Ch, Ch, Ch, Changes: Part 1

Okay. So. In a previous post, I mentioned two significant changes that I am in the process of undergoing, along with (in part) my little family of four. 

Here's Part 1. 

You know one thing I don't like?

People throwing things in my face that they think I should try, do, participate in, etc., all because it worked for them.

I do not want to be one of those people.

So.

I am simply going to talk about the two life changes that are underway in the Luton household. Feel free to ignore this post, shut down your browser, and sloooowly back away  from your computer if you don't want to hear about these things.

But.

This is my little space on the world wide web, and as I've said before, I want this blog to represent honesty and highlight what is pertinent in my life right now, for the sake of the good, the bad, and the ugly.

Anywho. Here we go.

A couple of months ago, my hub, who is much more of a night owl than this early-to-bed momma, saw a food documentary and became intrigued by the information that was being presented. He watched a different one the following night and asked if I would watch yet another one with him a few nights later. I've always been a fan of documentaries; so, I obliged. And this is going to sound dramatic, but it truly changed the way I view food and what I am putting in my body and my little ones' bodies.

In case you're interested, the perspective-shifting documentary was called "Hungry for Change." Not in a movie-watching mood? This is a great article summarizing the movie. 

Admittedly, I fell asleep toward the end of it (as I said, this momma? An early-to-bed-early-to-rise-er). When I woke up, my hub informed me that he had just purchased a not-so-cheap juicer from Amazon. Clearly, he was serious about this. I was a little more hesitant. A juicer? Seriously? Ummm...okay.

The next night, we watched "Forks Over Knives." Again, talk about a shift in perspective.

We waited for our juicer and went about our daily lives, albeit with a little more hesitation with each bite we took because now we knew what we were putting into our bodies.

Finally, a day or two later, my hub (who was out of town on business), emailed me a YouTube link and asked me to please watch (or really, just listen to) the video. I did, a couple days later, as I found myself alone in the car for a long drive. I listened to the video and was, finally, ready to fully jump on board.

I do not want to go into the details of the documentaries or the ah-may-zing-ness that is that video. I surely cannot say things any more convincingly than they can. I will just suggest that you watch and/or listen to them one day. Seriously. Strongly, strongly, strongly suggest it. 

Basically, the premise is that we, as human beings, and more specifically, Americans, are overfed and undernourished. Also, processed food is way worse than originally thought. This may not sound mind-blowing, but I promise you, if you watch/listen to the movies/video, you will think about food differently. I absolutely, 100% guarantee it. 

The impact on us? What's ch, ch, ch, changing? 

Well, we have made some major changes as far as our eating over the last month or so.

For starters, we use as many organic foods as possible. This is especially important to me, personally, given what has come to light as far as children, especially little girls, and early puberty, which has been linked to both the significantly higher rates of obesity in this country as well as the amount of hormones now added into processed foods ("But I wasn't raised on organics, and I turned out just fine!" was my previous argument. But. Now I know. Food is processed differently now than it was when I was growing up. Much differently.).

Yes, using a largely organic diet is more costly. I always just (naively) thought it was because of the snobby farmers selling their snobby organic products to snobby customers. After listening to that YouTube video (which is short-like 20 minutes!), I don't think that anymore. I now understand the politics behind it and the reasons for the government-enforced costs. Also, we have actually been buying our milk and eggs from a local farm to support the business and incorporate these fresh-off-the-farm staples into our diet on a daily basis (next thing you know, we'll be eating only granola and sporting hemp-ha!).

Also, we, as in the three eldest members of our foursome and sometimes the littlest one as well, all have fresh fruit/veggie juice as part of our breakfast each morning, thanks to that new juicer my husband bought at 10:00 pm on a Friday night. The beauty of this for us? My meat-and-sweets-lovin' son has absolutely no idea he is getting a healthy dose of (organic) vegetables first thing in the morning because the fresh pineapple, blueberry, strawberry, raspberry, banana, etc., taste dwarfs the veggie taste. Take that, picky 3-year-old palette. :)

And now, perhaps the biggest shock of shocks...this non-cooking momma has actually been, well, cooking! Organic, non-processed, made-from-scratch meals! Almost every night! Can we please pause for a moment of silence. Because y'all? I can't believe I just typed that. But. It's true. It has been well documented on this little ol' blog that I do not like to cook. But. There is some small element of enjoyment in knowing that what I am preparing is good for the kiddo bodies that'll be eating it. So, I have been cooking homemade, healthy, non-processed meals each night. I know. I'm as shocked as you are. 

Also, there is an awesome, awesome, awesome family who has a blog called "100 Days of Real Food." One of the things that is so GREAT about them is that they have a Facebook page, and when you "like" the page, you are given free access to complete meal plans for four different weeks. As in, breakfast, lunch, dinner, and snacks, all planned out with links to recipes and all! But that's not all. She even has the SPECIFIC grocery lists that are needed, including the prices of the items listed, for each ingredient of the recipes. Now, we do not follow these meal plans to a T. But. I have been picking and choosing different dinner meals (so far), grocery shopping accordingly, and just following along with her recipes. It is so easy! And honestly? Quite delicious.

Some of my favorite non-processed recipes so far?

• Made from scratch (!) whole wheat macaroni and cheese with bacon (I promise...it was good! Really good! But what isn't with cheese and bacon?).

• Shrimp and vegetable stir fry with homemade (!) teriyaki sauce and a side o' fresh pineapple.

• Quinoa as a delicious side dish (I seriously love this stuff now and I didn't even know how to pronounce it three weeks ago. For the record, it's pronounced /keen wah/).

• Made from scratch (!) whole wheat banana pancakes

Served on Valentine's Day (hence the fun shapes)

Now.

I will say. We are not 100% onto the totally organic, non-processed food train. I mean, come on. I still love to bake and need sugar and cupcakes. No, really. I need something sweet at least once or twice a day. I will say, my sweet friend who is also a new passenger on the non-processed food train just passed along an awesome recipe for some delicious, 4-ingredient peanut butter cookies; so, there is hope of going completely non-processed one day. But not yet. Baby steps. 

Plus, sometimes, I just need to grab a convenient snack for the kids when I am trying to cook dinner or we are out and about (a la Goldfish, Cheerios, granola bars, and the like). My goal is to have delicious non-processed convenient snacks one day. But for now? We are starting gradually and slowly attempting to significantly decrease our processed food intake.  

It is certainly a major lifestyle change for us. But we are also trying to be realistic with what we eat and what we offer our kids so that this will actually stick for us over the long-term. Further, we know that when we travel (perfect example, when we were in Disney) or visit others who are not on-board this train, we'll just have to go with what's available (and P.S. I was not about to turn down M&M pancakes nor the many desserts I had with each meal at Disney. Wasn't.Gonna.Happen).

Regardless. 

Part 1 of the Ch, Ch, Ch, Changes? So far, so good. I really, really hope I've maybe, possibly, in some way encouraged at least one person who has read this to even consider watching the video and or movies I mentioned. Even if not, this is one change we are excited to welcome into our family. 

So. Bon appetit! 

Up next, Part 2...a totally different kind of change...