Clean Eating

We're a month in to our lifestyle change away from processed foods! I want to share about our journey, but I figured first that an introductory post was in order. I've been avoiding this post because the internet is FULL of information regarding healthy eating. I know my limits regarding the things I'm "educated" about and the things I'm not with nutrition following in the latter category. That being said, I have sought after some of the information available, filtering as best as I can what is honest and real versus what is marketing and deception.

In the month of September, our family made a switch from our normal eating habits from what is sometimes referred to as the Standard American Diet to a new healthier diet of "real food" and is often referred to as "clean eating." Eating clean means different things to different people. Using 100 Days of Real Food and Food Babe as my templates, we've a diet that works for us. Now, it should be noted that these blogs often work together and have a similar mission towards health, but there are several things that they do differently and that's okay! The premise is still the same.

Here's the basic rundown of clean eating: 

We've been eating lots of things... lots of yummy things!! We've been eating tons of fruits and veggies, diary (even full fat!), yogurt, whole grain breads, meats, popcorn, nuts! What aren't we eating? Refined grains-- white rice, white bread. Refined sweeteners-- sugar, corn sugar, or fake sweeteners. Pre-packaged items from a box with more than 5 ingredients -- especially ones with words I can't pronounce!

Basically-- eating food as it was originally intended! Eating like my grandparents did and generations before the food industry was commercialized and the consumer no longer became the priority.

We've made the plan our own. Picking and choosing what works for us. Take bread for example, 100 Days of Real Food makes her own so it has less than 5 ingredients. Food Babe, however, uses a 7-grain Ezekiel Bread which obviously has more than five ingredients because of the number of grains. I'm a fan of the multigrain bread and feel comfortable using it. It works for us!

Why is this called "real food" as in if the food we used to be eating wasn't food? Well, in Michael Pollan's book Food Rules, he calls most food items in the Standard American Diet to be "food-like substances" because the food industry pours tons of chemicals, fillers, additives, preservatives, and so on and so forth to all of our foods!

I want to be in control of the foods we chose to put in our bodies. I don't want to consume ingredients that are banned in most other countries outside our own. I want to use my food as the fuel (tasty fuel!) that will keep my body healthy and happy!

I promise this won't become another food blog, but I look forward to sharing the transformation and our process along the way! Next time, I'll share about how we came about the decision to make the change. It wasn't that long ago that I thought clean eating people were rather crazy and a bit eccentric. :)