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Walking through the grocery store pushing a shopping cart, trying to remember all the things on your list that you forgot to bring with you and trying to stay on budget all while wrangling your children can make for a chaotic grocery shopping experience. It can be easy to skip over the healthy stuff and just grab what is quick and easy. We all want to eat more healthy foods, give our children healthy snack options and cook healthy, flavorful meals, but it isn’t always easy to focused on that while being tempted by so many unhealthy, yummy alternatives at the grocery store.
There are a few tricks to navigating the grocery store so that you stay on task (buying healthy foods for your family):
- Always make a list. Determine what meals you will prepare before hand so you know what ingredients to buy and so you won’t be tempted by easy, prepared foods.
- Shop on a full stomach. It is a lot easier to be tempted by unhealthy food options when your stomach is growling.
- Know what the healthy options are in each section of the store.
- Breads: look for whole wheat or whole grain options. Also look for breads that offer lots of fiber.
- Pastas, cereals and rice: look for whole grain options, and options that are lower in sugar.
- Produce: you can’t go wrong in this section. Be generous and fill your cart with lots of fruits and veggies.
- Dairy: looks for low fat options such as skim or 1% for milk, yogurt and cheeses.
- Meat: look for lean poultry and fish. Limit your red meats and when you do purchase red meats opt for lean cuts.
- Snacks: Limit the processed snacks you purchase. Look for baked options and light popcorn.
- Try to buy for the full week or two weeks so you can avoid additional trips to the store. You are more likely to purchase extra, unhealthy items the more often you are at the store.
The key is to know what you want before you get there, filling your cart with fruits, veggies, whole grains, lean meats and low-fat dairy so there isn’t much room for unhealthy sugary or salty snacks. I always forget to make a list, but when I do I find a make much better food choices and am much less likely to have to go back to the store again for stuff I forgot.
What tricks do you use to navigate the grocery store so that you are making healthy choices?
The Missouri Botanical Gardens located in St. Louis is a truly beautiful and amazing place to visit. No matter what time of year you decide to visit the Gardens there is always something blooming and blossoming. Founded in 1859 the Missouri Botanical Gardens boosts the oldest, continuously running gardens in the nation. 79 acres of lush greenery, beautiful blooms, fish filled ponds and meandering walkways make the Botanical Gardens a draw to many in the St. Louis area and beyond.
We try to get to the Botanical Gardens every few months or so. This past weekend, since the weather here was absolutely gorgeous, we decided to take advantage of their free admission for St. Louis City and County residents on Saturday mornings. The tulips, azaleas, peonys and blossoming trees were all in bloom.
Every where we turned we were surrounded by bright colors, lovely scents and beauty. Maya loved stopping to smell all the different flowers and taking a few minutes to stop and feed the koi. We got a ton of beautiful pictures. It was a truly amazing way to spend our Saturday morning.
The Botanical Gardens is a great place for families. There is so much for kids to explore; pathways to wander down, ponds filled with fish to feed, and a wonderful children’s garden. My favorite part is that they label every flower, plant and tree with the name and information about conditions it needs to so you can find some new things that may work in your home garden. I highly recommend taking advantage of this wonderful treasure of St. Louis.
For St. Louis City and County residents the Gardens offers free admission on Wednesday and Saturday mornings before noon, otherwise admission is $4 dollars ($8 for those visitors from outside St. Louis County). There is also often special exhibits at the Gardens which requires an additional admission fee.
The weather here in St. Louis has been absolutely gorgeous this spring. We’ve had this incredible stretch of warm, sunny weather that just makes you want to be outside. Who are we to argue with Mother Nature, if she wants us to be outside, we will be outside!! Pretty much every day we have enjoyed at least some time outside. We’ll either go to the park, the zoo, go for a walk after dinner, or just simply play outside for a little bit before bedtime. Maya has been just loving it, and so have Lorne and I.
One things I’ve always loved to do is go sit some where pretty and have a picnic. When the weather gets gorgeous like this I just can’t resist the urge to pack up our lunch or our dinner and head outside to enjoy it. Last week we went on our first picnic of the year. I packed up our dinner and as soon as Lorne got home from work we headed to the park just down the street, laid out our picnic blanket and enjoyed a beautiful evening together.
Maya LOVED it and has been asking to go on another picnic ever since. So, yesterday I decided we’d have a picnic lunch. We ate Maya’s favorite lunch, bagels and fruit. She ate, ran around, ate some more. It was just an all around good time.
Ahhh, gotta love picnic season 
One of Maya‘s very favorite things to do is to go to the park. You can ask her any day of the week what she wants to do, rain or shine, hot or cold, and her answer will always be, in a super excited voice, “Go a park!!” The park is the one place guaranteed to bring a smile to her face and the place where she would happily waste away hours and hours of her day.
Thanks to Maya’s mild obsession with parks we know where to find the parks pretty much every where in St. Louis and locating a park is always top on the agenda if we are visiting some place new.
This year we had a really cold, yucky winter and had to go a pretty long stretch without being able to go to the park. As you can imagine Maya was pretty bummed. So when the first signs of nice weather started making their appearance Maya and I started hitting the park. We’ve been blessed with a long stretch of beautiful weather so far this Spring so Maya has spent a lot (and I do mean A LOT) of time at the park already this year.
Since we go to so many different parks Maya has started color-coding the parks we frequent. There is the orange park (her favorite), the white park, the green park, and the yellow park, so far. On a day that has been designated a “park day” I’ll ask her which park she wants to go to and she’ll always tell me by referring to the color-code Our list is getting so long that I may need to make a little cheat sheet for myself so I don’t accidentally take her to the wrong one.
Her favorite park right now is the “orange park” also known as Tilles Park. The “orange park” was named for it’s cool, giant orange swings.
The park we visit most frequently, since is right down the street from us, is the “white park”, better known as Demun Park. I’m not entirely sure how this park was named the “white park” since it is mostly beige, but hey it is her code afterall
Last year we spent a lot of time at the “green park”, also known around these parts as Shaw Park. We’ve only been once so far this year. It has sort of taken a back seat to the current favorite.
I’m sure by the end of the summer we will have parks named for all the colors of the rainbow and then some
Our babies spend a lot of time on their backs. Between sleeping and sitting in carseats, strollers, swings and bouncy seats pretty much most of their day is spent lying on their backs. Because they spend so much time on their backs it is vitally important to make sure your baby gets plenty of tummy time every day. The current recommendation is for at least 30 minutes of tummy time everyday. You can do it all at once or break it down into smaller chunks throughout the day, it doesn’t matter, as long as your child is getting at least 30 minutes total.
Tummy time is so important because it us while lying on his or her stomach that your child will begin building their core muscles, neck muscles and arm and shoulder strength. Plus by spending at least part of everyday on their stomach helps prevent issues caused by spending too much time lying on their backs, such as plagiocephaly or flat head syndrome.
Some babies will love playing on their tummy and may even prefer it to being on their backs. However, some babies will just not take to it and you may have to work at it a bit or a use a few tricks to get some tummy time in without your baby feeling like their are being forced to be on their stomach. My daughter hated tummy time for the first 2-3 months. She was great at it, and was actually quite strong, but she just didn’t enjoy it at first. We had to keep working with her and eventually she came around.
Here are a few things you can do to help build tummy time into your routine throughout the day.
- Alternate between back and tummy for play time. Activity mats or blankets laid out on the floor are great for both back play and tummy time.
- While you are laying on the bed or the couch place your baby on their tummy on your chest facing you. Sing, talk to them, or play silly games to keep them interested in staying on their tummy.
- If your baby is fussy because of gassiness place him or her on their tummy over your knees. It will help work the gas bubbles out and will give them a bit of tummy time all at once.
- If your baby is fussy about tummy time get down on their level with them. Lay the baby on a blanket on the floor and lay down on your tummy facing them. Sing, talk, read a book, play silly games or encourage them with different toys. Having you right there will help make tummy time not seem so bad.
If you aren’t sure if your baby is getting enough tummy time or if your baby seems to lack strength in their upper body from a lack of tummy time be sure to talk to your child’s doctor.