Six months of whole foods...
As alot of my friends and family know, back in January I set out to be a Whole Foods Nazi. (Ok, well, not quite...but I wanted to feed us better...) Since then, my husband has watched as I have poured white sugar into the garbage can, choked down "Mean Green Juice", and almost cried over several whole wheat bread-baking flops. We have certainly cheated, like with that horrible-for-you peach cobbler on the camping trip...or the hot fudge cake I just had to have at 9:00 at night...or eating out when my spring schedule was crazy. But I think I can safely say that for the majority of the time we have eaten whole, real, like-God-made-them foods since the first of the year.
This has been even easier to continue since I've been out of school for the summer. If I have learned one thing about feeding your husband/family real food, it's that you have to spend time at home to do it...at least, to do it without wanting to scream because you have to wash the juicer again. For those of you with crazy schedules year-round which limit your time at home, take heart! There are ways to simply and expedite healthy eating processes. Lots of it is just practice, and learning to combine tasks, make double, or simply buy healthy on-the-go options.
I am by no means an expert at this, but here are a few things that I have found exceptionally helpful in the last 6 months. For those of you just getting started, one or all of these might be a good spring-board for turning your kitchen and home into an easier place to eat well, and live well.
If it's processed - throw it away. For me, I had to de-clutter my cabinets, fridge, and freezer of all processed junk, or else I found I was tempted to cook with it. Bleached, white flour is cheap - throw it away. Refined sugar is cheap - throw it away. You might be burning, at most, $4 to $5. Get rid of it. I also made sure to get rid of things like:
- soy sauce containing msg
- other condiments (like name brand Ranch dressing!) that contained msg
- any processed snacks
- canned soups that contain all-things-bad-for-you
- sugary cereals
Once alot of those things are out of the house, it's surprisingly easier, at least for me, to be willing to cook with whole ingredients. Make sure that whatever you throw away that is BAD, you replace with something GOOD. Replace white flour with whole wheat, replace sugar with honey or sucanat. Give yourself something to work with.
When it comes to whole foods shopping, choose your battles. We didn't start eating organic and totally natural in every department right off the bat. In the last 6 months my grocery shopping habits have changed dramatically, but they didn't change overnight. If you try to rearrange eating habits, taste preferences, and shopping habits all at once, it can get extremely overwhelming. There are several different categories that I divided things into in my mind, and I slowly changed all of them, one at a time.
- Flour, sugar, grains - this was the first major change I made. Getting rid of bleached flour, refined sugar, oats with GMO ingredients, white rice, and other grains was a big step. I stopped baking cookies or making waffles with white flour and started using whole wheat flour instead. I stopped buying Quaker oats and bought organic, GMO free oats from a local co-op. I threw away my white sugar and started using local honey or sucanat.
- Dairy products - Milk, butter, eggs, yogurt, dye-free cheeses - This was, I believe, the second department I changed. Instead of buying the cheapest dairy products, I started buying organic milk, butter, cage-free organic eggs, and organic yogurt. We take in so many hormones through our typical, store-bought dairy products. It was really important to me that those excess hormones, that we were never intended to be exposed to, were not allowed in our house. Also, the amount of dye they inject into cheese is scary. I decided I would rather pay more and us eat less cheese, than risk the side effects of consuming dye.
- Produce - This is the majorly expensive one. If you're like me and love fresh fruits and vegetables, then you know this, too. Produce is even expensive if you're not eating organic! For us, buying 100% organic produce is just not possible in this financial season of our life. However, if you know which produce is most often coated with pesticides and sprays, then you can pick and choose, and hopefully save some money. This chart has been helpful for me:
We also juice alot, especially fruits, so for us, if I know we're going to be drinking it every day, I want it to be pesticide free. So things like apples, peaches, and berries are worth the extra money when you consider the amount you are digesting. Obviously, always wash everything, regardless.
- Meat - This has been the last one for us to change, simply because there were really no options on a weekly basis, and we don't have a large enough freezer to buy in bulk and store things from organic meat producers in the area. About 3 months ago Kroger began offering hormone-free, cage-free chicken, and I was thrilled. Since then we have been eating only hormone-free chicken or turkey at home. I never buy red meat at the store. We are hoping for Dan to get a deer this fall so we will have fresh venison in the freezer (hopefully we'll have a bigger freezer by then). I also like wild-caught salmon, but Dan is not a salmon fan...yet. Hehe...
Make a whole foods meal plan and stick to it. For me, I've found that if I know ahead of time what I will cook in the next week and buy the ingredients on my weekly trip to the grocery stores and farmers markets, I not only spend less, I also waste less. That way you don't have random things going bad in your fridge, because you have leftovers that still need to be finished. This also helps me to not get discouraged, thinking, "What can I cook tonight???" It easy if your kitchen is stocked with whole foods to feel like there's nothing to eat, because things have to be prepared - it's not out of a box. But don't get discouraged! The flavor and satisfaction is so much better when it's real, and the health benefits in the long run are so worth the extra effort now.
Don't be afraid to get your kitchen dirty. This goes along with making a meal plan. We don't have a dishwasher, so for me it's a pretty big undertaking to prep for breakfast, make breakfast, clean up from breakfast - prep for lunch, make lunch, clean up from lunch - prep for dinner, make dinner, clean up from dinner. But lately I've not let that discourage me quite so much from cooking. If we went out to eat, by the time we got ready, drove to the restaurant, got seated, got our food, and got back home, I would have time to have made something and cleaned up. Just do it. I think you'll find that the more often you cook, the better you'll get at combining meal preps, making things ahead, making clean-up simpler - and before you know it, you'll feel like cooking a meal is a breeze. Of course, there are some days when we just need to not have to cook - and that's ok, too! Take a break and enjoy it.
Have some quick options available. This is a must. For those nights when you have a cold and don't want to sneeze over the stove, or you've had an insane day at work, or you just want to sit on the couch with the hubs - have a few less-effort, but still whole food, options. For me, one thing has been Annie's brand macaroni and cheese. They went on special at Kroger a few months back, 10/$10, and I bought 20 of them. One box, plus some broccoli or green peas, is a great TV dinner, and only takes about 20 minutes and a little stirring to prepare. Or make and freeze your own pizzas for such nights. Or keep salad ingredients and cold chicken in the fridge. Or homemade bread with all-fruit spread and almond butter. There are lots of quick (but still healthy and whole!) meal options that can simplify your life.
Also... I would highly, highly, highly recommend to anyone starting out on this whole foods journey to read Hearth and Home by Karey Swann. You can find it online. Her book has been a wellspring of knowledge for me, and I now see why my Mom has worn her copy out!
Best real-food-eatin' wishes to you!
-HK
This has been even easier to continue since I've been out of school for the summer. If I have learned one thing about feeding your husband/family real food, it's that you have to spend time at home to do it...at least, to do it without wanting to scream because you have to wash the juicer again. For those of you with crazy schedules year-round which limit your time at home, take heart! There are ways to simply and expedite healthy eating processes. Lots of it is just practice, and learning to combine tasks, make double, or simply buy healthy on-the-go options.
I am by no means an expert at this, but here are a few things that I have found exceptionally helpful in the last 6 months. For those of you just getting started, one or all of these might be a good spring-board for turning your kitchen and home into an easier place to eat well, and live well.
If it's processed - throw it away. For me, I had to de-clutter my cabinets, fridge, and freezer of all processed junk, or else I found I was tempted to cook with it. Bleached, white flour is cheap - throw it away. Refined sugar is cheap - throw it away. You might be burning, at most, $4 to $5. Get rid of it. I also made sure to get rid of things like:
- soy sauce containing msg
- other condiments (like name brand Ranch dressing!) that contained msg
- any processed snacks
- canned soups that contain all-things-bad-for-you
- sugary cereals
Once alot of those things are out of the house, it's surprisingly easier, at least for me, to be willing to cook with whole ingredients. Make sure that whatever you throw away that is BAD, you replace with something GOOD. Replace white flour with whole wheat, replace sugar with honey or sucanat. Give yourself something to work with.
When it comes to whole foods shopping, choose your battles. We didn't start eating organic and totally natural in every department right off the bat. In the last 6 months my grocery shopping habits have changed dramatically, but they didn't change overnight. If you try to rearrange eating habits, taste preferences, and shopping habits all at once, it can get extremely overwhelming. There are several different categories that I divided things into in my mind, and I slowly changed all of them, one at a time.
- Flour, sugar, grains - this was the first major change I made. Getting rid of bleached flour, refined sugar, oats with GMO ingredients, white rice, and other grains was a big step. I stopped baking cookies or making waffles with white flour and started using whole wheat flour instead. I stopped buying Quaker oats and bought organic, GMO free oats from a local co-op. I threw away my white sugar and started using local honey or sucanat.
- Dairy products - Milk, butter, eggs, yogurt, dye-free cheeses - This was, I believe, the second department I changed. Instead of buying the cheapest dairy products, I started buying organic milk, butter, cage-free organic eggs, and organic yogurt. We take in so many hormones through our typical, store-bought dairy products. It was really important to me that those excess hormones, that we were never intended to be exposed to, were not allowed in our house. Also, the amount of dye they inject into cheese is scary. I decided I would rather pay more and us eat less cheese, than risk the side effects of consuming dye.
- Produce - This is the majorly expensive one. If you're like me and love fresh fruits and vegetables, then you know this, too. Produce is even expensive if you're not eating organic! For us, buying 100% organic produce is just not possible in this financial season of our life. However, if you know which produce is most often coated with pesticides and sprays, then you can pick and choose, and hopefully save some money. This chart has been helpful for me:
We also juice alot, especially fruits, so for us, if I know we're going to be drinking it every day, I want it to be pesticide free. So things like apples, peaches, and berries are worth the extra money when you consider the amount you are digesting. Obviously, always wash everything, regardless.
- Meat - This has been the last one for us to change, simply because there were really no options on a weekly basis, and we don't have a large enough freezer to buy in bulk and store things from organic meat producers in the area. About 3 months ago Kroger began offering hormone-free, cage-free chicken, and I was thrilled. Since then we have been eating only hormone-free chicken or turkey at home. I never buy red meat at the store. We are hoping for Dan to get a deer this fall so we will have fresh venison in the freezer (hopefully we'll have a bigger freezer by then). I also like wild-caught salmon, but Dan is not a salmon fan...yet. Hehe...
Make a whole foods meal plan and stick to it. For me, I've found that if I know ahead of time what I will cook in the next week and buy the ingredients on my weekly trip to the grocery stores and farmers markets, I not only spend less, I also waste less. That way you don't have random things going bad in your fridge, because you have leftovers that still need to be finished. This also helps me to not get discouraged, thinking, "What can I cook tonight???" It easy if your kitchen is stocked with whole foods to feel like there's nothing to eat, because things have to be prepared - it's not out of a box. But don't get discouraged! The flavor and satisfaction is so much better when it's real, and the health benefits in the long run are so worth the extra effort now.
Don't be afraid to get your kitchen dirty. This goes along with making a meal plan. We don't have a dishwasher, so for me it's a pretty big undertaking to prep for breakfast, make breakfast, clean up from breakfast - prep for lunch, make lunch, clean up from lunch - prep for dinner, make dinner, clean up from dinner. But lately I've not let that discourage me quite so much from cooking. If we went out to eat, by the time we got ready, drove to the restaurant, got seated, got our food, and got back home, I would have time to have made something and cleaned up. Just do it. I think you'll find that the more often you cook, the better you'll get at combining meal preps, making things ahead, making clean-up simpler - and before you know it, you'll feel like cooking a meal is a breeze. Of course, there are some days when we just need to not have to cook - and that's ok, too! Take a break and enjoy it.
Have some quick options available. This is a must. For those nights when you have a cold and don't want to sneeze over the stove, or you've had an insane day at work, or you just want to sit on the couch with the hubs - have a few less-effort, but still whole food, options. For me, one thing has been Annie's brand macaroni and cheese. They went on special at Kroger a few months back, 10/$10, and I bought 20 of them. One box, plus some broccoli or green peas, is a great TV dinner, and only takes about 20 minutes and a little stirring to prepare. Or make and freeze your own pizzas for such nights. Or keep salad ingredients and cold chicken in the fridge. Or homemade bread with all-fruit spread and almond butter. There are lots of quick (but still healthy and whole!) meal options that can simplify your life.
Also... I would highly, highly, highly recommend to anyone starting out on this whole foods journey to read Hearth and Home by Karey Swann. You can find it online. Her book has been a wellspring of knowledge for me, and I now see why my Mom has worn her copy out!
Best real-food-eatin' wishes to you!
-HK
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