I checked the last time I put a post on here - and it was last Labor Day - what the what?! Labor Day? That's just crazy.
In June... a bit over a year ago, we packed up, sold our house, quit our jobs & moved to Portland.
In August, I started a new job at Nike.
In September, Drew started preschool.
In October, Mark started a new job at Nemo Design.
In March, we bought a house.
And here we are, July. Busy year, right?
Now that we're a bit more settled in our new home, we've been able to focus our efforts other places & to make some changes to our health and eating habits. About 1 year ago, I began following a blog + Instagram feed where a family of 5, lead by the fearless matriarch, Andrea, have been making some pretty hefty changes to their lifestyle and food choices - choosing "whole" foods in place of anything processed. Changing to whole grains, organic fruits & veggies, dairy & meat alternatives. Paying attention to labels & cutting out food choices that have a list of ingredients you can't pronounce.
Interesting, but not interested.
But then a weird thing happened. I became interested.
Andrea started her IG feed "GwynethMadeMeDoIt" as a slight stab at her adventures in following GP's It's All Good cookbook but through her progress came to see the benefits and positivism that came from these changes in their eating habits. I picked up It's All Good at our library - it's great. A great starting place to get some ideas together.
I've struggled with food for much of my life. Wait - let me rephrase that. I've struggled with food choices for much of my life. I was a Weight Watcher for many years - and successfully, too! I lost all my baby weight using the WW program. What became difficult for me with WW, and almost any weight loss program, is that many of the "low calorie" or "low fat" options that are recommended replace the fat and calories with chemicals. Did I want to eat cookies? Yes! But did I want to eat cookies that were made of fake sugar and full of weird chemicals that may, or may not, make me grow a third arm? Not so much. The good news is, I did manage to find alternative options that still granted me success.
But what about the rest of my family? I am responsible for what they're eating on a daily basis. There were always microwaveable meals in the freezer, tons of crackers and snacks in the pantry, diet soda in the fridge. All highly processed and full of sugar and sugar substitutes. No bueno.
And just around the time I was realizing that our choices, though some healthy, were not always that super, my dear friend (well... maybe "friend" is a bit ambitious) Andrea decided to host a "30-Day Eating Challenge" - woohoo!! This was it! The push I needed to make some very necessary changes!
I spent an entire afternoon (ok, like 2 hours) at the grocery store - wandering up and down aisles, reading labels, looking at ingredients. It was really eye-opening. Do you know how many things have unnecessary added-ingredients?! Sugar is a big one - I never realized how many things have added sugar. Why does lunch meat need sugar? I came home exhausted, but also excited - we're making positive changes, people!
The best part about this (other than the obvious health benefits) is that my husband is completely on-board. I was prepared for some resistance when I tried to throw out the Hidden Valley Ranch and replace it with Annie's Organic Cowgirl Ranch.. but to my pleasant surprise, after reading the labels side-by-side, he was fine with me tossing the HV. Say what?
Drew (who doesn't really have a say) has been mostly fine with these changes, too. The down side was that he had to give up his ever-blessed "chocolate milk" (which was actually Carnation Breakfast Essentials). The upside was that I was now willing to buy him Pirate Booty. You win some, you lose some. He'll manage.
Side note - I tried to replace Drew's chocolate milk with a nice smoothie... yeah.... he poo-pooed that right away. Boo!
Ok - enough typing - Blogs are for pictures, not reading! So... All that to say, we bought a new blender. Ha!
Actually- our previous blender's untimely passing happened the same weekend we started the clean-out process.. so we took a poll of our friends & we are now the proud parents of a Vitamix blender. Smoothies & home-made nut butters for all (except Drew)!
My friends, I hope that you do not read this as preaching about your food choices. Everyone has to make their own decisions about what to eat, how to eat, when to eat, etc. My family and I have decided that these changes are the best for us. You get to decide what's good for you! Yay! I will still post recipes and fun stuff but they might just use a few different ingredients than they used to. But still delicious!
The sun is shining here in Portland (finally!) so I am headed outside. Have a fantastic day!
XOXO
