Healthy Swaps... Is it too much to ask for?

Something pretty cool happened at our Thanksgiving dinner that we thought would be fun to share with you all.  Let me just start by saying I (Dan) love my family very much.  Ha, you are probably wondering where I am going after that qualifier right???  

Well my family tends to be a bit on the pickier side when it comes to eating.  White potatoes, corn and carrots are what we considered veggies. Spices consist of salt and pepper and at one point in our lives, food wasn't allowed to touch each other on our plates. GASP!  I'm over simplifying a little bit but let's just say that they are very comfortable eating foods that they know they like and change can be difficult. Especially when we are talking about our traditional Thanksgiving dishes.  Lord help us if those were to ever change!!! (I'm sure we're not the only family like this)

We do all the "normal" sides for Minnesota family;

• Mashed Potatoes
• Dressing/Stuffing
• Green Bean Casserole
• Squash
• Corn Casserole
• Gravy

These are some of my favorites and I look forward to each of them on Thanksgiving.  I will say that most of these dishes would be considered "treats" and things that shouldn't be eaten everyday if your goal is health or weight loss.  From time to time they are all fine and even once in a while eating them all in one meal would be ok too.  ;)    

I recently did some nutritional testing to see if I am sensitive to any foods, which you'll hear more about later in another blog post.  The test came back and told me that dairy and I don't agree very much, so I've been cutting that out of my diet for the past 2 months or so.  I've "cheated" a few times and I can feel it when I do eat it.  It's nothing drastic but I get gassy...not to the point of clearing out a room...but enough that I can totally see the direct connection between consuming it and stuff going on in my gut.  On top of that Laura has also been cutting out dairy, due to Eli struggling a bit with it.  If he feeds after she has some he will get phlegmy which does lead to him being a little more fussy.  

If you look at all the side dishes above, all of them include dairy whether it be from milk or a canned soup.  So we asked if it would be possible to make some swaps in order to cut the dairy out of these dishes.  To our surprise, my family was totally ok with doing that and everyone still enjoyed all of the food.  We used almond milk for a majority of the swaps and couldn't tell the difference in the flavor.  Some of my family probably didn't even know that we changed a thing!
  
The point of this post is to hopefully help you feel comfortable stepping out and asking your family and friends to make some healthy swaps.  I know for a lot of us that are into healthy eating we sometimes stay quiet and just eat whatever we are served, thinking that we are rocking the boat too much if we ask people to accommodate to some of our "dietary situations."  Let me just say that if my family can do it, so can yours.  Who knows, they may actually like the healthier option, and you might be the good influence and the little push they need to start cleaning up their diet!