Hi there! My name is Bailey. I am a 39 year old wife and mother living in Kentucky. My husband Joe and I have 3 boys ages 12, 9 and 3. I love cooking, entertaining, reading, and watching trash TV. Our days can be crazy, but I am beyond thankful for the life that I am living.
My family would describe me as a picky eater, but not for the reasons that you would think. I enjoy all types of foods. My favorites would be pizza and doughnuts. Unfortunately, eating these types of foods leaves me feeling bloated, uncomfortable, and lethargic. It's just not worth it. Eating whole, unprocessed foods makes me feel my best, and when I feel healthy my whole family benefits.
While I have a healthy lifestyle today (mostly), that hasn't always been the case. I began dieting as a young teen. I have put my body through low carb, low fat, juicing, the cabbage soup diet, and even went Vegan for a year. Name a diet, I tried it. In 2013 a conversation with a friend prompted me to eliminate processed foods from my diet. Something I hadn't tried... always up for a new challenge, I dove right in. For the first time in my life I wasn't counting calories. I wasn't hungry. I just ate real food. I noticed I had increased energy, clear skin, reduced cravings, and improved digestion. I began eating things that tasted good, a big change from bland chicken and steamed vegetables. I am not exaggerating when I tell you it has been life changing. For the first time ever, I have a healthy relationship with food.
I am passionate about clean eating, but I am not perfect. I do everything in my power to make sure that my family eats whole foods when we are home. Special occasions are another story. My kids eat birthday cake, candy that their Grandparents sneak to them, and partake in the soccer game snack. My goal is not to make sure that my kids never eat one bite of refined sugar. That is not realistic. My goal is to make sure that my family eats a variety of vegetables, fruits, whole grains, nuts, and protein on a daily basis.
The clean eating lifestyle has been a big change for our family, and it wasn't a totally smooth transition. My first recipes were bland and boring. During phase 2 bland and boring turned into Mexican flavored. Didn't matter if it was turkey burgers, spaghetti, sloppy joe, it all tasted Mexican. Joe was hungry (and secretly driving through before coming home for dinner), my boys were throwing fits at the table, and I was frustrated because nobody appreciated the effort and time I was putting into making healthy meals.
I created Simply Sissom to help families avoid some of the struggles of starting a clean eating lifestyle. The recipes on this blog are flavorful and healthy! I will also share tips to make clean eating less time consuming. It isn't always feasible to make dinner from exactly 4:00-5:30, so I LOVE recipes that allow me to prepare them on my schedule! If it can be prepped, frozen, doubled, or reused you can be sure that I will let you know!