One Week

We have exactly one week until our “100 Days of Food Challenge” begins!! Some things I have done so far to help us get prepared:

1. Eating as much processed food that we already have on hand as much as possible.
2. Making a list of the things that we love already that are real foods.
3. Finding fun new recipes to make for the month. I plan on having a folder that is dedicated to all of my REAL FOOD recipes that way I always have ideas on hand.
4. Making a Budget…this one I need help on.
5. Checked out some books from the Library that have great Real Food recipes, instead of purchasing them.
6. Going to buy Michael Pollen’s Book today!
7. Collecting Real Food recipes to share from some awesome bloggers.
8. Getting creative with lunch/snack ideas for Hubby.
9. Going to try infusing fruit in Hubby’s water this week.
10. Finding out what Farmer’s Markets to visit as well as what restaurants we can eat at.

I emailed Lisa about Stevia and Hubby’s addiction and here is what she said:

Hi Bobbi –
Thanks so much for your email and also for taking on our challenge! For our 100 days we only ate foods with honey or maple syrup and that was it. The main reason for this decision was that you can’t really find any pre-made items flavored with these (and also with 5 or less ingredients) so it forced us to make everything ourselves that had a sweetener in it. Since factories add way too much sweetener this was a way to ensure that we were monitoring our consumption. And we also believe that honey and maple syrup are the most natural sweeteners out there, although they are still high in calories and low in nutrients so they should be consumed in moderation as well. So to answer your question we did not have any organic or pure cane sugar because to be honest we don’t really see them as being that much different from regular sugar.

Also, I saw your email about Stevia and my biggest issue with that is that (according to wikipedia) it was just commercialized in the 1970s and as Michael Pollan says “Don’t eat anything your great grandmother wouldn’t recognize”. Pollan believes that innovation in food is bad, and my guess would be that it would even apply to “natural” items like stevia. Even white sugar and white flour are technically “natural”, but we felt strongly enough about avoiding those during our pledge.

In regards to your husband and the Crystal Light…I am assuming you guys have read the ingredients? I used to drink there lemonade, and I was shocked to see there was nothing lemon about it. Could he stand to drink some watered down juice until he kicks the habit all together (and switches to water)? I have a pretty big sweet tooth and struggled a lot at first without being able to have chocolate anymore. I think with any “addiction” you can sometimes just replace it with something else. I’ve also heard of blending red grapes and lemon juice as a lemonade alternative.

I hope that helps and good luck with your pledge! Also, it is your pledge so if you want to make modifications that is up to you. Maybe you could just follow our rules for the 10-days (to see how that goes) and then add in some different sweeteners if you want for the remainder of your 100 day pledge. Either way I think you are doing a lot better than most people out there!

🙂
Lisa

WOW what a great response this helped me sooooo much. So we will be sticking to honey and pure maple syrup.

So now on to the budget. This is where I need some advise from all of you. And I need your vote (through the comment section below) to help me decide what our new budget should be.

We are just a family of two and I will be tracking our food budget weekly. Things like household products, alcohol, entertaining, food while traveling, and eating out  will not be included, but just about everything else will be coming out of this weekly budget.

I have been doing some “research” and I see a couple normally spends somewhere between $60 – $100 a week. I want it to be challenging, but reasonable…and I would love to get your input on the final number 🙂

I am a little nervous about eating real food on a strict budget, but I want to see if eating REAL FOOD will cost us more or less in the long run. I hope it is less…but I am sure it will be more like the same. I think you can get really carried away when buying organic foods.

Stay tuned and don’t forget to leave your weekly budget vote below…I will be getting started very soon!

If you still want to join in on the challenge it’s not too late! Just send me an email and I will add you to the list. I am excited for the accountability!