Just like most families with young children, my life is anything but routine.  I am finding that because of the lack of routine each day holds a new challenge to make it to the gym and stick with a nutritious eating plan.  Unlike most people however my family and I are very blessed that my mother lives with us.  (I know some people would not consider that a blessing, but we are very lucky!)  My mother cooks just about everyday and helps out tremendously with the kids.  It has been challenging for us over the last few years that she has lived with us to make our cooking styles mesh.  Although I grew up eating her meals, I have learned to grocery shop and cook quite differently than she did.  Not because there was anything wrong with her cooking, but because when I was growing up there wasn’t the emphasis on healthy eating that there is today.  I grew up with your basic meat and potatoes meals, canned fruits and veggies and cream soup based casseroles.  While many of these things I would still love to eat, I know that they are loaded with fat, salt, and tons of carbohydrates!  I try to shop the perimeter of the grocery store and avoid the aisles where the majority of the processed food can be found.  Also, I grew up eating a lot of red meat.  We probably eat red meat 3-4 times a month now and the rest of the time we eat chicken, turkey, pork and occasionally some kind of mild fish such as orange roughy or tilapia.  I believe that we have been successful in making our cooking styles mesh and will be forever grateful to my mom for making changes to benefit me as well as the rest of the family!