What a journey so far. I wanted to start slow and do a little change at a time. I found slow really hard to do once I started reading ingredients. Ugh! I found that everything or just about had weird sounding ingredients in it or had a list that took up one whole side of the packaging. I just couldn't give stuff like that to my family. I love them. So I started buying only food that I could visualize the ingredients as a real food and not a product of industry. Then I purged my home of everything that had high fructose corn syrup in it. Then I did a second deeper purge. I can say that at this moment I have nothing with High fructose corn syrup in my house. My guess is that about 95% of what I have now meets the real food standard. The other 5% is at least somewhat benign.
I feel like this change hasn't been too difficult for us. I would say that we didn't eat really unhealthy to begin with. But I know better now that just because it doesn't have a lot of fat or sugar it doesn't mean its healthy. Sometimes those items are way worse for you.
I just feel so proud of my family for taking this change in stride and being willing to try new foods. Today for lunch I threw a grilled cheese sandwich (made with whole grain bread and organic hormone free cheese) and sliced apples and carrot sticks into bags and we ate on the go. My girls were thrilled and I felt really good about what they were consuming. Tonight we had rice noodles, a little bit of chicken, and bok choy stir fry. Followed by orange slices and smoothies for desert. Smoothies were made in the vita mix and consisted of Orange juice, cranberry juice, an apple, a banana, spinach, kale, carrots, frozen blueberries, frozen strawberries, frozen pineapple, and frozen mango and it was awesome. You should have seen my sons face when I told him about the veggies (he eats them all anyway). He didn't believe me that it could taste so good with all that in it. LOL
The down side:
1) I mostly have to cook all the time (but I have recently discovered a knack for it)
2) I have to chop a lot because all the food is fresh
3) It takes a lot longer to shop for groceries
4) My grocery bill is about 50% higher
5) Dealing with social situations (like someone gives the kids a lollipop or cookie)
Some of the benefits:
1) I don't need the fast food anymore (I don't crave it, my car doesn't do auto pilot into Chick-fil-a)
2) I lost about 7lbs so far without any real effort (that's really new)
3) I feel better. I usually suffer from aches and pains like fibromyalsia and back pain and bloating. I haven't felt any of it in a few weeks. Maybe its the toxins leaving.
4) We get to try so many new foods. We have liked most of them (when I cook them right)
5) We save some money from not eating out much. (used to be a few times a week now more like once every other week)
Next steps:
1) Check into a milk co-op to buy less processed, no hormone, humanely raised
2) Find a cheese that I like that is also no hormone, humanely raised
3) Visit some farms that raise cows right to find one I like to buy meat from
4) Keep finding recipes for new and exciting foods
Saturday, January 19, 2013
Sunday, December 16, 2012
Day 7
Well Ive been doing really good and my family is doing alright. Ive seen some little cheats here and there and we are still using up a few items we have on hand that are not as highly processed.
Friday I visited Earth Fare for the first time. It was cool. I signed up for their emails before I went and I got tons of coupons which saved me some good money. I felt so weird at first. These people were so thin and looked like health food nuts and here I was walking around looking like I eat 3 big macs a day. LOL I spent a long time looking at labels still. Some healthy food still appears to be processed so I stay clear of that. Also on Friday I went through my shelves in the garage and pulled out three brown bags worth of stuff that had ingredients that are clearly not natural. I had a slight dilemma because I hate waste and I couldn't see throwing them away but on the other hand I feel like this stuff is poison and don't feel right about others eating it either. I decided to give the food away once I explained why I didn't want it and leave it to them to decide what they want to eat. I know I have tons more to go through too.
Friday night Greg and I had a Christmas Party to go to. It was catered but I made us a very good salad before we went and ate a few apples while we were there. It wasn't hard to ignore the food (now that I think of it as poison) but to ignore the questionable looks when we didn't eat much. I just know everyone thought we were on a diet. Which technically we are but it is a forever plan not a get thin quick plan.
Trying new things is easy for us all except the baby (2.5 yo). She really doesn't like to try anything unless it looks good. Sometimes when her older sister (5 yo) makes it sound good she might try it without thinking. Sometimes that goes good and sometimes not.
I found these awesome smoothies that Greg and I love and the girls have even approved them. So good for you too. We use Rice milk instead of milk. And we have experimented with other flavors.Yummy http://www.theyummylife.com/Oatmeal_Smoothies
Today my older daughter and I went to a cookie exchange. We didn't bring cookies because I'm new to this whole foods thing and I don't have cookie recipes yet. I told my daughter before we went that we were not going to eat any of the cookies because they are not good for us. She was very good about it. Luckily for us both a Vegan had brought a few healthy choices and they were very good. I will need to get some cookie recipes of my own for these occasions. Like next week the preschool is having a Christmas Program and I'm supposed to bring a dessert. Originally I signed up to bring a pie but I cant find any whole food pies that I think look good. Id really like to bring something that we can eat just in case their isn't another option. And tomorrow night I am eating at a restaurant with my girls. I checked the menu ahead and planned what we could eat so I can limit the problems. I told them what to expect already and I will remind them again tomorrow. Cross your fingers.
So far I don't find it too hard to eat whole foods. Its easy to find healthy alternatives and we love fruits and veggies. The hardest part so far is the social aspect. Trying to follow what I know is right for me and my family while trying not to seem like I'm dogging others choices (which I don't). And dealing with the looks from others when I tell my kids they cant have that. Its hard but I know its right so I just push on.
Friday I visited Earth Fare for the first time. It was cool. I signed up for their emails before I went and I got tons of coupons which saved me some good money. I felt so weird at first. These people were so thin and looked like health food nuts and here I was walking around looking like I eat 3 big macs a day. LOL I spent a long time looking at labels still. Some healthy food still appears to be processed so I stay clear of that. Also on Friday I went through my shelves in the garage and pulled out three brown bags worth of stuff that had ingredients that are clearly not natural. I had a slight dilemma because I hate waste and I couldn't see throwing them away but on the other hand I feel like this stuff is poison and don't feel right about others eating it either. I decided to give the food away once I explained why I didn't want it and leave it to them to decide what they want to eat. I know I have tons more to go through too.
Friday night Greg and I had a Christmas Party to go to. It was catered but I made us a very good salad before we went and ate a few apples while we were there. It wasn't hard to ignore the food (now that I think of it as poison) but to ignore the questionable looks when we didn't eat much. I just know everyone thought we were on a diet. Which technically we are but it is a forever plan not a get thin quick plan.
Trying new things is easy for us all except the baby (2.5 yo). She really doesn't like to try anything unless it looks good. Sometimes when her older sister (5 yo) makes it sound good she might try it without thinking. Sometimes that goes good and sometimes not.
I found these awesome smoothies that Greg and I love and the girls have even approved them. So good for you too. We use Rice milk instead of milk. And we have experimented with other flavors.Yummy http://www.theyummylife.com/Oatmeal_Smoothies
Today my older daughter and I went to a cookie exchange. We didn't bring cookies because I'm new to this whole foods thing and I don't have cookie recipes yet. I told my daughter before we went that we were not going to eat any of the cookies because they are not good for us. She was very good about it. Luckily for us both a Vegan had brought a few healthy choices and they were very good. I will need to get some cookie recipes of my own for these occasions. Like next week the preschool is having a Christmas Program and I'm supposed to bring a dessert. Originally I signed up to bring a pie but I cant find any whole food pies that I think look good. Id really like to bring something that we can eat just in case their isn't another option. And tomorrow night I am eating at a restaurant with my girls. I checked the menu ahead and planned what we could eat so I can limit the problems. I told them what to expect already and I will remind them again tomorrow. Cross your fingers.
So far I don't find it too hard to eat whole foods. Its easy to find healthy alternatives and we love fruits and veggies. The hardest part so far is the social aspect. Trying to follow what I know is right for me and my family while trying not to seem like I'm dogging others choices (which I don't). And dealing with the looks from others when I tell my kids they cant have that. Its hard but I know its right so I just push on.
Wednesday, December 12, 2012
Day 3
OK so today was not so good to start. I ate left over raisin cinnamon swirl bread for breakfast. I have never looked at the ingredients but I imagine it is highly processed. Didn't really have time for lunch. I went shopping at HT again. I needed to find salad dressing for tomorrows salad. I looked at the ingredients of every single bottle. All of them had ingredients that I couldn't imagine what it was so I passed. Pulled out my handy IPhone and called my vegetarian friend. She made perfect sense when she told me to just make my own dressing. Duh! This really never occurred to me. Its as if salad dressing is some crazy concoction that I thought only a wizard could make in some far away land. When I got home I googled homemade salad dressing and I found zillions of tasty sounding dressings that are so easy. Its a pretty basic formula and sounds like it could be made with infinite variations. I cant wait to try it out tomorrow. If I'm successful I will throw out all the dressings in the fridge.
For dinner tonight I made bruschetta. It was so simple and so so good. I looked up a ton of recipes and then just made my own variation. I used tomato, onion, garlic, and spinach. Yum!
I also tried Quinoa for the first time. I bought a box of easy Quinoa with spices. It was okay. At first I didn't like it at all but then I thought maybe I hadn't cooked it right so I put it back on the stove for a few more minutes and it was a lot better the second time. Still not a real favorite for me or any of the family but I will try it again sometime since I have heard that taste buds change once you get used to the diet.
I also made cranberry sauce. I used cranberries, one apple and honey. It was good but tart so next time I will use more honey. So cool though.
Tonight my older daughter went through her candy and picked out the 10 pieces we agreed on and she dumped the rest with no problem. I must admit that it was hard for me to just throw away so many lollipops. I thought I should give them away. But then I thought that would be like saying these things are poison to my kids but who cares about yours. Weird.
Lastly, I decided that I will be more motivated to keep this going if I continue to watch the food documentaries that got me started. Well today I watched one about Vegans. Truly a big mistake. They showed all the awful things the animals go through so that we Americans can have eggs, milk, cheese, and meat. It was so sad. I guess I already knew that those things happen but I felt that it was probably just a few misguided farms. Reality is that it is industry standard. How else could our massive population be fed. Now I'm at a weird place. I don't know if I can eat eggs, milk, cheese, or meat now. How will I not feel guilt every time. I'm thinking I might have to go to local farms and see behind the scenes until I find one I can live with.
For dinner tonight I made bruschetta. It was so simple and so so good. I looked up a ton of recipes and then just made my own variation. I used tomato, onion, garlic, and spinach. Yum!
I also tried Quinoa for the first time. I bought a box of easy Quinoa with spices. It was okay. At first I didn't like it at all but then I thought maybe I hadn't cooked it right so I put it back on the stove for a few more minutes and it was a lot better the second time. Still not a real favorite for me or any of the family but I will try it again sometime since I have heard that taste buds change once you get used to the diet.
I also made cranberry sauce. I used cranberries, one apple and honey. It was good but tart so next time I will use more honey. So cool though.
Tonight my older daughter went through her candy and picked out the 10 pieces we agreed on and she dumped the rest with no problem. I must admit that it was hard for me to just throw away so many lollipops. I thought I should give them away. But then I thought that would be like saying these things are poison to my kids but who cares about yours. Weird.
Lastly, I decided that I will be more motivated to keep this going if I continue to watch the food documentaries that got me started. Well today I watched one about Vegans. Truly a big mistake. They showed all the awful things the animals go through so that we Americans can have eggs, milk, cheese, and meat. It was so sad. I guess I already knew that those things happen but I felt that it was probably just a few misguided farms. Reality is that it is industry standard. How else could our massive population be fed. Now I'm at a weird place. I don't know if I can eat eggs, milk, cheese, or meat now. How will I not feel guilt every time. I'm thinking I might have to go to local farms and see behind the scenes until I find one I can live with.
Tuesday, December 11, 2012
Day 2
Today was better. Smoothie this morning. Added some greens. With its puke green color it didn't look too appetizing but it was very good. Lunch was a boiled egg on wheat bread.
This afternoon I spent an hour chopping vegetables. I didn't mind since this will be for salad for two nights of dinner. I cooked some chicken in olive oil to go on top too. I also picked up some home made sour dough bread from a friend to go on the side. Yummy
We love salad. I'm blessed with kids who like vegetables. When I told the kids it would be salad tonight they were so happy. My older daughter even ate hers with no dressing.
I put each item in its own bowl so everyone got to make their own masterpiece. It was fun. My one big oops is that I forgot to look for a new salad dressing. We ended up using our old ranch dressing this time.
Greg and I wanted to get this thing in full force before we told everyone. We thought 30 days would show a commitment from us so we wouldn't sound hypocritical. Our biggest worry is how the kids would adapt. We don't let them eat a lot of junk food or candy and they like fruits and veggies so that isn't the concern. Its about when we will have to say no they cant have that cookie just because they are cute. We decided that we will let them have birthday cake and sweets at special occasions but not just because their friends are. The girls are in preschool and I pack their lunch but they are provided snack so I'm not sure how we will handle that yet. For now we will just make good choices for them and teach them to make good choices for themselves and just leave everything else the same until we have a solution that makes sense.
Of course today I get a call from the after school care while the girls are there. Once I got over my initial concern and was assured they were okay, the caregiver asked if my youngest could have cake. She has lactose intolerance so they were concerned about the milk. I explained that it wasn't an issue with the milk but I would prefer they didn't have the cake for so many other reasons with one being the food coloring in the frosting. Poor lady was so confused. Apparently she didn't understand what could be wrong with the food coloring. Anyway I said not to give either of my daughters cake. She said "oh no" because my older daughter just ate a little already and my younger daughter was hanging on her every word waiting to hear the go ahead. I am thankful for such good kids who don't get upset over minor things like food. When I picked them up 25 minutes later neither of them seemed too worried about being the only ones not eating the cake.
On the ride home I talked to the girls about how we wont be eating regular cake, cookies, ice cream, and candy anymore. If we have those things it will be something special that mommy made. They seemed okay with it. Again its not a big big loss for them since they don't get it much anyway. My older daughter asked what about her Halloween candy. Its been sitting on the fridge and doled out at one piece a day if she was good and if she ate her supper. She wondered if we had to throw it away. I told her that she could pick out 10 pieces of her favorites and she could keep that until it was gone but the rest she could throw away. She was fine with that solution.
So far so good.
This afternoon I spent an hour chopping vegetables. I didn't mind since this will be for salad for two nights of dinner. I cooked some chicken in olive oil to go on top too. I also picked up some home made sour dough bread from a friend to go on the side. Yummy
We love salad. I'm blessed with kids who like vegetables. When I told the kids it would be salad tonight they were so happy. My older daughter even ate hers with no dressing.
I put each item in its own bowl so everyone got to make their own masterpiece. It was fun. My one big oops is that I forgot to look for a new salad dressing. We ended up using our old ranch dressing this time.
Greg and I wanted to get this thing in full force before we told everyone. We thought 30 days would show a commitment from us so we wouldn't sound hypocritical. Our biggest worry is how the kids would adapt. We don't let them eat a lot of junk food or candy and they like fruits and veggies so that isn't the concern. Its about when we will have to say no they cant have that cookie just because they are cute. We decided that we will let them have birthday cake and sweets at special occasions but not just because their friends are. The girls are in preschool and I pack their lunch but they are provided snack so I'm not sure how we will handle that yet. For now we will just make good choices for them and teach them to make good choices for themselves and just leave everything else the same until we have a solution that makes sense.
Of course today I get a call from the after school care while the girls are there. Once I got over my initial concern and was assured they were okay, the caregiver asked if my youngest could have cake. She has lactose intolerance so they were concerned about the milk. I explained that it wasn't an issue with the milk but I would prefer they didn't have the cake for so many other reasons with one being the food coloring in the frosting. Poor lady was so confused. Apparently she didn't understand what could be wrong with the food coloring. Anyway I said not to give either of my daughters cake. She said "oh no" because my older daughter just ate a little already and my younger daughter was hanging on her every word waiting to hear the go ahead. I am thankful for such good kids who don't get upset over minor things like food. When I picked them up 25 minutes later neither of them seemed too worried about being the only ones not eating the cake.
On the ride home I talked to the girls about how we wont be eating regular cake, cookies, ice cream, and candy anymore. If we have those things it will be something special that mommy made. They seemed okay with it. Again its not a big big loss for them since they don't get it much anyway. My older daughter asked what about her Halloween candy. Its been sitting on the fridge and doled out at one piece a day if she was good and if she ate her supper. She wondered if we had to throw it away. I told her that she could pick out 10 pieces of her favorites and she could keep that until it was gone but the rest she could throw away. She was fine with that solution.
So far so good.
Day 1
So my hubby and I decided that we are going Whole Foods. We came to this decision all of a sudden on Sunday night. We love to watch documentaries and recently we have started to watch a bunch on the food industry in America, diets, how food is made, and just food in general. The more we watched the more we knew what we were hearing made sense. Who can deny that we have serious obesity and health issues here in the USA. What has changed? Its hard to believe that we all just got lazy and over indulgent suddenly. And doesn't it make a ton of sense that we shouldn't eat food that is basically chemicals or processed to barely resemble REAL food at all. I mean its like why eat this yummy juicy apple if you can eat this apple flavored "food stuff", right?
We decided to start first thing Monday morning. No time to waste. The plan is to ease into it. The next few weeks will be for: Learning. I have some friends who eat whole foods and I have called on them for advice and hopefully recipes. -Weening off of some of our bad food choices. Sugars, milk and some meats. -Adding in whole foods. At least two nights a week for whole food diners. Better breakfast foods.
So yesterday was interesting. Made a smoothie first thing in the morning. We all love the smoothies. We have had a Vitamix for years and we like to use a combination of raw fruits, a little juice, and frozen fruits. Sometimes we throw in some veggies. Yummy. Then after taking the kids to school I went Real Food shopping. Spent 2 hours at Harris Teeter (which I have never shopped at before) looking over all the Whole Food options and reading labels. I compared the labels of the naturals to the every day items we usually buy. Crazy to see all the ingredients that I cant pronounce. The natural food alternative didn't look half bad. I also bought a variety of raw beans. I have never had most of them before. My plan is to find a recipe for one at a time and try them out to see if we like them. Checking out I did see that Whole Foods are expensive. I guess we wont be eating out much on this diet and we are cutting back on meat so it may equal out.
So all is well so far but then I came home to put away the groceries and that darn peanut butter cup pie was calling to me. Of course usually I can resist but the urge is just so much more intense when your brain is aware that you will be cutting it out soon. I had a piece of pie. The rest of the day was no improvement. I had left overs that I'm sure were not Whole Foods.
One day at a time.
We decided to start first thing Monday morning. No time to waste. The plan is to ease into it. The next few weeks will be for: Learning. I have some friends who eat whole foods and I have called on them for advice and hopefully recipes. -Weening off of some of our bad food choices. Sugars, milk and some meats. -Adding in whole foods. At least two nights a week for whole food diners. Better breakfast foods.
So yesterday was interesting. Made a smoothie first thing in the morning. We all love the smoothies. We have had a Vitamix for years and we like to use a combination of raw fruits, a little juice, and frozen fruits. Sometimes we throw in some veggies. Yummy. Then after taking the kids to school I went Real Food shopping. Spent 2 hours at Harris Teeter (which I have never shopped at before) looking over all the Whole Food options and reading labels. I compared the labels of the naturals to the every day items we usually buy. Crazy to see all the ingredients that I cant pronounce. The natural food alternative didn't look half bad. I also bought a variety of raw beans. I have never had most of them before. My plan is to find a recipe for one at a time and try them out to see if we like them. Checking out I did see that Whole Foods are expensive. I guess we wont be eating out much on this diet and we are cutting back on meat so it may equal out.
So all is well so far but then I came home to put away the groceries and that darn peanut butter cup pie was calling to me. Of course usually I can resist but the urge is just so much more intense when your brain is aware that you will be cutting it out soon. I had a piece of pie. The rest of the day was no improvement. I had left overs that I'm sure were not Whole Foods.
One day at a time.
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