Day 14 of My UN-Processed Life! 2 Weeks In! March 27, 2014

Day 14 of My UN-Processed Life! 2 Weeks In! March 27, 2014

Day 14 and I am still feeling great! One of the most fascinating things I have noticed that my cravings for sweets are gone and for me that is huge, I love sweets! After reading a blog called "100 Days of Real Food" http://www.100daysofrealfood.com/start-here/ I have decided that my kids do not need to be eating processed foods either! Also check out  http://www.facebook.com/l/IAQF_9Wm6AQF2sjP9BXQbPRb4KRBVp1b71Q6UvN6yeydRMw/foodbabe.com/tag/ingredients-banned-in-other-countries/  Now I know this seems silly to have finally come to this conclusion 2 weeks later, but again what do I feed them, what will they like? I also knew that it was going to take total commitment on my part and was I ready for it?! Shopping, planning, cooking, the list went on and on! But the reality is I want my kids to feel as good as I do! Changing the whole family over was going to require allot of work, and I anticipated allot of whining and complaining! As the days went by, I was feeling more and more guilt about having junk food in the house and allowing them to eat all those bad things! So I made the decision that day it was all or nothing! I am divorced and have shared custody of my children, so Thursday night before they came back to my house on Friday I started the complete food makeover, that way I could start everyone out fresh with no temptations! I started the process by making a notebook, choosing the recipes that I wanted to make for the next week, and then I made a grocery list! 

 My Notebook!

My goals are on front page of My Notebook to keep me focused!

I have a section made up for every day of the week!

I even have a section for recipes I want to try!

I choose the recipe, print it out, and put in my notebook with the day of the week I plan to make it!

My first whole foods shopping list! 

From there I make a grocery list!

 I went to the store and purchased the items on my list, reading the labels and making sure to buy only the healthiest things I could find! On My first trip to the grocery store I had to buy allot of staple items: flour, cereal, Ezekiel bread, 100% maple syrup, cheese, spices, and items to bake bread with! Below is picture of my grocery cart at Ingles! I found in my area that Ingles had best selection of organic products and they also carry Ezekiel products! I did run into 2 other stores, but not allot of luck finding healthy non-processed items! 

My First Real Food Grocery Shopping Trip!

My next stop was home, where I proceeded to clean out my food pantry and get rid of all processed foods! I will admit that I did leave my microwave popcorn in my pantry until Saturday(about 2 days)! For some reason this was the hardest for me to give up! I did not actually ever eat any of it, but for the sake of honesty do want to add that I did not get rid of it the first night! I will write more about what I did end up doing with it later in another post! Just from the clean out of my pantry I removed 3 trash bags full of items- that had either already been open(which I would not want to give to someone) or had expired! I could not believe how much food I had in there that I had been wasteful with and had let expire! I had 6 grocery bags of items to give away to a food pantry or someone who might need them! FYI:I worked on my freezer and refrigerator Saturday, so items would not spoil before I could get them to the people who wanted them!

Items Getting Rid of from Pantry! 

 The next step was to get all of the new items into the pantry and get my pantry organized! This was probably the most fun for me! It felt good putting healthy food in my pantry and preparing for my kids arrival the next day!

Love it!

 My Food Pantry Makeover!