Eat My Kale!
It’s hard to keep up with the Joneses (Kardashians, Johnsons, Olsons, Andersons) sometimes. Even with all the information we’d ever want in the palm of our little hand it still takes a brisk jog to keep pace with the times. As we evolve from singular to plural our focus shifts from “me” to “we”. What’s the best way to put your baby down to sleep at night? Have you heard of those amber teething beads? Traveling soccer clubs or recreation league? What is the feedback on the middle school curriculum? Those diapers don’t work. Look for BPA free bottles. Oh wait, now they’re saying BPA free bottles are just as harmful. Don’t bring your baby outside from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. in the summer. Probiotics are a must for the whole family. Stay away from dairy. Make sure it is non GMO. Have you heard of the cinnamon challenge? What are the benefits of vitamins A, B, C and D? Make sure you keep the baby’s car seat rear facing until he’s 13.
I often wonder how I ever made it this far thinking back to a childhood of running through the neighborhood barefoot past sketchy white vans while dodging rusty metal completely unsupervised. My mom made fried chicken for dinner and we had to clean our plates and drink that nasty room temperature glass of milk before we could ask to be excused from the table. We fought over who could sit in the front seat of my mom’s Camaro at the age of six or begged our parents to take our seat belts off the last 15 minutes of the drive. My mom would let us lick the spoon when we made cupcakes and I swear my mom wiped my nose with the same nasty wet dishcloth that sat in the sink to wipe up the counter. I guess it’s all about evolving right?!
It’s hard not to guilt trip ourselves over everything we’re NOT doing as parents, spouses and human beings in general. Please don’t pay attention to the fact that we’re working full time inside or outside the home. We are researching the best schools and activities and vitamins for our children while getting zero hours of sleep at night. We are on constant suicide watch with our toddlers. Please don’t eat that rock or throw yourself down a flight of stairs today. We hold thrashing children and break up wrestling matches in Target aisles while team members tell our children to sit down in the cart and strangers shoot judgy looks in our very general direction.
When they yell at us and tell us they hate us and we’re the worst parents on earth we hug them with love and compassion. We worry for them so they can have fun. We cry with them when life gets hard and sometimes there just are no words. Yet we still manage to slap our own hands for not making the spaghetti noodles from scratch or writing a homemade story for bedtime. No matter how hard we try we will still find ten things we aren’t doing that we wish we were. I guess we can blame that on Facebook, Pinterest and Instagram right?! Just go to my pin boards and you’ll see my perfectly organized life! Until then, you can find me in aisle 7 buried in boxes of Captain Crunch attempting to break up a figure four suplex.
When I was pregnant with Jameson my boss at the time had two grown sons and she told me something that I’ve carried with me over time. She said “it’s important to take care of yourself.” That sounds simple enough right? Easier said than done when it’s 10 p.m. and you managed to survive the work to home transition, dinner prep, soccer practice, dishes, bath time, tantrum time, bed time, walk the baby in circles for 45 minutes to go to sleep time and then you realize you forgot to eat dinner.
She told me “you know how when you’re on an airplane and they are going through the instructions about placing the oxygen mask on yourself first and then securing your child’s mask? That is what you need to do to be a successful parent.” It seemed a little silly (and selfish) to me at the time but now I get it. You can’t be anything to anyone else if you don’t take care of yourself first. Start small. One day at a time. Baby steps. One thing leads to another. You are loving your child when you love yourself. You are taking care of your child and your family when you make sure to meet your own needs.
One thing that Rocky and I have done together to take better care of ourselves on a daily basis is to make our kale shakes. It was something that fell into our laps one day when Rocky was listening to a Joe Rogan podcast and here we are three years later. It is definitely a commitment for us to pick up these fresh ingredients every other day, wake up 30 minutes earlier than usual 3 times a week to blend it all up and remember to take it out the door with us every day when we hustle out the door, but we’ve done it and we feel so much better for doing it.
Rocky usually wakes up and makes it all while I’m getting ready to make sure I never leave home without it. We have bonded over it as a couple. It is “our” thing when date nights have become few and far between. My brain fog has lifted and my energy has renewed. Although I had to literally gag each bite down when we first started eating them, now I can barely get work fast enough so I can take my first bite. It’s like my body knows how much it needs all of those good nutrients and it’s screaming at my brain and chanting… Eat it! Eat it! I am clear headed now. I can manage the 5 urgent conversations that are happening all at once. I am not agitated and crawling out of skin. I have energy to brave the Target aisles with my tag team and can be more present in our life because I am eating something every day that feeds my body and my mind. That makes it easy to run out to Cub at 9:30 at night (or send Rocky!) to get Cilantro or pack up our Nutribullet to take to the cabin to make sure we still get our greens when we’re out of town. We have even gotten most of the kids on board (minus Jameson and Cherish… they just can’t do it… yet). But if the baby even catches a glimpse of my green glass he is whining and opening his mouth like a baby bird!
We are by no means… sugar free, gluten free, all organic, no electronics, off the grid, beach body ready… but it is one step closer to a healthier “us”. We learn as we go and hopefully keep changing what doesn’t work and finding new things that make us healthy and happy as individuals and as a family.
Here’s our Reynolds Family Kale Shake Recipe. Give it a shot and vary it to your liking!
2 Cucumbers
1 Bosc or Red Pear
2 Tablespoons of Organic Coconut Oil
1 Bushel Ciltranro
1 Bushel Parsley
6 Stalks of Celery
1 Batch of Kale
1 cube of Fresh Ginger
Wash everything up thoroughly and then cut it all up. Keep everything! The stalks, stems, etc. The only thing we peel and throw is the ginger skin. Everything else is full of vitamins, edible and fair game. We use a Vitamix but you can use any blender that will accommodate these hearty greens. Blend them to a consistency that is to your liking and you’re set! This will make a batch good for 4 servings. Sometimes we add beets, chard, and spinach. You can’t go wrong! xxoo
