Whole/Real Food Eating- Our Story

I was born in the 80’s, did most of my growing up in the 90’s and by the early 2000’s had pretty much established an eating pattern.   It consisted mostly of poptarts, mac and cheese, fruit snacks, twix bars and an assortment of homemade casseroles.  Soda was a must have and a big bowl of ice cream covered topped with chocolate syrup was my before bed ritual . 

 I ate like everyone else I knew, if anything my family ate a little “healthier” because my parents grew a beautiful backyard garden in the summer (although I was really only interested in the sweet corn) and my Mom was faithful in making a warm homemade meal each night. 

In 2005 I got married, learned how to cook, and made sure there wasn't a day that went by without a dessert of some sort within reach.  We were living the good life.  Literally, it was delicious.

I don’t know what it was that first sparked the thought to question if what I was putting into my body really mattered, but the question began to nag at the edge of  every forkful.   It would not rest. 

 

At this point I did what any "all-in" type personality would do who finds themselves without Internet access; I went to the library.  I spent hours pulling every  book  I could find from the shelf and proceeded to check them all out.  My husband came home that evening to a dining room table piled high with “health and nutrition” books.  In that instant we both knew life as we knew it was about to change. 

 

Over the next few months my obsession… I mean research… continued and I found myself mostly alarmed and overwhelmed.  I knew change needed to occur but began to realize it wasn’t going to happen overnight.  Luckily, my husband who had been learning second hand along with me, was on board so we made a plan.  We started off slow….like really, really slow, incorporating one thing at a time.  For example, our first “step” was to cut our dessert consumption down to 3 days a week. You get the picture, it was a process to say the least.  

To say a lot in very little, we do our best to eat whole*/ real foods (sometimes organic).  We go through a crazy amount of fruits and veggies in a week.  We try to eat a very small amount of refined sugars.  Meat is no longer a daily occurrence for us.  Things like oatmeal and beans are a staple items.  Water is our beverage of choice.  

Are we perfect? No.  Do we always eat this way?  Not a chance. I’d give it a 80:20 ratio.  We still eat out, still go on late night 80 grams of sugar ice cream runs as a treat, and even enjoy a  can of soda every now and again.  It really makes that 20% that much sweeter! (pun intended)  

Our desire is to always value people and relationships before food so that is why it is not an “all in” for us.  You can still invite us over for dinner and cook however you like- we will enjoy it, I promise.  

I would have never imagined that during this journey we would go down multiple pant sizes, watch our blood pressures improve, or experienced increased energy and a better night’s rests.  Most surprisingly our taste buds along with our cravings are different. I not only love but crave fruits and veggies! Even my sweet tooth is manageable. (said no one ever)

We continue to learn and grow in this each day.  We are still figuring parts of this out but have come a long way since that initial library visit 5 years ago.  Whole/Real Food Eating has been life changing* and life giving and I wouldn’t go back if I could.  (although I do look forward to heaven where I can eat whatever I want whenever I want with no consequence because that’s a thing, right?) 

 What is the hardest part about eating “healthier”for you?  What are your favorite whole foods?   

* Whole Foods is defined as food that has been processed or refined as little as possible and is free from additives or other artificial substances.

*  To read more about our journey in switching to real foods check out my blog post from The Frugal Find  HERE.