You know how when you’re trying to lose weight, it is often recommended that you keep a food journal so that you get an accurate understanding of what and how much you’re actually eating? Maybe you don’t, and that’s ok, I still like you. But for those of us who enjoying eating just that little bit extra, it’s good to keep track of all the delicious things you eat. My list is usually a long one.
So I should have known better than to jump right into October Unprocessed without first coming to terms with just how much processed food we eat in our house. But me, I just assumed that it couldn’t be very much, because I cook almost everything from scratch! I bake all the time! I even sometimes bake my own bread! Aren’t I fabulous?
But it turns out that we consume way more processed food than I realized. While I do cook most things from scratch, I also love frozen pizza (I just do), scones from Starbucks, deli sandwiches, and milk chocolate. Among other things. While the definitions of unprocessed as many (and often competing), a lot of the time it’s a no-brainer. The founder of October Unprocessed, Andrew Wilder over at Eating Rules, defines unprocessed food as "any food that could be made by a person with reasonable skill in a home kitchen with readily available, whole-food ingredients." Ok, I can work with that, or so I thought.
But as much as I like to think myself an unprocessed-girl, the first morning of October (the first day of the challenge) found me facing a delicious piece of pizza and some chocolate cake at a birthday party for Alyce’s friend, Ruby. The food was neither unprocessed nor particularly healthy. But I was hungry, I didn’t have any good snacks with me, and I am the world’s biggest sucker for pizza. That whole first week I kept finding myself faced with unprocessed food on the go (one of my many weaknesses) and I was weak, I tell you. A hungry belly + any food, and I can’t just can’t be helped. Lesson learned: never, ever leave my house with snacks from home. Ever.
I really want to be up to this challenge. For many reasons (and I’ll get to those later this week), I want to eat more and more unprocessed food. So while the first ten days of October were not so unprocessed, I have big hopes and expectations for the rest of the month. I’m putting myself out there for you to encourage (please only encourage, or at least mock kindly). There will be a few exceptions (it is birthday month, after all), but from now on the rest of the month will be known as Most of October Unprocessed.
Let the eating begin.
It's SO HARD to change your eating habits. Because of food sensitivities, we eat way less processed food than we used to...I spent a week (the first week of Oct) doing a "cleanse", eating only plain yogurt, lean white meats, lots of veggies, and minimal fruit and eggs. I felt AMAZING. Then it was the second week. I was bored. I stayed at my mom's (where I fall into every old bad habit from my childhood), then it was Thanksgiving. I feel like crap. So. My smart brain is going to give it another go...another week of clean eating. Good for you...we should offer moral support to each other. Whole foods just taste so good and make you feel so good...once you get past your cravings!
ReplyDeleteUgh. Keeping a food journal. Ugh. I was doing that a few weeks ago. I kept it up for 2 or 3 weeks. Then I stopped. Now I'm on a kick to reduce foods packaged in plastic. No more buying honey in plastic a plastic squeeze jar and no more of our favorite peanut butter because... it's in a plastic jar, too. Now I'm buying glass jars. But it's crazy making trying to avoid plastic packaging. I'm with Stephanie about offering each other moral support (not about the plastic stuff, but about cooking with whole foods and losing weight.)
ReplyDeletexo