Making the shift over to REAL food

I signed on some time ago to follow the 100 Days of Real Food website -- have you heard of it?

Check it out:   http://www.100daysofrealfood.com/

You can follow it on Facebook. That's pretty much ALL I have done...I've followed it.  I've read the posts, checked out the pictures, looked at the recipes, ... heck, I've even commented on them and said, "Wow, that's sounds pretty tasty". 

Then I go home and make a bunch of processed food for supper, or (way too often) show up with takeout food.

Let's just get this out of the way now.... I'm fat.  I've been fat for sometime now.  Every year I try and try and try to lose it.  Every year I fail and fail and get fatter and fatter and fatter.  I tried for months to lose weight for my sister's wedding that took place in mid-March this year (there's a blog post about that!) and when the pictures came out, I crawled under the bed for a few days to lick my wounds and come to terms with the fact that....I have to make some changes.  Let's just say....a bridge troll would have looked better.  Don't get me wrong...my dress was beautiful!  My hair was beautiful!  It was the pig sporting the dress and hair that was the problem.  That pig was me.

That might have been the main catalyst that got me ready to start moving away from processed foods. 

Also, I've read several things over the past few months about kids who are on the spectrum being affected by processed foods, preservatives, dyes and all that other "pretend" stuff that is in so much of American foods these days.  One of my favorite comments in one of the many articles I read said something to the effect of....

Read the list of ingredients on the the "thing" you're eating. 

Do you know what the majority of those things are? 

NEITHER DOES YOUR BODY!

Your body doesn't have the slightest inkling as to what to DO with that stuff you're eating.  It's not food.  A lot of times your body just stores it.  I don't actually know what tht stuff is, but at what point did someone decide to start putting this "stuff" into "food shapes", and then we decided to actually eat it?  WHAT WERE WE THINKING?!

Is there any wonder there's an epidemic of obesity these days?  How about the epidemic of cancer?  I was looking at our church's prayer list a couple of Sundays back... I would say 90% of the prayer requests on it were cancer related.  I live in a fairly small town, folks.  That's just...horrifying!

I admit I'm concerned about my health.  I'm not 30 anymore, and I come from a long line of diabetics.  When you have that gene-pool, being a fat-girl is NOT a good decision. 

The fact that I'm tired also has motivated me to start eating healthier.  I'm tired, people.  BONE tired.  I mean....I'm sooooo tired that some mornings when the alarm goes off I actually cry a little because I know I have to get up and start it all over again...and I just did it.

I'm definitely not 30 anymore.

So, weight, health and the fact that Eli would eat a breaded chicken patty for every single meal if I would let him (cut up, with ketchup on the side)..... something just changed in my head and I suddenly found myself all about serving and eating only REAL food!

Let's be real now...it's not all going to change overnight.  I still love American cheese on my scrambled eggs or omelette in the a.m.  It's going to take some time to make the complete change over.  Eventually I'd love to be able to locate and switch over to all things organic and REAL. 

Baby steps!  And don't give up!

I purchased the cutest little Ziploc trays to pack REAL food into for lunch and sometimes dinner (when I'm working) and I've done so well this week! 

But I've been making things from scratch, I've been cooking up meals with fresh veggies and brown rice and I made chicken salad and hard boiled eggs this week to have on hand for lunches and dinners.

The scale is slow to sing my praises...but the mirror is having a friendlier disposition this week!  AND my pants are so loose I almost embarrassed myself during choir practice the other night - we were practicing a dance number and I suddenly realized my pants felt like they were going to fall right off my hips!  Horror and joy all at once!  I'm going to have to dig out those one-size smaller jeans I bought 3 months ago and then never managed to get into.



Shrimp Stir Fry with brown rice, shrimp, egg, shredded

carrot, bean sprouts, yellow squash and broccoli



A couple of big pluses to eating all real food --I'm not all that hungry.  Apparently, when you eat real food instead of pretend food, your body is happy and satisfied and doesn't crave more.  Imagine that.  AND, since I started this...I haven't been wanting to eat at night.  I mean...not at all!  This is my most difficult time of day!  Always!  And now...I eat dinner and I seriously don't want anything else for the rest of the night.  Our older son Ash has not been hungry either, and that's a full-blown miracle.



There are four of us in our little family and exactly three of us are enjoying this change in eating.  Guess who the holdout is....well, of course it's Eli! 

I've seen more turned up noses and heard more, "Uggggh! I don't like that!" (before he's even tasted it, of course) this week than I care to think about.  This is going to take some time and a lot of patience.  But the new dinner rule is you have to take at least one bite of everything.  I want to slowly start weaning him away from the artificial stuff and getting him used to eating the real food.  I'm excited to see how much better he will do, or if it will help all that much at all.  I'm concerned he'll starve to death.  Generally he's been eating ONE BITE of everything, following the rule, and then saying he's done.  I'm going about it as if he was a pet turning up their nose at their food...



Check out my new Ziploc Trays!



If he gets hungry enough, he'll eat it!

The real food experience FEELS great, but it IS taking a lot of extra effort.  Cooking things ahead of time, making sure you have things prepared and on hand, spending a good deal of time getting lunch and breakfast, and sometimes dinner, for the next day all prepped and packed into the cute Ziploc trays (aren't they adorable?!)

Wish us luck!  And listen...I'm not expect any crash diet results any time soon, but let me assure you the weight is slowly, but surely coming off.  Everytime I check I'm down .2 lbs (notice that's POINT two), but if I keep that up, it'll add up over time.  Just the way I gained it!

If anyone has other REAL FOOD websites, books or other resources that they care to share, and even REAL FOOD RECIPES, I'd love the suggestions and the additional information!   Share Share!!!!!