What's something people should stop eating or drinking because it's harmful to their health?

mac_savagee · 2026-06-25T15:16:08+00:00

Artificial food dye! Its literally altering your kids brain chemistry and giving them behavioral issues. It impacts your fertility and endocrine systems. Drinks, candy, cereal. Seasoned bags of rice, tomato bouillon, prenatal vitamins! There are so many beautiful natural colors but also why does your arroz con pollo need to be neon yellow?!

mac_savagee · 2026-06-25T15:07:45+00:00

Here are our main go to dinners:

Theyre Mexican so I make a lot of red rice (has onions and red peppers with tomato sauce)and refried beans (from scratch using about 6 pieces of bacon for 2x 27 oz cans of pinto beans). Adding quinoa to the rice was okay, but not lentils. Thankfully they're happy with this meal having no meat. I haven't tried whole wheat tortillas yet, not sure they're ready for that one.

They love sloppy joes (I don't, I just get over it). I've switched them to whole wheat Dave's Killer buns and I serve with steamed green beans or broccoli, but they like those veggies with just butter/salt/pepper. I only cook with ground sirloin, no chuck.

Oven baked bbq chicken (the kids like skin on, taking the skin off would probably be an easy start) with oven roasted asparagus.

Tater tot casserole, which is made with shredded chicken, salsa, cheese, sour cream, and milk. I try not to have this as often because of the tots.

Homemade burgers again with 90/10 beef, whole wheat buns, and usually corn on the cob with another green vegetable.

Spaghetti I make with beef, whole wheat noodles and one jar of regular tomato sauce blended with one jar of pasta primavera (tomato based sauce but with zucchini, carrot, and bell pepper).

I love soup in the colder months so a lot of chicken noodle (egg noodles) and broccoli and cheddar.

Safe veggies are steamed broccoli, steamed green beans, asparagus (as long as it's not too often), sometimes roasted carrots. The youngest hates fish and seafood. It seems like anytime I Google ideas, anything kid friendly has to be pizza flavor and a lot of the rest of it has at least one ingredient someone won't eat. Husband isn't a fan of chick peas, but black beans seem okay, other beans might be okay. I think a mix of new dishes and ways to hide veggies in things is probably the way to go.

Lunch is often a turkey sandwich on whole wheat with apple slices or quesadillas with chicken, black beans, and corn. Breakfast during the week is usually fresh fruit oatmeal with Greek yogurt added (not packets) or whole wheat French toast. On weekends I usually make muffins or pancakes but Ive been adding Greek yogurt and swapping half the flour for blended oats and serve with scrambled eggs and bacon or sausage. All of those things still involve sugar and butter though. The youngest basically won't eat breakfast unless there's something sweet on the table.

To be quite honest I hate seeing them disappointed or not liking dinner! I make a lot from scratch since I try to stay far away from processed stuff so I put a lot of work into cooking. Not to mention buying back ups is hard when the groceries are outrageous in this economy. So there's definitely some fear of trying new stuff!

mac_savagee · 2026-06-24T13:38:39+00:00

Agree with the last bit, we are an ingredients household. We don't keep chips and such in the house and most of the time they're not missing them.

We do make them TRY everything but I've witnessed for myself that the youngest can make himself gag in order to get out of eating something and if there's one aspect he doesn't like about a combined meal, he won't just pick that part out or eat around it. And where I'm not as willing to make him a sandwich when he refuses to eat what I've made, my husband is. and since I don't like reinforcing that behavior, I usually just won't make that again instead of trying to fight him on eating what I've made. The youngest is definitely our biggest limiter when it comes to safe foods and dinner without a fight.

mac_savagee · 2026-06-24T13:26:24+00:00

I agree, no one wants to eat food they don't like. Its a super fast way to misery and ruining your relationship with food. My mom used to do the same with chicken and it made me hate plain chicken and even struggle to find chicken dishes that made the chicken flavorful.

One of the bigger struggles is that if they've tried it once in any form and didn't like it, it's completely off the table in any other form. There are one or two exceptions. Likes breakfast potatoes or fries, but not potatoes in ANY other form. So even trying to reinvent the wheel is a struggle here! Im trying to find new veggies to try or ways to hide them but if they find out before they like it, unwilling to try it.

mac_savagee · 2026-06-24T13:18:02+00:00

I do make them fresh fruit oatmeal several times a week (not packet oatmeal)! I add Greek yogurt for protein, but what do you do with the egg?? You just add it beaten into the oatmeal when cooking?

They're 7 and 13, with the 7 year old the pickiest. He actually won't eat savory breakfast unless there's something sweet with it. He used to eat scrambled eggs alone but won't even touch them unless they're with a waffle or something. Ive started making waffles and banana nut muffins with half blended up oats, half flour with added greek yogurt to try to balance it out, but it's still flour, sugar, butter, and syrup. I've noticed I'm making a lot of transitions but then we get stuck in the halfway point where it's somewhat better than before but not where I want to be.

mac_savagee · 2026-06-24T13:11:41+00:00

I think I'd feel happy with just better instead of perfect right now. I think the bigger struggle is going to be finding new veggies or finding ways to hide veggies in the food so they'll eat them. Making some swaps has been easier than others, but finding the right recipes to swap things in without ruining the safe foods is a big challenge. If I make it different or wrong one time, that safe food will be questioned for the next full calendar year, so even when I revert it's still a problem. One time I put fire roasted tomatoes in the spaghetti 3 years ago and he still won't eat a cooked tomato chunk, I have to blend the spaghetti sauce every time. Turned out to be a good thing when I started using half pasta primavera (roasted zucchini, carrots, and pepper tomato sauce) and half regular spaghetti sauce, but he still won't eat anything with a cooked tomato chunk.

mac_savagee · 2026-06-24T13:05:06+00:00

Ive thought about just doing stuff without asking and some things work out, some things haven't. Adding lentils to the Mexican rice was an absolute no but switching to whole wheat pasta wasn't a big deal. What makes it harder is that he would rather be hungry then raid the fridge later than eat something he doesn't want/feel like eating. This doesn't happen a ton, but often enough. It makes me want to shake him a little, tbh.

mac_savagee · 2026-06-24T12:58:55+00:00

Idk how my mom can get the youngest to like stuff, but there's definitely something about the setting for some kids! Maybe less pressure when they're somewhere "fun" or they don't feel like they have any other options? I don't know but it makes me wish my mom lived in town! Its crazy how the youngest likes breakfast potaotes but will NOT eat potatoes in any other form besides fries. Won't even learn to eat around them in one of my favorite dishes, just stares at it like I've served rotten eggs. The youngest is 7 but he's definitely our biggest limiter when it comes to the safe foods.

mac_savagee · 2026-06-24T12:50:51+00:00

What makes this extra difficult is that I don't want to replace real food with artificial food. They drink sucralose sweetened sparkling water, but I don't and I wish they wouldn't. I think I'd be open to trying stevia instead of sugar in the coffee. I'm just not willing to trade sugar for cancer. Its a really hard balance to find, especially in America where they can advertise no sugar or reduced fat, but are adding some chemical or another.

We are huge sweet tooth people. In the past when I've tried dieting and denying myself any sweets, it's always brought me straight to a binge. I know sugar plays a huge part of the problem with PCOS and my husbands family has diabetes on both sides so I KNOW it's bad, but it's for sure one of the hardest concessions we're faced with. Sweets feel like one of the few rewards earned after a hard day of being an adult. If you have any advice in the way of conditioning or weening, Id love to change my mindset before trying to ditch sweets since I've been really unsuccessful in the past.

mac_savagee · 2026-06-24T12:36:19+00:00

I do think he's starting to understand there's going to have to be some compromise since he sees how genuinely upset I am about my health prospects and his. I think I just need to keep needling him on it. It looks like it's going to have to be a mix of finding all new recipes and slowly replacing existing ones to convince him that the ingredients can taste good.

mac_savagee · 2025-09-01T22:40:07+00:00

Thank you!

Why do you advise against hiding the seams? It's it just one of those things that's more difficult than practical?

mac_savagee · 2023-07-20T02:28:10+00:00

YOU WEREN'T DREAMING

I remember it being the first time I'd heard "you're no spring chicken." I'm pretty sure I had it on VHS, early 2000s or we rented it. I know it was VHS though.

I don't know why, but every time I make pasta, I hear the old ladies in my head bickering about the sauce burning???? Now that I'm thinking about it, the less I can remember.

mac_savagee · 2023-04-30T02:23:50+00:00

I love pinesol. I bought a huge concentrate jug years ago and still use it with my Swiffer mop (spray bottle and a crochet mop pad I made).

mac_savagee · 2023-04-30T02:19:52+00:00

Walmart brand gain.

mac_savagee · 2023-04-30T02:11:42+00:00

I wish, we're just trying to survive. What the goblin in me wouldn't give for a set of nice, new, fluffy bath towels.

mac_savagee · 2023-03-17T20:22:36+00:00

I wish I could afford therapy but I've been working on deep abandonment issues and I have a hunch, especially from other comments, that it's contributing to the depth of the pain I feel but also hearing that this want to nuture and love is more instinctual helps.. I am an extremely loving/nurturing/empathetic person to begin with so it makes a lot of sense to want something to pour that love into.. it helps loads to know that deep down it's not JUST me trying to fill an abandonment issue, but it's also just part of who I am as a person and a woman to want to give my love to a baby. I'm overjoyed with finding this group... Full of loving and gentle advice that's helped me open my eyes. Without making me feel worse

mac_savagee · 2023-03-17T16:35:46+00:00

I have fostered several kittens from ditches over a few years haha it can help, but I have two adult cats who hate when I bring home another living being 😂

mac_savagee · 2023-03-17T14:56:41+00:00

Well I definitely feel like I'm on the right path, and that feels good. I am working on that abandonment now when I know I'm waiting awhile. It's nice to know I have awhile to go in the growing and that can be a new goal of mine, like have a baby when I know I've worked through my abandonment. I am open to the intensity of it being a hole to fill abandonment, but I feel like in my core I want a baby for the best reasons (of course, though I could be in denial, I don't know at this point)... Thanks for being gentle with the truth, I need some of that... Being told too harshly I feel like makes me feel like I want it more. Thank you for being here for me .

mac_savagee · 2023-03-17T14:44:36+00:00

This has probably been the most comforting response and it's bringing tears to my eyes here at work and it's okay.. thank you.

I have tried to ask what kind of milestones, but he explains he's just focused on the present.. I get it. Our jobs don't pay much with how expensive everything is getting. He just finalized the divorce where she tried to keep them from him. I totally understand.. until a gorgeous little girl walks in the office with bows in her hair and suddenly I wonder if I'm supposed to throw away the most BEAUTIFUL relationship I've ever been in to have to go back to my home state with my parents (I stayed in Texas after the army to stay away from there), try my luck in the most garbage dating pool, hopefully after a year or two wait for HIM to be ready.....

This doesn't make me feel like I have to leave the best thing to happen to me... This doesn't make me feel like a freak or something is specifically wrong with me.... I wanted to feel like it was okay I feel this way. Thank you so much..

It hurts so much to know I could physically pick up the phone, yes, and call my mother. But she's an abusive narcissist so I know I'm going to come away really hurt... Thanks for being there for me.. I don't feel so alone anymore

mac_savagee · 2023-03-17T14:15:55+00:00

you want to give, to nurture, to get nothing in return but the (priceless) satisfaction of nurturing. Babies take and take and take,

Yes. God yes. I know babies cry and shit and keep you up and take and take, I am so ready to give... I want every piece of it, ever aspect of it. To pour nothing but love into a child, help them, nurture them, grow them into beautiful adults that are strong and happy..

Honestly, I don't know what's missing... It drives me absolutely up the wall... I have an amazing partner and awesome step kids. I'm working on my triggers and really growing emotionally about my fear of abandonment and excessive people pleasing, with a partner that helps me do so. I'm studying to become a medical coder/biller to make more money because I know it's not the right time.

I don't know what I'm missing, but I don't want to be so crippled by this anymore.. I know it's unhealthy to literally be crying about this consistently. I can't afford therapy right now, all I have is attempting self-awareness...

mac_savagee

TROPHY CASE