Gearing up for the Real Food Challenge

First off I want to say that I am, slowly but surely, making my way towards living a healthier, more environmentally responsible lifestyle. I have started to change my relationship with food - both in my over-consumption and self-abuse with food (I have lost 52lbs so far! and have 125lbs to go to get to a weight I would be happy with) and I have started to change the way I view food.

It's tough, some days are better than others. Some days I just want to say "forget it!" and hop in the car until I get to the nearest food court where I can eat until my heart's content -- but of course the problem is, quite literally, my heart. I'm 40 years old and I already have two stents in my coronary arteries brought on by years of morbid obesity.

So tough or not, it needs to be done. And so little by little I am making the changes I need to make.

One of those changes is my trying to cook and eat less processed food. In that spirit I have decided to give The Real Food Challenge at Not Dabbling in Normal a try.

Now I am a novice at this and don't want to bite off more than I can chew (oh puns, I love you!) so I've decided to start small. Unlike some of the amazing women on the blog who make their own everything from mayonnaise to baking powder to fresh bread to harvesting their own honey (how cool is that?!?), I will simply try to limit my reliance on processed foods.

My goal is to keep my own consumption of processed foods down to 5 a day and to make the girls' lunch treats for the month. So no buying cookies, crackers, or granola bars. Instead I'll make squares, muffins and oatmeal bars.

For the purposes of this exercise I will list what I consider NON-processed foods (this list is subject to modification).

So foods I can freely enjoy are:

• fruits
• vegetables
• meats (not lunchmeats)
• eggs
• tofu
• whole grains (including quinoa, couscous, rice, oats, etc.)
• butter
• olive oil
• herbs and spices
• garlic
• milk
• plain yogurt
• natural sweeteners (molasses, maple syrup, honey)
• my own baking even if it includes white sugar or white flour though I will try not to overdo this
• tea, coffee, Perrier water
• cheese

All other things I will try to limit to no more than 5 a day. I will blog to let you know how it goes. I will also happily accept recipes from anyone open to helping a girl out :)

Here's to healthier eating!