Change is Good

We've been making some changes in our kitchen lately and surprisingly enough it's not as hard to stick to as I thought. This whole diet change is not for the purposes of dieting. The point is to eat healthier more natural food that is good for our bodies so we don't feel so tired and cruddy as often from all the stress in our lives. This is a lifestayle change, and I am so excited about it. I have found several good resources online (Real Food Blog and Organic Blog) to help me get ideas not to mention a change in where I shop and what I buy. You can't do couponing quite as much since most coupons are for processed food items, so I'm searching for good ways to keep within a budget. Not so successful yet, but working on it.

Some good things we've changed and tried:

• We ordered 35 pounds of grass-fed beef through a local co-op that orders from Utah.
• We are buying organic chicken and looking into buying in bulk through the co-op as well.
• We are getting the organic basket from Bountiful Baskets and trying to buy organic produce at the store when possible.
• We are trying to eat less processed food as snacks so less cereal, crackers, chips, etc. and replacing that with more trail mix and granola (homemade), Power Balls (sooooo yummy!), eating cheese or meat or veggies with homemade hummus.
• Eating less processed sugar (my sugar cravings disappeared very quickly and it's easy to turn down sweets when they are in front of me). Using honey to sweeten things like oatmeal, the Power Balls and other recipes that call for sugar.
• Eating more fish - salmon is Eddie's favorite and it's starting to grow on me too.
• Eating less grains overall, but especially things that aren't whole grain. I've been replacing white flour with wheat flour for ages when possible, even in my famous chocolate chip cookies.  

We still have a way to go before we are where we want to be with this, but I feel like we are off to a good start. This diet change seems doable long term and I think we will see more and more benefits as we continue.

Nate isn't hard to switch over because he eats what we eat for the most part. He loves eating trail mix with Daddy so I've been making him a trail mix in his snack cup of cheerios (until we are out), peanuts or shelled pistashios, raisins or cranberries, and unsweetened coconut.  He loves it.

My biggest challenge is when we are out running errands on the weekends that I pack lunch or snacks that are healthy so we don't have to stop and get fast food because we are hungry. It's been pretty easy.

Next on my list of things to try:

• Homemade grain-free blueberry muffins
• Another flavor of Power Balls since we are about out of the others
• I'm reading about Square-Foot Gardening. The idea of growing some of our own food appeals to me, but I do not have a green thumb. I'd love to try it though.
• Finding ways to budget while buying organic, real food
• Revamping my recipe book with more real food recipes
• Making more things from scratch and getting some use out of our 2nd freezer
• Trying some smoothie recipes like this one Smoothie

More updates to come and hopefully a success story of avoiding processed foods on our upcoming vacation to California over Spring Break. It's all about a little planning ahead and some time in the kitchen. Off to do some baking. :) Happy eating.