I am not a food critic by any stretch of the imagination. I am certainly not a whiz in the kitchen. The fact that I have even written a blog about food almost makes me laugh because I can promise you this....that was never my intention or plan. But thanks to so many messages, texts, and calls with words of encouragement, I thought I would write a follow up to my big 10 day challenge of real food.
Tomorrow will be the last day of my challenge and the beginning of a new one. Why? Because I really think there is something to this whole idea of what we put into our bodies. I have not been 'clean' so to speak for the full 10 days. I fell off of the wagon for 2 days and chased that crazy thing until I got back on for many reasons. So here are a few things I have learned in a very short amount of time:
1. I am not the avid coffee lover that I thought I was. Actually, I am a French Vanilla Cream lover with some sugar and a shot or two of coffee. Seriously, I have not missed coffee AT ALL! And it's not that I couldn't drink the coffee, but I couldn't put all of the good stuff in it for the 10 days. And let me tell you, I do NOT like the taste of coffee.
2. To cook and plan ahead a little has not been as traumatic for me as I thought it would be. To my surprise, I have really enjoyed cooking. Carly has LOVED every minute of it and is right by my side to help, which is truly my favorite part. And to my even greater surprise, the recipes have been SO GOOD!!! All of the recipes I tried were from www.100daysofrealfood.com and www.faithwayfamily.blog.com
3. I am weak! Seriously, it only took Honey Buns and Nutty Buddies (which I truly would never just walk into a store and buy because I wanted one) to kick me off the wagon. So although I CAN eat in a way that makes me feel better and tastes better, if I have an option for the 'junk' I will go for it. Jack teased me about hearing the plastic wrap from the Honey Bun being opened in the morning hours and me sneaking to eat them. So to prove a point, I just started eating them in the open....until the box was gone. I guessed I showed him, uh?!
4. I honestly prefer the real food over the other stuff. I am probably the most shocked by how much better the food tastes. On Monday I hadn't been to the store so I pulled out a couple of old staples from the freezer: Bagel Bites and nuggets. I can't explain how bad I didn't want to fix them because even the kids had been eating the real food without complaining (except for Carly inspecting her 'new' pancakes for any hidden fruit, which she does not like in her pancakes). But desperate times call for desperate measures and let me say that the processed stuff didn't taste good at all in comparison to the real thing. I think that is when I realized that eating real food is not only something that I need to do, but I want to do.
5. I feel much better eating this way. After the Honey Buns, Nutty Buddies, and frozen nuggets, my belly did not feel good. Maybe the fact that I ate WAY more than my portion size had a little something to do with it, but I think it was more than that. All jokes aside, I did eat the yucky stuff over the course of two days. At first, it didn't bother me at all. But after several meals and snacks of the junk, I did feel yucky. I truly believe that our bodies digest real food better than the overly processed food. (If there is a nutritionist somewhere reading this, I am sure she is smacking her forehead thinking, "Wow, you are a real genius!")
6. Eating real food is not as expensive as I thought. The initial start may be more than I bargained for, but once you get several of the staples of real food in the kitchen, you can use them over and over again in many different recipes. Actually, the first time I shopped it was a little less than my normal grocery bill. However, the second time I went to the store it was about $60 more than what I would spend in a week. This is because the second time I learned to buy more in bulk. It will last longer and be cheaper in the long run rather than buying smaller packages more often.
So, tomorrow I will keep incorporating more and more of this lifestyle into my day. Let me clarify something though, I have not gone cold turkey by any means. I still buy things in a jar, my kids still have the gummie snacks, and I will indulge in flavored cream with a little bit of coffee. :) I still haven't figured out how you would eat so good while on vacation, although I will say up front, Olive Garden is not up for debate; I will eat there and love every bite of it!! I still have questions about wheat-free versus glutten-free and too much information can be confusing. But what I can say is that we have more of the good than the bad and that feels real good. Instead of eating the good stuff occasionally, we are doing more and more of the opposite. We are eating the good stuff the majority of the time and the bad stuff on occasion. And eating the 'real food' way is not salads and greens all of the time. Actually, I have yet to make a salad in 10 days, much less crave one! However, that is one of my goals this week......to make and eat a salad!
I truly hope that you all keep letting me know your own stories and challenges. They have blessed me in more ways than one. They have kept me motivated, challenged, and encouraged. I will leave you all with some words of wisdom that have helped me:
"Everything is permissible, but not everything is beneficial" ~1 Corinthians 10:23
In other words, no amount of a good cold root beer or sweet tea will ease my heart, my mind, or my emotions!! So I am trying to stop and think when I grab something. And as you know, I do not always grab the beneficial thing (I already confessed earlier!), but I am choosing the beneficial more and more!
God, I cannot thank You enough for starting this work in me and in so many others. I pray that with each day I will truly consider Your Word more and more; although EVERYTHING is permissible, what is BENEFICIAL? I pray that I will live by these Words with more and more integrity and conviction in all areas of my life; not just with my food choices. I love You Lord and I thank You that You have began a good work in us and You will complete it! In Jesus' name.
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