| You might recall at that the end of Stacy Goes Storeless I told you all that Barry and I had made a decision to cut out a majority of our processed foods. I was ready to move toward a more Whole Foods diet. We were eating entirely too much crap because I was able to get it cheap. I had never seen that before…..in fact, if you would have asked me, I would have said I didn’t buy many processed foods – I thought I didn’t….I was cooking most of our meals, so I thought I was getting a free pass. However, a month of Toaster Strudels will change anyone’s mind about what they should be eating. It all sounded great in my head. Whole Foods diet. Whole Foods diet. Yep, but was I really ready for that?I’ve made the switch to making all our bread at home, but I still have tons of stuff to get rid of. So, we’re slowly chipping away at that stock. I do not replace it with processed foods. I replace it with healthy stuff. Healthy meaning good for us, not fat free. Heavens to Betsy! Fat free stuff tastes TERRIBLE. Be serious with yourself. That fat free cheese you melted turns into rubber when it cools down….probably because it’s MADE with rubber. BLECH! |
| Annie was the one who clinched the switch for me. I might be feeding crap to myself, but I do NOT want to feed it to my daughter. I want to do better for her. God entrusted her to me to take care of. I take that very seriously. When Annie woke up one morning with a butt rash so bad that I almost cried, I got on the computer to research the problem. She literally had blisters covering most of her diapered area and her skin was raw and looked like it had been burned. Overnight. That fast. I wrote down what she’d had to eat the day before and shocked myself…….the internet confirmed it, Annie was having a yeast reaction to too much sugar. I fed her that. ME. Her Mommy. Am I saying that all sugar is bad for you? No. I love sugar…..but I don’t need to eat it all day long. And I surely don’t need Annie to eat it all day long. I think Barry has gastrointestinal problems and I can’t get rid of certain warts (on my hands, don’t wig out)…..and I can trace it all back to what we’re eating. I’m not a doubter any more. Processed food is bad. |
| So, I jumped right in and started reading…..everything. If I could get my hands on it, I would read it. I hated going to bed because I could have been reading. Hours a day. If I wasn’t doing something else, I was reading. I am a sponge. I love knowledge and I love reading. All this information had been available to me before, but I just wasn’t paying attention – or I didn’t want to pay attention. I thought a Whole Foods diet was for hippies who lived in their VW van and wore tie-dyed peace t-shirts. Living a Whole Foods life isn’t as difficult as I thought, it just takes effort at first. Then it becomes natural. Please don’t confuse what I’m saying with LOW FAT or LOW CAL diet. No way Jose. You already know from last year that I struggle with that. And really, who wants to eat all that? No one really wants to eat all that fat free mess. Really, if fat free potato chips give you the trots, shouldn’t that be a BIG clue to you? No. None of that stuff for us. We’re going to eat food – real food. Bye bye Toaster Strudels. I’m working on a sourdough starter and reading about how healthy that is for us……great addition to my kefir journey. We’re also making a switch to full fat foods. Yes, you heard me. Full fat foods. No more fat free, reduced fat stuff for us. No more margarine. If they’ve taken the fat out, they’ve put SOMETHING back in it. Think about it. I’m slowly trying to wrap my mind around the fact that it’s okay to drink full fat milk. Another switch – we’re moving more toward shopping at the Farmer’s Market. I can buy whole foods AND support a local farmer. That’s a win-win for me…..since I can’t have any pigs on my deck or chickens wandering the street. Lame. |
| It’s very overwhelming. VERY. There is so much to read and change…but Barry keeps reminding me to do a little at a time. Bread was our first switch….full fat foods are my next switch. I take a little baby step at a time, in order to not go crazy. We’re pondering which water filter to buy in order to make that our next switch. I hope you’ll follow me on our Baby Steps to Healthy Eating. Rest assured, you’ll hear about it here. |
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I totally agree and I am glad I found you on Pinterest! I too about 2-2 1/2 years ago after the October No Processed Food Challenge I decided to cook even more then I did in the past and make even more foods from scratch. You are right I won’t sugar coat it, it is more work but so rewarding. When I go to the store and I want to cop out and take the easy route I then make myself read the ingredient list…then I quickly decide “that’s okay I will make it at home” I started last year making my own dressings…one time I was in a rush for a get together at work so I bought some…YUCK! My taste buds had changed. It was awful. Keep encouraging us to follow the healthy path!
Will do! 🙂
I am so excited to find yours and a few other websites that are doing exactly what I want to do. I don’t or need any crazy whole30/paleo diet (if God put it on this earth for our survival, why are we not “supposed” to eat it?), so I have decided our family is going to become “Home-made-itarians”. I can’t justify purchasing new kitchen tools, so I will have to make-do with what we have now, but I’m excited to go on this journey and figure it out one baby step at a time. Thank you
Buying one new “toy” at a time had been really fun to me – that way I don’t have a HUGE expense all at once.
I love it Home-made-itarians! I am going to use that! LOL!
Hi Stacy – I just found your website and I’m so excited! We are kindred spirits on opposite sides of the world (I’m in Sydney, Australia). I love Jesus, have a wonderful husband and 2 beautiful boys, and I’ve recently started my Whole Foods journey. Everything I’ve read on your site so far has been exactly how I feel about the excitements and frustrations of this lifestyle change. Like you I started by making my own bread and buying full fat everything. I’ve comtemplated soaking grains and fretted over not doing so (until now!), and am working towards growing more of my own food and trying my hand at fermentation. I can’t wait to read more about what you’ve already done. Praise God for you!
Cheers Melissa
YAY!!! 🙂 I love meeting kindred spirits! Nice to meet you, Melissa. 🙂 You just holler at me if you ever need anything, you hear?
I just found you through Pinterest and I LOVE you! ;0) I would love to see your journey to eating healthy. Did you document it on your blog? If you did I cant find it. Im not very techy. (In fact you will know that if you check out my blog. Somehow I lost my subscribe button and cant figure out a rss feed. When I get it all figured out I will put a link to your blog.)
I love how you made the switch and I too want to do this for my family and grand-babies. You started with bread, moved to full fat foods, (which will make my hubby VERY happy.), then pure water. How long did you stay on each step? or did you just move along when you wanted. Just curious. What did you do next, or where can I follow that?
Thank You so much. I’m going to catch up on your blog, and nice meetin’ you.
Toni
Hi Toni, nice to meet you! I didn’t document it step by step, but I did do a few posts. I’ll include those for you. 🙂 I spent as much time on each step as we needed to get used to it. After the water I started working on getting out High Fructose Corn Syrup and food coloring. That’s where I’ve focused most of my time since then. I’ve tried to be smart, but not go overboard. Let me know if you have any specific questions and I’ll be happy to help! 🙂
http://www.stacymakescents.com/4-reasons-we-eat-bread
http://www.stacymakescents.com/a-healthy-eating-update
http://www.stacymakescents.com/food-is-not-your-god
http://www.stacymakescents.com/healthy-eating-resources
http://www.stacymakescents.com/how-i-broke-my-addiction-to-soda
http://www.stacymakescents.com/eating-healthy-on-a-budget
http://www.stacymakescents.com/moving-to-a-more-natural-lifestyle-ramblings-of-a-former-coupon-queen
http://www.stacymakescents.com/natural-sweeteners
http://www.stacymakescents.com/our-easiest-and-hardest-real-food-switches
http://www.stacymakescents.com/real-food-real-easy
http://www.stacymakescents.com/saving-money-by-buying-in-bulk
http://www.stacymakescents.com/stacys-price-list
http://www.stacymakescents.com/the-stacy-8020-principle
http://www.stacymakescents.com/why-full-fat-dairy
http://www.stacymakescents.com/why-i-dont-soak-grains
Hi,
I love your blog I keep coming back to it over different outlets so I bookmarked this time. 🙂 I haven’t had a chance to read it all, however I agree and I would love to switch to wholefoods (we actually did for a while and felt so much better) but my question to you… HOW DO YOU AFFORD IT? I look for sales at the store, I look at adds, we went to farmers markets and I about fell over backwards. I tried growing but in TX with the heat in the summer and water restrictions that isn’t going to happen. I make my own bread and I try most of it from scratch but still way too much processed IMO. SO… any ideas 😀 and of course I will keep reading through your page,maybe I missed it :D.
Anyway, Love your blog!
Dee
Maybe this will help: http://www.stacymakescents.com/eating-healthy-on-a-budget
🙂 And let me know if you have any specific questions and I’ll try to answer them for you.
Hi, Stacy! I have been slowly moving my family towards whole foods…without their knowledge. 🙂 I have started making bread and my aunt just brought me a sourdough starter as well. Last night I made the homemade cream of chicken soup for a casserole and I thought it made the casserole even more tasty!
I am looking forward to trying more of your recipes!
Hi Lynne! Nice to meet you! 🙂 Let me know if I can help you with anything at all.
Awesome article. I found this on Pinterest and was intrigued. My daughter and I attempted this a few years back. She has now become a vegetarian but is still eating some processed foods. I will have her check out your blog as well.
Thanks Stacy.
Valerie
Hi, Valerie! Nice to meet you. 🙂 You just let me know if I can help you in any way.
One more thing…I posted something similar on my blog a couple weeks ago. I called it Progressive Healthification 😛
Love it!! 🙂
That’s kind of how we’re taking it! We just moved into this house last September, so we’re slowly working on the landscaping to provide more gardening space. This summer my goal was to learn to can and freeze. I’ve done a few things, but it can be so overwhelming if you try to do too much. We’ve started going to farmer’s markets more and my next goal is to learn how to make bread. I’m afraid we’re stuck WIC milk, cheese, and eggs until the kids are old enough. Hopefully by then we’ll have paid off Credit cards and school loans and can afford a little more Whole Food. But that is years down the road!
Nice to see someone else going through the same process!
Yes, it IS overwhelming to tackle it all at once…slow is better. We’re about 1 1/2 years into it now and it’s going a lot better. 🙂
I switched to full fat foods (except for milk, I just can’t handle the sweetness of 2% milk, I know I couldn’t drink whole milk) after reading In Defense of Food by Michael Pollan. We actually lost weight when we switched to full fat foods. Everyone still looks at me like I’m crazy when I tell them how we eat, but then they ask me how I lost so much weight and I tell them that’s how. They still think I’m crazy. Who cares. Making my own bread is next on my list, I’m just afraid of it.
Awesome Stacy – I had my wake up call last year as well and on this journey with you. It doesnt feel so lonely now. Looking forward to the post to come.
Good for you Stacy! It sounds like you are doing great! My wakeup call was issues with my children as well, it’s funny how you are willing to do much more drastic things for them. RE full fat if you want to look into going with coconut oil rather than vegetable oils Vitacost often has good sales on it. And yes, babysteps or you will drive yourself crazy!
Great post!
On the water filter, check with Culligan. We have a culligan hot/cold water machine in our home. Once a month, we set out our empty jugs and they replace them with new ones. For the amount of $$ we were spending on bottled water, this has worked out well for us.
Tracie, we’ve decided on a Berkey Water Filter. We’re saving up for it right now. 🙂 You’ll see a post about it soon.
We have a Berkey and LOVE it!
Awesome!! We are baby stepping to whole foods too. We have the chickens and hopefully they will start laying again soon. I am hoping the garden will do well this year. The bees from two hives are busy. And maybe we will try dairy goats next year. oh and I need to get back to grinding wheat again for bread. It is good to know where our food comes from, isn’t it.
Wishing you well on your journey.
Looking forward to your posts on going whole food healthy.