The Whys

I hesitated a bit to go public at all with our 7-day Real Food pledge. Not that I’m telling everybody I come in contact with, but I have mentioned it to my mom, my facebook friends, and this blog. So, not that many people, really! But my reasons for not wanting this to be A Big Deal are:

1. I don’t like to make a big deal about eating and food issues. That’s not to say that I don’t love food, and love to talk about food and read about it and eat it! But diets and food issues are rather private things, in my opinion. There are a lot of different belief systems out there, and there are a ton of different things that work for different people. I don’t ever want to claim that something that works for me and my family will necessarily work for someone else. People can be pretty passionate about their food beliefs! And I am one of them! I am passionate about good, in-season, locally grown and raised food – having it available, purchasing it even when it costs more than conventionally raised/grown food, and eating it. I think that industrial “food” is total shit. That said, I still eat it at times. That works for me. Some people never eat it; they opt out entirely. Some people eat it all the time; they don’t know or don’t care that there are other options. Others pick and choose what works for them: vegan, vegetarian, flexitarian, paleo, gluten-free, there are a million different ways of doing that simple thing we all do every day – eating. We all make our choices based on our own situations and our families’ needs and desires. My choices are not necessarily any better or worse than anyone else’s choices. BUT, I think the best decisions are educated ones. That’s what I’m hoping to do with this 7-day pledge - educate ourselves about what we are actually eating, what’s actually in it, and what might be other and/or better options. What might be worth it for us to make lasting changes, and what might not be. It never hurts to know more, and if anyone else is interested in why we are doing this or how it is going, I want to share without it becoming completely annoying. Because honestly, nothing annoys me quicker than listening to people on diets talk about their diets…BORING!! And this is really kind of the same thing.

2. A big part of me feels like eating real food, especially for only 7 days, shouldn’t be a huge deal at all. Shouldn’t we be eating real food anyway? At least a lot of the time? What’s the big deal? I mean, I get that no refined sugar could be kind of difficult, especially if you are a big sugar-eater (in drinks like coffee or whatnot). I’m not, so this just seems like an opportunity to cut sugary junk out of my life for a few days and see how I feel. Also, if you happen to eat a lot of white carbs, it might mean some big changes in the bread or rice department. However, we prefer brown rice (actually we prefer wild rice, which is not technically even a rice, but is a whole grain), and don’t eat a ton of baked goods in the first place. Again, just a good opportunity to try some new things, like real whole grain bread and pasta and other whole grains like quinoa and others that we just don’t eat due to unfamiliarity.

3. So many people tend to look at something like this in a negative light. They focus on the “can’ts.” You can’t have this, you can’t have that, I would die without such-and-such, etc. Frankly, I see this as a positive thing. As mentioned above, it will be educational for us, which is a definite positive. For instance, we were at Mississippi Market the other night, and I was reading labels a lot more closely than usual, in anticipation of this challenge. I wasn’t sure that our normal pasta sauce could be eaten during this challenge, because I honestly didn’t know what was in it. It turned out that there weren’t a ton of additives or sugar in there. Still, we saw that Mississippi Market carried a different brand that had very few ingredients, and their tomato-basil flavor looked delicious. This pasta sauce is definitely something we will purchase and try soon, and if we hadn’t been looking at labels, we probably never would have looked at this different kind. Anything we learn will only help us make better choices and learn better what can work for us. Another positive benefit is that it will force us out of a rut. We all get in a rut sometimes, especially when it comes to eating and food choices. It can be same old, same old. Boring. This will encourage us to try some new things. That’s a positive. Some we will probably like, maybe a lot. Some we may hate (maybe a lot, but at least we will know). Another positive is that we will probably eat more healthfully for the next 7 days, and that’s definitely a positive. Come on, it’s the holiday season, and soon we’ll be swimming in Christmas cookies and holiday dinners and wonderful traditional treats. Taking 7 days to eat well will let us indulge in everything else later on with a little less guilt  Finally, and I really hesitate to mention this at all (see #1 above and my aversion to talking about diets/food issues, etc.), but over the past 11.5 weeks, I have lost 22 pounds by not dieting and just trying to eat sensibly and checking in weekly with my family. I have hit a little bit of a plateau lately, and I’m also hoping that cutting out the junk food for 7 days and eating real, good food will help me lose even a little more weight. That would also be a positive, if it happens. Even if it doesn’t, I do suspect I will feel better, less tired, etc., so that’s a positive, too. To me, it’s all positive. Finally, personal challenge is good. I enjoy challenging myself now and then.

So you see, it’s really not a big deal at all :)