Making changes for a month will not be easy, I am not going to kid myself…
But making changes for life is my ultimate goal
Yes when I have pondered the last few weeks about the challenge I have been caught up in the nitty-gritty of food. What to replace what with, how to find a source for that, can I live without this…do I want to.
Today I am talking about not the nuts and bolts but my goals with this challenge.
My Goal is to make meaningful and lifelong changes in my and my families eating habits.
I personally am not very interested in eating real for just a month…
I want to eat real, healthy, unprocessed foods for the rest of my life. I want my kids to know what real food is and seek it out all of their lives. I want real food to be the real norm here on the farm, for this month and for all time.
I am so excited that I will be starting this journey not alone floundering in the dark but with like-minded people who can share my triumphs and commiserate with my failures.
Those more knowledgable than I that are willing to share their expertise and their experience.
Those less knowledgable than I that give me a reason to share and explore the process.
I guess what I’m really about my wanting to say is…
THANK YOU!
Thank you for joining me on this little adventure that we have titled the REAL FOOD challenge!
Can’t wait to see you all Monday when we start what could be a life changing challenge! Let’s Get REAL!
I think this whole “challenge” thing is great. But i do feel it’s a little bit too ‘competitive, or well “challenging”‘ Not sure how to describe what i mean – but i feel like sometimes we set ourselves up for failure, or at least make things into bigger deals than they need to be. Like when someone decides to completely remove refined sugar from their diet – that could be too challenging and cause them to give up prematurely.
I am doing a similar life change to your ‘challenge’ but instead of setting myself up with day to day goals or rules, i’m simply replacing the processed things i have with made from scratch things, as i go. No more buying processed cereal, only whole grains. No more soy milk, only local raw milk. No more nabisco crackers, making homemade ones. I’m seeing it as more like a ‘shift’ than a challenge. There are no hard, fast rules – if my husband wants to buy a bag of pretzels i won’t throw him out on the street, but i will try a pretzel recipe next and see if those are a good replacement. I see the benefits of eating homemade, whole foods as vastly outweighing any challenges of ‘easy, quick, pre-prepared, etcetera – so i personally am taking only joy out of my shift in shopping and cooking methods.
I wish you great luck in your challenge. I hope it leads to a lifelong shift for you as well.
Miranda…to me it is about challenging the way we think of food, not a competition. Everyone is taking their own path on this. Challenging ones self to re-think some things that are so ingrained in us that we have as a society have forgotten what ‘real food’ really is. This challenge is just our way of trying to get ourselves (and hopefully our readers) to get back to the real food that makes for strong bodies and a healthy planet. But you are right…a shift towards real food is what I have done in preperation for this challenge. We are down to our last box of cereal, the crackers and granola bars ran out last week! Thanks for visiting and good luck with your shift towards real food! Kim
Well, up until about 5 minutes ago, I was still floudering on my decision to participate in this challenge. March will be a difficult month around my home. My hubs and I are both facing sugeries, and it just didn’t seem doable. But… I am in, and will give it my best.
We already eat most things from scratch. No fast food or sodas for my family. For the last year, we have been steadily cutting out processed foods. We have been eating seasonally and locally for the most part this winter thanks to our local CSA (GrowAlabama.com) We occasionally eat store bought crackers, chips, and breakfast cereal. Those will be difficult to completely do without, but not impossible. I’m planning to stock my freezer with homemade bread, muffins, cookies, and a few pre-made casseroles so we will be less tempted to ‘cheat’ on difficult days.
The crackers and chips will be the hardest for us. I’ve been wanting to try making my own crackers ever since Suzy mentioned that she makes her own. This is my golden opportunity to give it a go. And I’ll experiment with making homemade tortillas, too. I’m getting really excited!!! No more excuses. Think I’ll spend the day in my kitchen.
I appreciate all the encouragement I find here!
Melissa
Try making some homemade crackers – they’re not specifically Saltines, or Triscuits, but you can make some darn tasty stuff that really fits the bill! Plus they’re super super easy to do.
We’ve taken small steps over the past two years toward a healthier direction due to some dietary restrictions for my husband. He had to made some drastic changes to his daily eating habits, but instead of going “cold turkey” or saying he would never again eat a cheeseburger he continues to allow himself one meal a week of whatever he wants. Our current binge is pizza night. Because we live out in the Boonies we can’t get delivery – so we make our own, keeping it reasonably healthy.
I made some homemade crackers for the first time yesterday. Hubby liked them, but the kid wasn’t so fond of the flavor. I’ve got three more recipes I’d like to try during our challenge so I’ll be sure to share my findings.
I’m excited by your challenge! It may be a little to stringent for us at the moment, but we’ve been following our own change-challenge in recent months. We’ve been trying to move further and further in the direction of Michael Pollan’s and Barbara Kingsolver’s recommendations. I find it takes a real burst of energy to begin a new phase of change; I took my first 3-month vegan challenge last fall and thoroughly enjoyed it, learned lots of new recipes, and became familiar with some new foods. I’ll be watching your progress with pleasure and excitement…and picking up some tips along the way.
You mean fruit snacks isn’t a fruit??? ROFL I am excited to see how your journey goes, now find me a big tortilla press will ya?
Some little changes around our household…my DH is giving up his Dorito’s in favor of Rye-Crisp topped with local cheese, I have convinced the kids to give up their Mom-is-working-late-Wed-so-we-get-to-have-frozen-pizzas in exchange for breakfast for supper (from scratch pancakes and scrambled eggs), we ran out of T.Marzetti Blue Cheese salad dressing so I made my own-I call it MAMAzetti’s Blue Cheese! This weekend I will try to make homemade yogut in the crockpot.
For me this challenge is not about doing things PERFECTLY, but about doing them BETTER, small do-able things-not impossible standards!
Kris
I made the nifty banner a little smaller and added it to my site with a link to stuff tagged with “real food challenge”. Hope that’s okay.
I’m going to do a vegetarian week. It will give my girls no choice but to eat veggies, lentils, and other things they may not prefer. I’m such a mean mommy.
My hardest thing wil be not stopping by In-n-Out when I run errands in town. Not buying packaged cereal or crackers will be hard too. Both are very much staples in this house.
Okay, I’m in! I was a bit nervous about this, but heck, I don’t have to make drastic changes all at once! I talked it over with my kids, and they’re keen to ‘save the planet’
My goals:
- replace frozen pizza every Friday night with homemade dough.
- attempt to make ALL my own bread for the month (my sil is lending me her bread maker).
- try out cracker and granola bar recipes, see if we can find something the kids’ll like.
- learn to make tortillas.
I copied the button, too, and linked to this post
[...] I’m in! Jump to Comments With NDiN’s Real Food Challenge, that is. Yes, I just declared my intention in the comments on this post [...]
“My Goal is to make meaningful and lifelong changes in my and my families eating habits.”
Very well said!
Good luck with your challenge – I love eating real foods
Preparing homemade, real food for my family, and now that the kids are out of the house, my husband and I, is something that I have felt strongly about for a long time. It is difficult though when working full-time. Takes planning and determination, but I think it is all worth it.
Great post!
-Brenda
I’m in, a few days late however I would like to join. I have made changes in our life with what we eat and how we live when my children were diagnosed with gluten intolerance. We don’t eat fast food. We eat “most” of the time healthily, however I feel like we still have some changes to make and would like to take it to the next level.
I’d like to join the Real Food Challenge!
We try to eat real food now, but we are starting our first garden and have a lot to learn.
We try to eat what I call SOLE food (Sustainable, Organic, Local, and Ethical). My husband still has a hard time not eating some processed snacks, and sweets. And we both need to not eat out so much.
Looking forward to the Challenge!
wendy
http://wendycooks.blogspot.com