Things are going well! I’d say all the transitions we’ve made so far have been smooth and there isn’t really anything that I miss. Here is an update, by topic:
Limiting processed foods: We’ve more-or-less totally eliminated processed foods from our house, with one exception. I still can’t bring myself to totally ditch the cereal. Even though there isn’t really anything particularly bad about it (we buy a natural kind with very few ingredients), there just isn’t really anything healthful about it either. I’m hoping to be better about having oatmeal more often since it’s getting colder outside. Eggs would be another great option but the farmer we get our eggs from hasn’t had any in awhile.
Buying local/Going organic:
We now get organic grass-fed butter from the same farmer we get our milk from, which is something we did on a whim and then later I came across
this article which made me feel good about the decision. Our organic produce co-op has kind of petered out for some reason (low supply? bad weather?) and we’re looking into other options for next year.
We’ve been doing better lately about buying apples (the main fruit we buy from the grocery store) that are organic.
I wish our local grocery store had more organic produce.
Milk: We are still drinking grass-fed organic raw milk from a local farm and we love it. The other day I tried some Horizon-brand organic milk from the grocery store and it didn’t even taste like milk to me. Our neighbors independently started drinking raw milk from another local farm because they have young kids and wanted the health benefits, so we’re thinking about joining forces so it’ll be more convenient for us both to get it.
Grass-fed beef: We still have quite a bit of grass-fed beef and pork in our freezer that we bought from the same farm as our milk, and we continue to use it. We even bought some ground lamb but we haven’t tried it yet. In terms of taste, the ground beef, breakfast sausage, summer sausage and pork chops are absolutely delicious! Better than any grocery store stuff I’ve ever tasted. The grass-fed steaks, however, leave something to be desired. The flavor is quite different from regular steak, and I’m just not a fan.
Keeping things in perspective: Kolby and I decided that a good goal for us would be to eat wholesome and nutritious food 80% of the time. This pretty much amounts to making sure we eat well when we’re at home (which is for about 80% of our meals), and not worrying about nutrition when we’re eating somewhere else. We have established certain guidelines for what foods we want to eat and what foods we want to avoid (i.e. what I’ve written on this blog so far), and we strive to follow these guidelines 80% of the time. That means that when we go out to eat once or twice a week, we allow ourselves to order whatever we want from the menu and we pay very little attention to the ingredients/health implications. When friends invite us over for dinner or someone brings a big plate of brownies in to work, or we (I) just have an occasional mad craving for a coke--- we don’t feel like our “guidelines” need to apply. Moderation and perspective are key for us! It allows us to fill our bellies with a lot of nutritious food, but it keeps us sane (and polite) by not letting it get obsessive. Some people are able to be health nuts 100% of the time, but that just isn’t something we have any interest in. We seem to have found a happy medium and it is working great for us right now. For example, I was with my parents the other day and my dad was making tea and asked if I wanted him to leave it unsweet (we had just been talking about healthier eating). Unsweet tea? Are you crazy? This is Texas. I drink water for lunch and dinner every single day, so on the occasion that sweet tea is being served at a family meal you can ALWAYS be assured that I will never say no. Same goes for those heavenly Sister Shubert rolls. Moderation, my friends!!!
