet, but gives us the opportunity to have fun in the kitchen together. Some may call my parenting style bold or eccentric. Others may call it abusive, but I call it “what works for me” and so far Jason and I feel that our children are just what we hoped they would be – happy and healthy.
I would never in a million years tell someone how they should raise their children or what they should feed their children, but so many times in the eight years that I have been a parent people have taken it upon themselves to do just that to me. Many people (even in my own family) have told me that my daughters are malnourished because I don’t allow them to eat meat. I have been told that we are unhealthy by people who are overweight and under active. It can be hurtful to have the people I love and trust the most judge me so harshly as a mother when all I am trying to do is avoid all the health pitfalls so many Americans (my family included) fall into daily.
Instead of getting defensive or fighting back (which I have been known to do in the past) I have decided (since it is a new year after all) that I will no longer get sucked in to other peoples insecurities regarding their health and food choices. Instead, I will continue on this path of health and fitness and happiness with my husband and my daughters because in the end all I want is to give them the healthy start I didn’t get.In April, Linsey and I are running a 10k to raise money for the ASPCA and having her wake me up at 5:45 in the morning to ask if she can join me in my morning pilates session tells me that we are well on our way to fulfilling our dream of having happy and healthy children.
