Thank you all SO much for the wonderful interaction this week during the impromtu Real Foods Grocery Budget series! I usually have a plan for the week for what I will be writing about, but somehow, with all of your comments and questions after I wrote about our 2011 Real Foods Grocery Budget, I got off course and just kept talking about food and money. :)
What I loved most about this week is how so many of you were reading through each other’s comments and offering suggestions of what works for YOU. While I can write about what works for ME and for our family, I don’t live where you live or have the same food sources you have. It was great to see all the comments coming in from those of you willing to help others find great sources for food in your communities. Isn’t the internet cool?
As I wrap up the week and the series, I just want to encourage you all to be prayerful about how you feed your families and to do whatever you feel God is calling you to do. HE can make it happen!
AND DON’T GET DISCOURAGED!! Some of you have mentioned that you are very new to the Real Foods way of eating. If you’re interested in making some changes that’s great, but changing everything at once can be very overwhelming, as can the idea of increasing a food budget. You may find that you can make Real Food changes and not increase your food budget at all…or you may find that you need to slowly figure out ways to at to your food budget to fulfill the desire you have for feeding your family a Real Foods diet.
Take small steps. Don’t feel like you need to change everything at once. Read through my Simple Steps to Healthy Eating posts for some ideas on where to start. There is no order to these steps and no right or wrong way to make changes. Just pick a step and take it! (And guess what, by the way? I really do plan to add to that series soon, even though I haven’t posted a Simple Step in a while!)
Also, if you haven’t read through Our Journey to Healthy Eating, please click on over so that you can find out more about why my family chooses to eat the way we do and what our journey looked like along the way.
Just so you know, we’re still on the journey! There’s still a lot I need to learn and some other changes I need to make and shucks…sometimes I still get hungry for Nacho Cheese Doritos. With a beef hotdog.
Anyone else feel like sharing something “not so good for you” that you have a hard time giving up?!
Thanks again everyone for your participation in this week’s series!!
Randi @ www.ExpressionsOfPerceptions.com says
I used to still crave donuts, but now I make them myself (when necessary).
But since I’ve learned that so many foods are genetically modified (cloned) I have no desire for any of them. Maybe it’s God’s way of telling me that He made perfect food and that since genetic modification/cloned food isn’t from Him (and it’s incredibly dangerous) that I just shouldn’t eat it – ever. In my opinion, GM food is a huge slap in the face to the Creator of pefect food.
Also, what is NT??? I’ve seen it in your posts and the comments about your posts, but I’ve never seen it mentioned other than in initials.
Laura says
NT is the book “Nourishing Traditions”. It’s a great book about nutrition, but can be a little overwhelming. I’d like to try to talk about it in a post more if I can get around to it!
blair says
yeah its a little overwhelming.. im planning to start at it again soon.
Stephanie @ Confessions of a Trophy Wife says
One of the few things that I’ve struggled to give up is liquid non-dairy coffee creamer. I know the stuff is terrible for you, but I can’t seem to give it up! I like the flavored creamers and I can’t seem to find a good replacement :-/
Although, I did see recently that Trader Joe’s is carrying a more healthy option so I might have to check that out!
Heather says
Have you tried a small amount of whole milk or half and half with truvia? I doubted truvia at first but I like the taste. I know everyone does not but it might be something to try. ;)
Jennifer says
Check out this website….
http://deliciouslyorganic.net/homemade-coffee-creamer/
Looks great!
Camille says
Oh my goodness — awesome, thanks!!
Stephanie @ Confessions of a Trophy Wife says
YUM! These recipes look great! Thanks!
Christina Vickers says
People sometimes snarl their noses at me for doing this (because they think it sounds gross), but you night try milk/half and half with honey. It does taste a bit…different…at first, but it takes less honey to sweeten your coffee, and I came to prefer honey over sugar.
Renee says
I use half & half with honey (local, raw) too! If it’s flavour you want, I often will add a dash of ceylon cinnamon and a drop of pure vanilla extract– although it makes my teeth gunky w/ the extract.
Heather says
I struggle with CHOCOLATE!! :) I crave the stuff… work hard at avoiding it… give in and eat a little and it actually makes my stomach hurt. I am cutting out sugar but I still crave this stuff and can’t seem to keep it cleaned out of the house. So… I continue to wage the battle.
Meredith says
have you tried organic chocolate like Green and Blacks? often I’ve found that some things upset my tummy is because of the proscessing/ preservatives
Emily says
Oh, Green and Blacks is amazing. I love the dark chocolate with dried cherries.
The milk chocolate with butterscotch is so good, but you can only buy it in the UK. :(
Dem says
I struggle with chocolate too! I find I just have to give it up altogether. I don’t know if I’ll ever be able to eat “just one”!
Tammy says
We are one of those “new” families – but we are making changes wherever we can. No more pre-packaged foods for us. Okay…pasta. I’ve been making more and more “from scratch” and my family loves it. We’ve scrapped the nitrate-packed lunch meats – my son is devastated at the loss of hot dogs in the fridge! I have found some nitrite free hot dogs that I buy very occasionally. The idea of genetically modified foods is horrifying and I despise that we have been eating them for all these years without even knowing about it. (I agree with Randi that they are a slap in the face to our Lord – how dare anyone presume to think they can offer us better food options than our Maker???) We continue on our quest – and you, Laura, are doing more to help my family along than you could know. I look forward to your posts daily. Thank you!
Nancy says
You know what I can’t give up is the Mini Robin Eggs (malted milk balls) that come out at Easter. =) I seriously count down the days until I can find the darn things in the store. LOL Laura you have and continue to be an inspiration to eat healthy. Thanks for all you do!
Camille says
Soda (pop)!! I don’t buy it anymore (haven’t for a few years), but I still crave it and drink it when I can. We do drink a lot of iced tea, but I still sweeten it. Better, certainly, but not where I want to be. I had a sample of some really delicious iced tea made at a tea shop last week and I need to go back in and have them teach me how to make it.
Meredith says
I also have a weakness for sweet tea :) My father in law introduced me to iced tea made with herbal tea bags and sweetened with honey.it isnt quite the same but we like that you can get all sorts of flavors like wild berry zinger ..now if only I could find a sub for lemonade.
blair says
i found a “redipe” for lemonade. its the juice of 3 lemons, 1 cup of water and like 1tbsp of sugar. i use truvia tho, and its really good.
Meredith says
Thank you ! :D I’ll definalty be trying that :)
Frances says
I still drink the occasional Sprite Zero. Hubby has his beer every now and then, and I like to join him with a carbonated beverage of my own. I get kind of protective of them because I try to make them last! It’s the only thing in the fridge that is exclusively mine (I’ll still share if you ask nice). My other weakness is the homemade fudge at my local produce stand. Whenever they have peanut butter fudge, my blood sugar is doomed. I should really have more self-control but I haven’t learned my lesson ;)
blair says
haha i had to comment on this too, because soda has been my weakness. mostly caffeine free kinds now, but i will hide them and not want to share because i want them to last. most recently i got cream soda, and found out it is my husbands very favorite! i didnt really know because we dont drink alot of soda..
Jaime says
Coffee with cream and sugar…. it’s so wonderful, I wake up just to have some! lol ;)
Briana says
Ya know what, Laura? I have a hard time not drinking diet soda. I got hooked on it about 1.5 yrs. ago doing, ironically enough, the South Beach diet. I’ve always been thin and never had to diet in my life. But, two summers ago, my hubby and I decided we’d go on the SB diet to shed just a little weight. I wanted to lose like 5-10 lbs. max, but my real goal was to shed my addiction to sugar. I’m glad I did the diet for many reasons, one of them being it showed me how many veggies I wasn’t eating in a day, could eat in a day and now make a much more concerted effort to eat in a day. I also never experienced hunger on this diet; I felt like I ate a lot and all throughout the day which is how I prefer to eat, so in that sense I didn’t feel deprived.
However, my sweet tooth dies hard, and I def. craved sweets. So, diet soda served that craving while my hubby and I did the diet. The inadvertant effect has been, sadly, that I am not less addicted to sugary stuff per se, but def. want my diet soda once (or some days, several) times a day.
I know you kicked a Pepsi habit, but I’m doing diet sodas…and coke over pepsi any day. Sorry. I’m hands down a coke product girl.
Have any good info. out there on the diet stuff and why I’m killing myself drinking it?
Leanne says
I am in the same boat Briana, can’t give up the diet dr. pepper! I have one a week! I used to have one a day, its hard though I could easliy go back to one a day! I try to just drink lots and lots of water!! Its hard because I get so bored with water!
My family can’t give up sweet decaf tea, we live in the south so sweet tea is a staple!! LOL
I have cut way back on the sugar though I use 1/2 cup to a whole gallon of tea, where most sweet tea in the south is 1-2 cups sugar per gallon. So I feel like I am doing some better, my husband will not give up his sweet tea no matter what he says!!
I would love new ways to make iced tea that my husband and kids would love that didn’t contain white sugar!
Laura says
I completely understand how difficult it is to give up soda. Six years later I STILL miss that stuff. Grr.
I did find this article about why diet stuff is bad: http://www.westonaprice.org/modern-foods/575-aspartame-diet-astrous-results.html if that helps motivate you at all!! :) Good luck…you can do it. (This from the girl who used to drink almost 2 liters a day.)
(Wow, that is a crazy lot of soda. I can’t believe I just admitted that.)
Briana says
I meant to say that I AM less addicted to sugary stuff but still want my diet soda.
edith says
chocolate! after 67 yrs of chocolate milk, not much hope of giving it up. (yes, my mom really did give me chocolate milk as a baby – only way i’d drink milk. always have been a spoiled brat! :D ) so i use a tiny bit in my (raw) milk, and have 1 square of Lindt 70% chocolate every day.
comment on previous post, strictly personal, but i’d never recomend giving up red meat on a tight budget – especially for beans! we need the protein and other goodies in red meat. better beef w/tomato salad or one non-starcy veggie than a ton of beans (which have incomplete protein). just sayin’…
finally, would you please do a post giving those of us who are new to growing our own veggies an idea of how many plants we need. perhaps even your favorite varieties.
thanks for your posts. really look forward to getting them.
Abby says
Ug, diet coke. And M&M’s I have weakness for those!
Meredith says
There is a company called Sunspire that has “organic mnm’s ” called sundrops they have either peanut or plain ..but the peanut ones are positivly addicting :D! My MIL gets them through her co op