Resolutions -- Sort Of

For the last several months, I've been doing a lot of reading about 'Real Food' and people who have made the switch. Basically, it is the movement towards eating a more traditional diet -- like our great grandparents did while they lived on farms and such. Some of the sites I've been reading are:

100 Days of Real Food  and the budget version
Thank your body
The Elliott Homestead
Weed 'em and Reap

There are a few others too. It doesn't take long to find the information once you get started.

I always thought "That would be nice." But I never really saw the need to go all out because I was already making a very large portion of what we eat. And I was using lots of vegetables. We didn't really buy a lot of processed food, only some for treats occasionally. I even used things like whole wheat pasta and made my own yogurt, breads, etc. I thought what we were eating was probably pretty close to 'real food' already. Boy, was I wrong.

I didn't realize that most of the food in the store was GMO (genetically modified/grown) and therefore had unknowns in it. I didn't realize how many additives there were in everything -- even things like flour! -- or why it might matter how our meats and dairy were produced.

That seems pretty stupid to me when I could have simply picked up the package and read the label. But who thinks there are additives in flour? Most of the people I know don't read labels, except to find out how much sodium or how many calories something has.

I've also watched a few documentaries. Yikes. I've seen testimonials about people who were healed from any number of things by switching to real food and people whose weight finally came under control even though they had followed conventional ideas and never got it under control.

So, although I don't believe in resolutions per se, it kind of worked out that I am starting this at the beginning of the new year. I decided to follow the advice of some 'real foodies' and start exchanging what we currently use as it runs out with a real food alternative. I've already begun, in fact.

One way to get started right away is by printing this list and keeping it with you -- the clean 15 and dirty dozen will help you decided what produce does or doesn't have to be organic necessarily. It has a printable that you can keep in your pocketbook or coupon clutch. You can check it out here.