Resolve to eat real food..not for a month, but for life.

It is time to make a change in our household. It is no huge revelation that we (we being my three children ages 7, 4, and 3, my husband, and myself) aren't eating the best possible diet. Toaster pastries, frozen chicken nuggets, potato chips, and diet soda are commonly found in our fridge or pantry.

Are foods like that present in your kitchen? If so, go pull a few out and check out the labels. What did you see? Were you able to recognize all the ingredients? Probably not (unless of course you are a chemist).

The human body isn't made to process artificial dyes, flavors, and sweeteners. Sure, being omnivores, we muddle through okay. Food goes in and goes out and we still seem relatively unscathed for all the junk we typically consume. We are all still standing. We all feel okay.

I for one am tired of feeling okay, though. Regular fatigue, headaches, joint and muscle pain are everyday occurrences. That's okay, right? I trudge through. It's not like I'm dying or something.

But it's really NOT okay! I want to feel good. I want to feel healthy and vital and energetic. I want my kids to have the oomph to do well in school and at play. I don't want them to make the food choices we are making right now when they are adults.

And so a plan has been hatched.

What is our plan, you ask?

The first phase was research and development. I pulled out some of the more questionable items in the fridge and pantry. I checked for weird, chemical-y sounding names among the ingredients and I Googled until I had a better idea of what I was actually feeding my family. The results of my search were surprising at best and nauseating at worst.

For example, I found TBHQ in the list of ingredients on the microwave popcorn box, and had no idea what it was. It turns out it is a form of butane, as in butane lighter. Yikes! I won't even get in to the great aspartame debate; I'll simply say I decided I'd rather be safe than sorry.

Much of the food on supermarket shelves seems to contain ingredients that are non-nutritive, non-natural, or altered in some way. I don't know what you all think of that, but it makes me nervous. Though the FDA stands by these products, I've decided that they aren't the right choice for my family.

That decision made, it's time to execute a plan to phase out store bought processed, non-organic food. That means no more convenience foods, no more store bought baked goods, no more tubes of meat. It means baking our own bread and delicious treats.

It also meant a trip to a local food cooperative. I had never even been there before, as it's about 30 miles from our home. They had an amazing selection of local products, which really appeals to me (plus they advertise the distance the product traveled to get to the store). We bought non-homogenized milk, cage-free eggs, raw honey, organic yogurt, and lots of other good, real food produced right here in our state. Plus I found a great grass-fed beef and poultry farm just ten miles from our doorstep.

From here on out, we will only purchase REAL food. Since it's cold around here, we're kind of stuck with store-bought vegetables, but we will be growing as much of our own produce as possible when the time comes. I'll dedicate a post to beginning our organic gardening adventures in the very near future.

Now, I'm not trying to preach to anyone here. Everyone is entitled to make their own decisions about the food that they eat. Eating real, chemical free food is mine. I hope to inspire. I hope that I can show people that if I can forego the convenience of processed food, they can too. We aren't rich, we don't own a farm or live in a commune. We're a busy family with three picky children (plus my picky husband, who calls potato chips a food group) to feed. I'm going to share the ways I'm managing to make this work for our family, and just maybe they'll work for your family, too.