LINK TO OUR JOURNEY TO JILLIANA

LINK TO OUR JOURNEY TO JILLIANA
CLICK ON JILLIANA'S PHOTO TO FOLLOW OUR JOURNEY TO CHINA

Monday, February 04, 2013

We Took The 100 Day Pledge!

It all started with a nagging feeling.  I could tell something wasn't right.  I was finding myself needing to go to Target too often to buy snacks for the girls lunches.  And then they were starting to want more and more of these pre-packaged snacks, granola bars, crackers, yogurt sticks.  I prided myself on the fact that they never had sodas, yet I was drinking Diet Cokes and Diet Rites like crazy.  The girls knew that Mommy was going to go through the Del Taco drive thru for her Diet Coke.

It is so easy to get caught up in the ease of things, especially when you are so busy.  I felt good that the girls always had fruit and vegetables in their lunches.  I felt good that they drank fruitables as their choice of juice boxes.  

Then, as often happens with me, I kept running into blogs and books that were making me examine what I was doing with our eating habits.  I guess God knows I have to be hit over the head at least three times before I see what he wants me to see.

I was reading someone's blog, and I am sorry I forgot who's, but they mentioned a book they were reading called 7.  Now 7 is my favorite number and the book sounded interesting.  And I have it now and it is.  But, I better get on with this or I will not get it done.  In the book she mentions another book called, In Defense of Food.  

And somehow, I am not sure how, I end up at this blog, about taking a pledge to eat 100 days of real food. Here

I read through the blog and I am intrigued.  But, I don't think our family can do this.  I LOVE CHOCOLATE and DIET COKE.  But I can't quit thinking about what I have learned about what is put in our food.

I decide to try a little of the ideas from the blog on my first guinea pig, Jilliana.

Here she is trying the hummus, which is really the only thing new for her.  She has a cheese start, banana, carrots and almonds.  And it turns out she loves the hummus.  (I know hummus has been around a long time, I have just avoided it.  I didn't like the color or the name.)  So when the big girls get home from school, I try it out on them and they like it.

I then try another day with Jilliana.

Now, the soup does not really follow the rules.  It is loaded with salt and other things, but I was just trying out the idea.  In this picture of Jilliana you can just see the two big jars of local honey my dad brought over when I told him what I was thinking of doing.  Food can only be sweetened with honey or a little pure maple syrup.  That is it.  No sweeteners, no sugar, no Diet Coke.

As I read I am starting to think that maybe we could do this.  I start talking with the girls and Mike about what it would mean.  It would mean no treats at school, no party foods.  We talked about Valentines Day and Easter and what we would be missing.


I decide to make my own whole wheat bread since the bread that I can find has sugar, or is not whole wheat, or has other ingredients that are not permitted.  If you cannot pronounce it you cannot eat it.  Only real foods.

The girls and Mike loved the bread.  Then I made my own whole wheat tortillas using the recipe from the 100 days of real food site.
This was our dinner one night.  Whole wheat tortillas, with pinto beans, chicken, cilantro, salsa, and cheese.  We all gobbled these ups.  And the tortillas, ummm!
Happy eaters!
Looks good, but what you don't see is this
Yup!  Still have my Diet Coke!

So we decide as a family we are going to do this starting on Monday, February 4th.
We all take a pledge to eat only "real' foods which are defined as foods that are not processed.
No refined grains, must be whole wheat
No refined sweeteners, like sugar, cane syrup or artificial sweeteners.
Nothing out of cans, boxes, packages, etc. that have more than 5 ingredients listed.
No deep fried foods and no fast foods.

Our pantry before
Starting to pull out all of the foods we cannot have. It took me several hours on Saturday to do this.
Kissing my last Diet Coke good-bye

Here is our little Jilly Bean on the first day of our pledge.  She had a smoothie after pre-school.  She did awesome.  She was a little pouty when the teacher offered her a jelly bean and she couldn't have it, but I think she enjoyed the smoothie more.  I was so proud of her.  I sent a letter to the girl's teachers explaining what we were doing.  It is late and I need to get going.  I will explain more as we go along on our journey to eating healthier.

2 comments:

deborah said...

So proud of you all! It's hard to do, but, it can be done and you're proving it, if nothing else....to yourself. :) Diet Coke is a killer, so, you'll be glad to bury that habit. :)

Paige said...

I love this, but it sure would be hard to do. I also used to drink Coke every single day, but somehow managed to kick that habit by avoiding it for three months and drinking water instead... now if I drink soda, I get an instant stomach ache! Keep us informed on how this all goes...