A Better Bag of Groceries

Guest Post: Inspiring Mom Kim Trades Up

Wednesday, January 19, 2011 at 08:14 AM

Hello Blog Friends!  Today, I’m so pleased to introduce you to my friend Kim who is taking over the blog today.  Kim is one of those people who is always striving to do better – for herself, her family, her community.  I met Kim because starting last year, I volunteered for a wonderful program that Kim founded in our community called ICare  (Introducing Children to Acceptance through Reading and Education).  Kim started the program to help integrate her daughter Jamie, who has autism, into her integrated classroom.  By making Jamie’s classmates aware about the quirky ways that Jaime (and other kids with special needs) might behave at times, Kim has helped to create a very accepting environment for kids with special needs in our town.  Some moms with challenges as big as Kim’s might put health and nutrition on the back burner, but not my friend Kim!  She is determined to keep herself in shape (and she has had to be creative at times to fit that into her schedule) and to keep her family healthy.  I am so glad that NuVal  is here to help her along the way.  Without any further ado, I give you one of my town’s greatest movers and shakers, Kim!

Hello Better Bag of Groceries Readers!!  I have been an avid fan of A Better Bag of Groceriesfor over a year now.  I met Melissa when she offered to volunteer for a disability awareness program that I run in our hometown in Eastern Massachusetts.  I have been a fan of hers and her blog ever since!!  Funny thing is I thought I knew about nutrition.  I read labels and I tried to be aware of how many vegetables and fruits were going into me and my family.  It was work…..but it was worth it.  Well then when I learned about NuValand how easy they make it to be MORE healthy and to fill my family with nutritious foods…..well it was just a no brainer for me to get as educated as I could!!

I was so fascinated by how easy NuVal made it.  Everyone understands scores……1 is not great…….100 is best.  What could be easier?  I wanted to fill my family with as many items as close to 100 as I could!!  I sat my family down and told them all about NuVal.  I have three children ages 15, 13 and 10 (all girls).  The 15 year old barely looked up from her texts to acknowledge me, the 13 year old (who has autism and doesn’t like change) wasn’t sure what to think and the 10 year old LOVED NuVal’s website and its Nutrition by the Numbers game to try and figure out which item has a higher score. 

Kim's Daughter Plays Nutrition By the Numbers

She was very surprised to learn that one of her favorites “Smartfood Popcorn” wasn’t so smart with a low score of 11 so she herself decided to trade up to Honey Maid grahams with a score of 23. She loves to tell me what items in our grocery store have higher scores than others and that comes in incredibly handy because our local grocery store doesn’t have NuValscores.      So I thought OK…..I can get my kids to get on board with us……how about the hubby?

My husband was open to changing our nutrition for the better but reminded me, nervously, that we all have “taste buds”…..they are called “taste buds”…..not “nutrition buds”…….so I guess he was a little worried about what I was going to change (trade up as we like to call it in NuVal World) and how it was going to taste.  Hmmmm…..I had to get to work.

I started with something safe and something we all love…..french fries.  I never even told them they were more nutritious.  But wow were they all impressed when they loved the new Cascadian shoestring fries and found out we had traded up from Ore-ida Crispers with a score of 11 to an 87!!  My husband’s “taste buds” were happy!!  And I have found there are MANY trade ups that are pleasing to those taste buds!!  We all went from eating Hearty Canadian white bread score 25 to having Arnold double fiber bread at a score of 40.  I have added Chobani strawberry yogurt score 64 to my morning breakfast along with my faithful banana (91).   My kids were also very proud to learn that many of the things we were already eating had high scores.  Salmon (87), skim milk (91) and asparagus (100).  It has taught us all so much about what we want our bodies taking in.  Yes even the 15 year old eventually listened.  The 13 year old found change wasn’t that hard and was quite delicious and my loving hubby found his “taste buds” happily surprised by all I had introduced to them.  NuValis a way of life now in our family.  And Melissa is a “celebrity” when seen at our pool club…..she’s the “NuVallady” I hear my kids whisper…….SO COOL!!

 Yesterday’s Giveaway Winner

 Congratulations to Commenter #15, Jill!  You’ve won the LaraBar and Clif Bar giveaway.  Lucky You!  Please send me an email at abetterbagofgroceries@gmail.com so that I can mail your prize out to you.  Thanks for all the comments.  I loved hearing what you all read when you were 7 and a half!   Now, I know what I can get my son to read next!

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