I am a mom on a mission. For a couple of years, I’ve really wanted to get my hands around what my family is really eating. When I do our grocery shopping, I feel swamped with information. Milk boasting to be free of growth hormones, organic hotdogs (is there really such a thing?), and bread claiming to be “natural” yet the third ingredient is high fructose corn syrup (one of the few ingredients I know to be nasty, nasty, nasty and in more products than you could possibly imagine). Organic is the word of choice these days, and has for a long time been thought of as expensive. We are on a budget, and although it would be nice to be able to eat 100% organically, it is not realistic for us. I thought it would be really helpful to try and slowly revamp my kitchen to incorporate products that contain more ingredients that are safe and beneficial. One of my goals is to take the time to go through my own kitchen and evaluate what is here and what I need to replace.
I’ve found a couple of great titles out there talking about incorporating an organic lifestyle, and although they seem very informative, I have two key problems with them…
1- They are written by people who are experts in nutrition, organic gardening, or have a lot of writing experience. I really wanted to feel like I could relate to the author, starting from square one, where we could go through the journey together, so I am tackling it on my own.
2-The other books available encompass the notion of adopting a whole new lifestyle. Newsflash: I can barely get my kids out the door to preschool on time. The thought of totally making over our lifestyle seems even more overwhelming than cleaning out the boxes in our basement that I’ve had since college. I wanted something just focusing on the food, and in phases. My goal is to provide small and manageable changes that I can take on a little at a time. I f I can do this successfully, I can tackle other areas such as cleaning and personal care products at a later date.
Coming next…I need to start with deciphering some of the ingredients. I’ll assemble the top 10 worst offending ingredients and go from there.