Keeping your kids and yourself healthy this fall/winter

I've been wanting to get a post together on how I keep myself and my kids healthy, especially at this time of the year. I will preface this by saying that Jayden, Zander and Gabbi have never been on antibiotics. They have never even been to doctors. They get a few colds per year and they maybe last a day or two. You might think I am just lucky but I don't believe so. When Ryan was a baby I knew nothing about nutrition. I fed him jarred baby food, arrowroot cookies, cut up hotdogs and sliced cheese. Ryan had 8 ear infections in his first 18 months of life. This was not acceptable to me and I knew there was a better way. This is when I started talking to people, reading everything I could find on nutrition and taking him to alternative health care practitioners. The main thing I did at that time was take him off dairy and refined sugar. Since then he has never had another ear infection. Over the years I have learned even more about food and supplements and health and I have seen all my kids health improve so much. This is not to mention my own health. I have cleared up my acne, treated my anemia and given myself so much energy!! In the past year or so I have really learned the importance of adding in fresh raw fruits and veggies to our diets. We started with the green smoothies, but we also have a juicer and I try and juice every day for the kids and myself. I do supplement the kids too. This is my daily routine. In the morning everyone gets up and drinks a glass of water and takes a probiotic and vitamin D. There has been some exciting research on vitamin D lately. The research says that Sufficient vitamin D prevents prostate cancer, breast cancer, ovarian cancer, depression, colon cancer and schizophrenia. Your risk of developing serious diseases like diabetes and cancer is reduced 50% - 80% through simple, sensible exposure to natural sunlight 2-3 times each week. Of course in the winter this isn't possible for everyone. Infants who receive vitamin D supplementation (2000 units daily) have an 80% reduced risk of developing type 1 diabetes over the next twenty years. So in my house over the fall/winter the Adults get 5000 iu's of D3 and big kids (over 8) get 3000 iu's. Little ones get 2000 iu's. Then before I make breakfast I make them a juice. (do not mistake freshly made juice with the stuff you buy at the supermarket). That is pasteurized and all the enzymes and some of the vitamins are killed during that process. I think of fresh pressed juice as a vitamin supplement. Because all the fibre is removed from the fruit the vitamins are more available to your body. The immune boosting juice I make for the kids is apple, orange, lemon, kiwi (did you know kiwi's have more vitamin C then oranges), beet and carrot. For myself I have a grapefruit, orange, lemon ( I Also have a green juice in the afternoon). Then I make breakfast. Usually oatmeal topped with chia seeds, flax seeds, homemade almond milk and blueberries. Lunch is different every day depending on if they are school or home but I can tell you it is always whole food. Sprouted grain breads, hummus, raw veggies, nut butters, kamut pasta, tuna, chicken ( no deli meat), homemade muffins or cookies, soups. For snacks they eat apples, bananas, raisins, nuts, seeds. After school I make them green smoothies. And dinner again is different all the time. The main thing i do when planning their food is make sure it is dairy free, refined sugar free, wheat free and heavy on the fruits and veggies. We don't use artificial colours and flavors either. I hope this helps you to keep your kiddies and yourself healthy this season!!