a simple resolution :: simple real food changes

Anyone doing the New Year Resolution thing?

Let’s keep it real this year.

Something you can actually do.

Nothing bugs me more than people thinking it takes a special pill, or shake, or program to lose weight, get healthy, and get on track.

And NOTHING will screw your hormones, metabolism, and body weight in the LONG TERM up more than hopping on board to a lot of these programs.

Here are my thoughts. Can you take a couple months to make a ONE change a week to eat cleaner? I had a conversation with a friend last year about how she wanted to make clean eating changes but had no idea where to start. She thought she would get overwhelmed if she did it all at once. So her idea was that she would email me one topic/food group every week and I would email her back with what I thought would be good choices in that category. Great idea!

So my challenge to you is…ONE change a week. Maybe even ONE change every 2-3 weeks if that is what you have to do to get used to it.

Start with whatever category you want. Let me know if you get through them all 🙂 And message me if I can help at all. I really wanted to keep this short and sweet, so this is not an exhaustive list. I think many of you already know where I stand on many food issues based on my recipes, but please ask!

MEAT:

• Shoot for local first. As in within 2-3 hours of where you live. ASK. CALL. You have a right to know. Farmer’s markets by you are great places to ask around.
• Go for no hormones or antibiotics for sure.
• Grassfed/pastured and organic is ideal. You never know what is available where you live. Call and ask. Farmer’s markets are great places to ask around.
• Ask the farmer what the animal is supplemented with in feed. You are going for NO SOY and NO GMO feed. If they don’t know if the feed has GMO’s in it – ask them for the company name and call them yourself. I have done this! Let your farmer know the answer. Sometimes farmers are willing to make changes when they know this is what their customers want. My farmer made feed changes based on enough people saying they didn’t want soy. Their feed was organic, but even organic soy is dangerous.
• All in all skip the big companies.
• If you are able to get meat locally, try to start making your own chicken stock and/or beef stock for nourishment. You will be amazed!

EGGS:

• Shoot for local first. As in within 2-3 hours of where you live. ASK. CALL. You have a right to know. Farmer’s markets by you are great places to ask around.
• Go for no hormones or antibiotics next.
• Look at the labels on the egg carton. How were the chickens raised? You are going for pastured chickens. Cage free or Free Range don’t necessarily mean good. Read THIS for more detail.
• Again CALL and ASK your farmers. I have been on the phone with countless farmers in our area. They love the questions – and sometimes they will change up how they feed their animals when they know that this is what their customers want.

MILK:

• Shoot for NOT ultra pasteurized first.
• Organic and grassfed would be great. Go for low pasteurized – ask the farmer. Non homogenized would be great. Most amish farmers do not homogenize.
• Ideal would be grassfed organic RAW milk. The benefits are enormous. Read THIS and THIS on the benefits and THIS on where to find raw milk by you.
• If you have a cow milk allergy, still consider the raw cow milk. Many people who think they are sensitive to milk can digest raw milk perfectly.  The enzymes that help break down the lactose are completely destroyed during the pasteurizing process leaving it very hard to digest. But raw cow milk is digested easily. Still, you can try raw goat milk as well. It is not the same as cow milk lactose, and is delicious. If you still come up not being able to do either or just don’t have access, you can drink coconut milk.
• These are the same points for the topic of CHEESE.

***THESE ARE THE BIGGIES. You can wash conventionally grown local produce if you can’t get it organic, but you CAN’T WASH OFF HORMONES OR JUNK IN ANIMAL PRODUCTS. I always say if you are going to do anything start with these. Most of our hormone issues and other disease would be helped greatly if we would just fix this part first.

FATS:

• GET THEM IN YOUR DIET! Your hormones and metabolism are NOTHING without good fats.
• Read THIS chart. Eat the good ones and throw out the bad ones.
• Always have real butter (preferably organic and pastured) around. Get 2 TB in a day and if you are pregnant or nursing that ups to 4 TB.
• Always have coconut oil around. Eat it off the spoon or cook in it. Or sneak it in a smoothie.
• Get an egg or just the yolk in every day. Especially the kids for their brain development. And especially if you are pregnant or nursing – and if you are up your intake to 2-3.

FRUITS AND VEGGIES:

• Obviously organic is preferable but it is not in everyone’s budget and it isn’t available everywhere. So go for non GMO first. ASK! CALL!
• When you eat fruit, eat them with the skin (ie – if you are eating an apple don’t take the peel off) the skin has fiber and helps keep your blood sugar from spiking.
• When you eat veggies EAT THEM WITH FAT. Their vitamins are fat soluble so you will get more nourishment, AND they will digest better with fat. So enjoy that plate of veggies drowning butter 😉

BREAD:

• If you cannot make your own soaked or soured bread, find a local baker that makes a good sourdough. The souring of the dough makes the wheat more digestible.
• Skip the store bought breads – check out the ingredient list – it is JUNK.
• Bread isn’t the enemy, but you also shouldn’t need it at every meal. Starches and carbs prepared in healthy ways are actually very important. But there is more to it than just a slice of bread. Sweet potatoes/potatoes, other veggies, rice, oats, etc are all other ways of getting these important starches/carbs in your diet. If you plan on a sandwich for lunch, then instead of doing toast at breakfast do some fried potatoes and/or other veggies with your eggs.

CEREAL:

• Get the cold cereal OUT. It is toxic – even organic ones. Read THIS for more info. I know this is a big one. It is VERY do-able though. Take your baby steps and do this one when you are ready.
• Do up soaked oatmeal or granola if you are a big cereal person. Let me know if you need more breakfast ideas – I have tons 🙂

So did I miss anything? Please let me know if there is an area you need help in.

Please note…I DO understand that the animal product area specifically can be expensive. I am not made of money 😉 I have learned how to stretch a pastured chicken or grassfed ground beef for a few meals, I have learned to use a good quality sour cream or butter instead of cheese sometimes because I cannot afford raw cheese a lot. But I have also found that a breakfast of eggs and veggies will fill up my family for pretty much a whole morning without snacks though, which is a money saver. There are ways of doing this without going broke.

Ask me questions – it is do-able. I don’t expect everyone to drive like I do to get my raw milk. That is what I choose for my family because I love the benefits and healing we have had because of it, but I have helped many others in my area find a great local amish farmer that doesn’t homogenize and does the lowest possible pasteurize to be legal to sell on store shelves and they get that.

CHEERS! Let me know if you are taking this new year’s resolution on! I would love to be a part of your progress!

This post was shared at Real Food Forager’s Fat Tuesday and The Polikva Family’s Family Table Tuesday!