Switching to a Whole Food Lifestyle: Part 1

Why our Family Made the Change
Part 1 of 5

I have decided to write a series of posts about why our family moved to a whole food/slow food/clean food lifestyle in hopes that our experience might be helpful to other individuals and families considering making the same change. If you’ve been a reader of my blog for even a little while you might have noticed that the majority of recipes I share are whole food meals. By whole foods I mean basic ingredients that haven’t been processed beyond recognition. I cook with basic, good quality ingredients that don’t need the added chemicals and processing. I’ve found that by using these ingredients, adding spices and different cooking techniques I’m able to create delicious food. When you consider the great cuisines of the world, they all gained their prominence by using the same system of good ingredients, lots of love and different techniques.

There was a time when I spent a few hours a week scouring store sales flyers, picking through coupons in the newspaper and online, and schlepping my kids from store to store to get the best “deals”. One day I sat down and realized that the bulk of what I was buying was junk. Is it really a great deal to get 10 boxes of pizza bites for $10? There is a reason that some products are priced so low, and it’s not because the company wants to give consumers a great deal. They are cheap to produce because they are modified food products. In fact, in my opinion, they are not really even food! More like a mixture of modification that we ingest. Not to mention the ridiculous amount of packaging that these products came with.

I had been hearing and reading about the local/natural food movement for a long time and had long equated it with a granola-hippie lifestyle. Not for me. But I kept reading more and more and hearing more and more and it got to the point where I couldn’t ignore it. So I searched out books and articles to educate myself about the reasons for this type of eating and the benefits that come from it. I scouring labels and investigating our eating habits. I slowly started to implement changes to see how my family reacted and if our budget was able to accommodate the change. My kids did revolt a bit when their pizza bites were gone but it quickly passed. I really love cooking, so making homemade meals from “scratch” was not really difficult for me. It is not a hard change to make, and I hope you’ll come back to read the rest of the series for some inspiration and/or ideas to change your routine. Leave me a comment or email me e="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> if you have specific questions and I’ll do my best to answer them individually or in a post.

Make sure to stop back for the next 4 parts focusing on;

What is whole/slow/clean food?
A shopping list comparison and why it is an affordable option
How to save money while implementing this style of eating
The outcome and benefits of eating whole foods

Comments

Tameri T. says:

June 18, 2010 at 4:28 am

Congratulations! My children and I are on a similar journey which I blog about at http://www.t2fish.blogspot.com.

Katie says:

August 15, 2012 at 10:32 pm

Thanks for the inspiration! My family and I are starting a whole food diet/lifestyle now and I look forward to seeing your upcoming posts–epecially about saving money!