So, here we are continuing the journey, but we’ve turned to a new page. If you followed us on the previous blog you know that our family has been working on improving our diet gradually over the last several years, adding more fruits, vegetables and whole grains, trying to consume less sugar, et al. Just to update you from the last post back in January, we have continued to do these same things and reduced our meat consumption, replacing it with beans and more veggies. Doing that and cutting out pop completely (I used to drink a coke every day, sometimes 2/day), has resulted in me losing some weight over the last several months. My husband has also recently stopped drinking pop. Yay for him!

Anyhow, here is where this new chapter begins. I found a website (www.100daysofrealfood.com) in which a family documents huge changes made to their diet, making it much healthier, and not this super gradual way we have been, but all at once. They committed to the change for 100 days and were very successful. This diet of “real food” is where I would like to be — food as close as possible to how God made it, with limited processing. OK, don’t get me wrong, we’re not going raw here, but I do believe processing is where our foods lose much of their nutrition. If this other family with 2 young kids can succeed, I believe our family with 2 kids can too.

So what is real food? Simply put, it is whole foods. Fruits, vegetables, whole grains, meat & dairy, minimally processed. Local and organic whenever possible. No refined foods, sweeteners or oils, no fast food, no deep fried foods, no packaged foods with more than 5 ingredients. While some may say these foods are more expensive, I believe that eating whole foods will provide our bodies with more nutrition, our bodies will not be as hungry (because we have given them what they need) and we will eat less than if we ate more highly processed foods.

We will be doing the “mini pledges” posted on the 100 days website. Each one is a challenge to bring one facet of our diet in line with “real food”. I hope that as we do each one, it will stick so that we will have a developing habit of real food. Real food will be an everyday thing; the usual, the ordinary, the norm. OK, yes, I realize this is still a gradual process, but I have a few people to consider besides myself. I want success in the end, not a coup. In addition, we will be doing this on a budget. The family on the 100 days website followed their plan at a cost less than food stamp benefits. I think we can too.

I will update weekly as we go through each challenge or “mini pledge” and hope to provide other useful information along the way. If you are reading this, I hope you will find inspiration to make real food an everyday thing.