Our Real Food Journey – An Update

It’s been a while since I’ve updated on our real food journey. I started really getting into real food a little over a year ago. You will see from some of my recent posts that we are still very much in transition and I have greatly slowed down on implementing real foods into our diet.

Now, this doesn’t mean that I have given up on switching my family’s diet. Several factors have contributed to my lack of pushing for a completely real, whole foods diet.

I think it all started when I got pregnant. I was sick as a dog. So sick I didn’t even want to think about food. We survived on things that could be made easily and we ate more take-out than I’d like to admit.

You’d think a woman would eat her healthiest while pregnant, but I guess I just have poor self-control. I crave white pasta and sugary foods while pregnant. I don’t indulge in them often, but I definitely eat them a lot more while pregnant than I do when I’m not pregnant. When we do have pasta, we stick with white no matter what. I have tried several different kinds and no one in the house will eat them!

Our budget has also contributed to what we are buying right now. I just don’t have the extra to splurge on ingredients that I’m not sure my family will eat at this moment. I also have to drive further to get better quality and organic ingredients which costs me more in gas. Not fun.

All that being said, we have made some changes that have stuck.

Eating more fresh and in-season produce. I love to keep fresh in-season produce in the house. Fruits are great snacks for the kids and my son absolutely loves salads. We even try to buy local produce at the farmer’s market and our local store.

Eating healthy fats. Sometimes vegetable oil does occasionally make an appearance. 🙁 I need to buy some coconut oil, but we always use real butter and full-fat milk and dairy products.

Cutting back on processed foods. I still do not buy a lot of processed foods. I prefer to make our meals with separate ingredients. Yeah, sometimes the kids get mac and cheese from a box, but real mac and cheese is so much better!

I’m sure once the baby is born and we are settled into a routine that I will start experimenting with real food again. I really want to try making kombucha and I have already picked up my copy of Nourishing Traditions and started reading again. I’m hoping to be able to buy our grass-fed and pastured meat in bulk from a local farm next year.

So, while you may occasionally see recipes on here or my Pinterest board (food cravings hit when I’m on Pinterest!) that do not contain all real food ingredients that doesn’t mean that I’ve given up on it! We are just in a very, very slow transition.

Photo Credit